Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat has put up a Facebook post on July 2, seeking to clarify what he said (and did not say) at a 2019 dialogue.

Heng's comments had come under the spotlight at an inter-party political debate ahead of GE2020, which was broadcast live on TV.

Background to the "10 million" figure

One contentious point in the debate was the question of whether Heng had proposed a 10 million population target for Singapore.

It was reported in The Straits Times (ST) in 2019 that during a ministerial dialogue at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Heng "cited" former master planner Liu Thai Ker in a discussion on Singapore's population density, and pointed out the fact that other cities have less liveable space.

ST then mentioned that Liu once said in 2014 that Singapore should plan for 10 million people for it to remain sustainable in the long term.

The ST report said:

"[Heng] cited former chief planner Liu Thai Ker, who said in 2014 that Singapore should plan for 10 million people for it to remain sustainable in the long term."

Heng's clarification

In his post, Heng clarified that he did indeed mention former chief planner Liu Thai Ker in the 2019 event at NTU.

However, Heng states in his post that he "did not say that Singapore should plan to increase its population to 10 million people", and said that he did not mention the figure of 10 million.

He also sought to put the comments in context, saying that he had been talking about how "population size was not just about physical space, but also about social space and how we can preserve a sense of togetherness".

He also explained that his comments at the NTU event were made in response to a question about the Population White Paper.

Heng did not directly address the debate, however, but shared a link to an ST article which described an exchange between Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)'s Chee Soon Juan and the People's Action Party's Vivian Balakrishnan.

What was said at the debate?

At the debate, Chee said that Heng "toy[ed] with the idea of bringing our population up to 10 million".

He asked Vivian to state categorically whether the PAP wanted to raise the population to 10 million or not.

To that, Vivian responded by saying just on the same day, the Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement "advising people like [Chee] not to indulge in falsehoods".

When Chee tried to interject and say that Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat "came up" with the idea, Vivian shot back, "That's a cheap shot, Dr Chee."

He said that Singapore won't even have 6.9 million, much less a population of 10 million.

"The government doesn't have a target for the population," he said. He repeated that Chee was raising "a false statement", and added "We have said so, and we will say so again."

NPTD also refutes the claim

The National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) has also refuted the claim that the government itself had proposed that Singapore increase its population to 10 million.

In a media statement issued on Wednesday, July 1, it said: "The government has not proposed, planned nor targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million."

Top image via RSIS and Heng Swee Keat on Facebook