KUALA LUMPUR – Just a day after expressing doubts about the survival of Chinese vernacular schools (SJKC) in the face of a declining birth rate within the community, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin today called on Malaysian Chinese to get married.
Highlighting his concerns about the alarmingly low birth rates among the community, he said that only around 40,000 Chinese babies were born in 2022 compared to the total of 423,124 live births for that year.
“That’s less than 10% of total live births.
“Malaysian Chinese, please get married. Today is Valentine’s Day. I believe it’s the best time to talk about marriage,” he said in a Facebook post.
Sim said that based on Statistics Department (DoSM) findings, not only did the Chinese community have fewer babies, but marriages were less common among them.
“In 2021, the general marriage rate (GMR) among Muslim males was 60.4, compared to 21.9 for non-Muslim males. Similarly, the GMR for Muslim females was 62, whereas for non-Muslim females, it stood at 23.”
“GMR measures the total number of marriages in a year per 1,000 marriage-age people. It is a metric calculated based on 1000 individuals within their own population. So we know (now) that fewer marriages happen among non-Muslim communities,” he said.
“So in 2021, about 22 marriages took place among 1000 non-Muslim populations, compared to approximately 61 marriages that occurred per 1000 Muslims.
“Therefore, on average, Muslims are 2.7 times more likely to get married compared to non-Muslims. In simpler terms, fewer non-Muslims are getting married,” he added.
Sim also clarified that DoSM only published data on Muslim and non-Muslim marriages, stating that there were no specific statistics on Malaysian-Chinese marriages found.
He said that as Chinese were the biggest non-Muslim group, he believed that the statistics for the community would be in tandem with the overall figures for non-Muslims.
“So, we can summarise that more and more Chinese or non-Muslim populations are staying single or not getting married. This will directly impact the birth rates of Chinese or non-Muslims.
“Less marriages, less babies,” he added.
Sim said that while choosing to stay single was a personal decision, those who wanted to get married in this Year of the Dragon should be encouraged.
“I call out to those singles out there: go out and seek your love and life partners. Please get married in this auspicious dragon year.
“It’s a journey worth taking. Remember to have more babies, too. Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said.
Yesterday, the Bayan Baru MP said only 40,000 ethnic Chinese babies were born in 2022, making up less than 10% of the total 423,124 Malaysian babies born that year.
He said that in five years, these babies would enter Year 1 in school.
“Nationally, there are a total of 1,200 SJKCs for them to choose from.
“Assuming all go into these schools (most likely not, because some will go to private schools or national schools), on average, each SJKC will only get 33 new students,” he said. – February 14, 2024