Family Futures

[

] 62

dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

lies support their older members and lessen the conflict

between the rich and the poor.”

Family policies and measures in Singapore, aimed at

promoting intergenerational support within the family, focus

on encouraging adult children and their elderly parents to live

together or close by. The aged dependent income tax relief for

taxpayers who support their (or their spouses’) elders/handi-

capped elders – including parents, grandparents and great

grandparents (and in-laws) – grants up to 55 per cent higher

relief if the elder dependent members are living together in

the same household with the taxpayer. The Central Provident

Fund Housing Grant for family offers higher government

grants for applicants living with or near their parents or

married children. The housing-related priority schemes,

too, provide priority allocations in public housing under the

Married Child Priority Scheme to married applicants staying

near or with their parents or married children. For extended-

family applicants, the Multi-Generation Priority Scheme offers

further priority allocation when married children and their

parents purchase a pair of public apartments close to one

another. These measures to encourage co-residence or living

in close proximity seem effective: surveys from the Housing

and Development Board (HDB), the statutory body in charge

of providing public housing for over 80 per cent of Singapore’s

population, show an increase of 5 per cent among residents

aged 55 and above who were living with their married chil-

dren between 2003 and 2008. In 2013, HDB further piloted a

new type of three-generation housing unit with four bedrooms

and three bathrooms, in line with the objective of promoting

family bonding under one roof.

What, then, is the value underlying intergenerational

support? In most so-called Confucian societies, the basis of

intergenerational support and family bonding is best captured

by the concept of filial piety, which prescribes that adult chil-

dren have an obligation to support their parents if they are

in need. Widely regarded as a normative factor regulating

intergenerational solidarity, this practice also corresponds

to a rather parent-centric institution in which children are

produced and raised as part of one’s retirement planning.

Filial piety is actively promoted in Singapore. For example,

information on the Inland Revenue Authority website on

Parent/Handicapped Parent Relief overtly states that the

relief is given to promote filial piety. But practising filial

piety does have its challenges. During a 2010 campaign on

filial piety launched by the then Ministry of Community,

Youth and Sports, a short film accompanying the campaign

with the tagline ‘How one generation loves, the next genera-

tion learns’ attracted many passionate comments. These

included lamentations of the difficulties faced in practising

filial piety, given competing work and family demands in a

highly competitive society.

Most Singaporeans have, however, internalized filial piety

as a value through the process of socialization. It is therefore

a much taken for granted, incontestable value. Should they

fail to inculcate this value, there is the force of moral sanc-

tion – and legal sanction through the Maintenance of Parents

Act (passed in 1995) – to enforce compliance. This is not to

suggest that filial piety is necessarily experienced as a diffi-

cult obligation. Indeed, where parents are wealthy, being filial

may actually be beneficial to their children. Where parents

are financially independent or when their adult children have

sufficient capacity to support their dependent parents, it is

likely that compliance with the value of filial piety would be

largely unproblematic. However, where adult children lack

the capacity to support their dependent parents there is a

strong likelihood of non-compliance, notwithstanding the

force of moral or legal sanction. This questions filial piety as

a reliable basis for ensuring that adult children will take care

of their dependent parents.

What, then, is a more reliable basis for the support of

parents? We would argue that love is a more reliable basis

than filial piety. Love is relationship-centric, as opposed

Bonding the generations

There are numerous efforts by the state, schools

and communities to bond the generations –

generally initiatives to promote intergenerational

interaction between seniors and children/youth.

Such intergenerational initiatives might

focus on strengthening grandparent-grandchild

bonding, including one-off events such as

an intergenerational cooking competition or

Cosplay competition; or regular events such as

intergenerational yoga interest groups in the

community clubs, as well as the array of events

organized around the annual Grandparent’s

Day. They could be learning projects and

intergenerational learning programmes for the old

and young, organized in schools and communities.

As a result of such extra-familial intergenerational

initiatives, some students have become more

interested in interacting with their own grandparents.

Both intrafamilial and extrafamilial intergenerational

initiatives thus play a role in promoting

intergenerational closeness and understanding

within the family.

Robert Wong (age 70) and his five-year-old grandson Immanuel as Nintendo’s Super Mario

Brothers: winners of the Intergenerational section of the Cosplay competition held for

Grandparent’s Day in 2011

Image: Sammy How