Long Life? I Won't Last That Long, Leh

Source : The New Paper, September 19, 2007

Our poll shows more than half don't believe they'll live till 85

ME? Live past 85? Such was the snorts and scoffs of Singaporeans polled when told they had a 50 per cent shot at fulfilling one of their biggest wishes - a long life.

Longevity, the ubiquitous greeting at birthdays, weddings, new year celebrations, the stuff of many a prayer, is now no longer wishful thinking.

According to the Department of Statistics, 1 in 2 Singaporeans alive at 62 in 2006 will go on to live beyond 85.

Statistics don't lie.

But disbelief was how the majority reacted in a poll of 50 done by The New Paper yesterday.

The question was: Do you think you will live till 85?

'Impossible!' was 36-year-old taxi-driver S T Toh's prompt response.

'Even young people running in marathons are dying,' pointed out 70-year-old retiree Tan Qiao Kuane.

'All my body parts have started to spoil. I think 70 will be enough for me,' lamented Mr H S Leow, a 53-year-old manager.

Madam Linda Wah, a 47-year-old kindergarten teacher, pointed to the obituaries.

'Many people say goodbye even before they hit 85 leh,' she said.

More than half - 54 per cent - of the respondents said they didn't believe they would make it to 85. Half of the people polled were aged 62 and above.

That's the golden number, the age when you will start reaping dividends from the compulsory annuities scheme that Singaporeans aged now 50 and below will have to take up.

Only 26 per cent said yes. The remaining 20 per cent said they didn't know.

You may be headed for the long life you always wished for.

But prosperity - longevity's twin wish - may take a bit more wishing, and working.

That's what the Government's recent initiatives are addressing.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen pointed out: 'Some still do not believe that we are living so long.'

Ask them why, he said, and 'you get a potpourri of urban myths, some quite fascinating'.

He mentioned one of the best he has heard.

One group told him the present life expectancy of 80 years may be correct, but that's only because 'the elderly that we have now were born in China, India or wherever they came from.

'They were farm-folk. True Singaporeans, born and bred in modern Singapore, won't live as long!'

Belief, or the lack of it, stands at the centre of the debate over annuities.

Why? Because unless you believe you will live long, you'll think annuities are just 'a way for the Gahmen to take my money'.

But time waits for no man. By the time Singaporeans start believing they can live till 80, that might be only because there're too many 80-year-olds walking around already.

Dr Ng said: 'Longevity is a blessing, something that every one of us hopes for... we want to see our children graduate, get married and play with our grandchildren, and even see them graduate and get married.

'It is precisely because so many individuals do not anticipate how much longer they will live that we have to act now and ensure that all Singaporeans make provision for their old age.'

But belief isn't everything. You'll need the health to go along.

'Frankly, at 85,' said 61-year-old Du Bai Zhu, 'I doubt I'd have my marbles about me even if I did receive the money.'

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