An academician has proposed that initiatives be made to get the Chinese in Sarawak to marry young in order to check their declining population in the state.

Dr Lam Chee Kheung, a Senior Research Fellow at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), said the Chinese annual growth rate was only two percent between 1991 and 2000 compare to 2.4 percent in the earlier three decades.

The Chinese population of Sarawak was 229,154 in 1960 and 537,230 in 2000 - an increase of 308,076, he said when presenting a talk on 'Demographic change of the Chinese in Sarawak 1960-2000' in Bintulu recently.

Several proposals were put forward and discussed, including the setting up of an interactive club and getting them to marry young.

The declining population is associated to social changes brought about by the industrialisation in Sarawak.

Cultural values

To further complicate matter, Chinese men and women in Sarawak are marrying at older age now.

"In 1960, the ideal marrying age for women and men were 22.3 and 25.7 years respectively but changed to 26.5 and 29.7 in 2000," he explained.

To get to the root of the issue, Lam suggested that the community should go back to basics.

He said the cultural values of marriage and child-bearing should be restored; giving incentives for married professionals.

Marriage arrangement for young couple should be simplified and doing away with dowry, provision of wedding feast and gifts, he added.

Lam also said that Chinese cultural and clan associations could provide child (cash) allowance, baby food and milk powder to poor families with many children.

JIMMY TEOH is malaysiakini 's Sarawak-based stringer.