Contested Representations of a Family Responsibility Law: The Case of Singapore’s Maintenance of Parents Act of 1995

Abstract

Although filial responsibility is deemed virtuous in many cultures, its moral groundings remain controversial and contested, especially in regard to the enactment of family responsibility laws. Societal responses to the demands and implications of an aging population are context specific. And in this respect, Singapore’s policy formulation phase of the Maintenance of Parents Act (MPA) requires closer examination as a political response to the problem of late-life financial insecurity. The MPA stipulates that indigent older parents may apply for a maintenance order for financial assistance from their children. Using social construction as an organizing framework, we examine archival data to uncover conflicting tensions in the latent and manifest aims inherent in the enactment of family responsibility laws. Further, we address and interrogate certain underlying assumptions regarding the viability of family responsibility laws in ensuring financial security for indigent older adults. In effect, the MPA place...