Dr Chee to PAP: Stop the exploitation of Singapore workers
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Chee: Stop the exploitation of workers
Friday, 13 November 2009 09:23
Chee Soon Juan
I chanced upon a man dressed in office attire yesterday morning lying on a park bench. Covering his face was The New Paper's Wednesday edition with the headline in big, black letters: I WANT TO JUMP OFF WITH MY KIDS.
It was a report on how Ng Chee Kiang set ablaze his flat, burnt his two children alive and then jumped to his death. He was a bankrupt and was being hounded by loan sharks, and was in the process of a divorce.When he lifted the newspaper from his face and saw me, Lim (as he later introduced himself) smiled one of those half-smiles. We chatted. He had just lost his job because his company found a cheaper replacement, someone from mainland China.
Lim was contemplating his next move, not knowing where he could find another job as he was in his forties. "I don't think anyone will hire me if I tell them how old I am," he said blandly.
Sadly, Lim's experience is not all that uncommon. As retrenchment and competition for jobs hot up, more and more people have no where to go - literally and economically. Singaporeans continue to face a difficult existence with wages plummeting but with the cost of living escalating.
This is the message that I have tried to get across in the 10 interviews that I have done, and about to do, with US radio stations these past few days.
All these years workers in this country have been getting the short end of the stick. They have no labour unions to speak up for them. The only existing one that has all the power has as its leader a cabinet minister who, incredibly, exhorts workers to work even "cheaper, better and faster".
Included
among them are elderly Singaporeans who have little option but to
continue to work menial jobs like cleaning tables just to survive.
There is no financial support for them in a system designed by a bunch
of ministers who pay themselves $10,000/day.
In the meantime, the Government floods Singapore with guest workers in the millions. More than one in three people you see on the streets in Singapore are not Singaporeans.
While my colleagues and I have never objected to foreign talent – and let me be on record that we are in need of such talent – the truth is that the Foreign Talent Policy has much to do with foreign but little with talent.
The reality is that the Government exploits cheap foreign labour to suppress local wages. Foreign workers are allowed into Singapore to keep wages low. Wages are kept low so that we can remain attractive to MNCs.
The result is that Singaporeans bear the brunt of depressed wages.
Do the employers, many of them multinationals from America, care? With generous tax breaks and almost 100 percent repatriation of their profits, these MNCs adore Singapore as a business venue. And you have a Government that outlaws industrial action and crushes workers' rights to boot. It's corporate heaven on earth.
The PAP even consults these foreign companies on how much Sinaporeans' should be paid. The National Wages Council has on its 2007/2008 board representatives from the US ( <!--{12580788934570}--Douglas Miller), Japanese (Shigeru Kobayashi), and German (Alexander Melchers) chambers of commerce.
The PAP's Foreign Talent Policy benefits not the workers, both local and foreign, but the rich and powerful, both local and foreign.
When I get on the air in the US, it is the guy whom I met at the park and the old lady at the hawker centre who cleans tables whom I have have in mind.
This exploitation of Singaporeans must stop and Americans must know that their corporations cannot continue to operate in Singapore and ignore their corporate social responsibilities.
I call on the US not to remain silent when the Singapore Government, on behalf of American MNCs, exploits Singaporean workers.
The ultimate tragedy, Martin Luther King Jr once reminded us, is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3063-chee-stop-the-exploitation-of-workers
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Originally posted by angel3070:
Chee: Stop the exploitation of workers
Friday, 13 November 2009 09:23
Chee Soon Juan
I chanced upon a man dressed in office attire yesterday morning lying on a park bench. Covering his face was The New Paper's Wednesday edition with the headline in big, black letters: I WANT TO JUMP OFF WITH MY KIDS.
It was a report on how Ng Chee Kiang set ablaze his flat, burnt his two children alive and then jumped to his death. He was a bankrupt and was being hounded by loan sharks, and was in the process of a divorce.When he lifted the newspaper from his face and saw me, Lim (as he later introduced himself) smiled one of those half-smiles. We chatted. He had just lost his job because his company found a cheaper replacement, someone from mainland China.
Lim was contemplating his next move, not knowing where he could find another job as he was in his forties. "I don't think anyone will hire me if I tell them how old I am," he said blandly.
Sadly, Lim's experience is not all that uncommon. As retrenchment and competition for jobs hot up, more and more people have no where to go - literally and economically. Singaporeans continue to face a difficult existence with wages plummeting but with the cost of living escalating.
This is the message that I have tried to get across in the 10 interviews that I have done, and about to do, with US radio stations these past few days.
All these years workers in this country have been getting the short end of the stick. They have no labour unions to speak up for them. The only existing one that has all the power has as its leader a cabinet minister who, incredibly, exhorts workers to work even "cheaper, better and faster".Included among them are elderly Singaporeans who have little option but to continue to work menial jobs like cleaning tables just to survive. There is no financial support for them in a system designed by a bunch of ministers who pay themselves $10,000/day.
In the meantime, the Government floods Singapore with guest workers in the millions. More than one in three people you see on the streets in Singapore are not Singaporeans.
While my colleagues and I have never objected to foreign talent – and let me be on record that we are in need of such talent – the truth is that the Foreign Talent Policy has much to do with foreign but little with talent.
The reality is that the Government exploits cheap foreign labour to suppress local wages. Foreign workers are allowed into Singapore to keep wages low. Wages are kept low so that we can remain attractive to MNCs.
The result is that Singaporeans bear the brunt of depressed wages.
Do the employers, many of them multinationals from America, care? With generous tax breaks and almost 100 percent repatriation of their profits, these MNCs adore Singapore as a business venue. And you have a Government that outlaws industrial action and crushes workers' rights to boot. It's corporate heaven on earth.
The PAP even consults these foreign companies on how much Sinaporeans' should be paid. The National Wages Council has on its 2007/2008 board representatives from the US ( <!--{12580788934570}--Douglas Miller), Japanese (Shigeru Kobayashi), and German (Alexander Melchers) chambers of commerce.
The PAP's Foreign Talent Policy benefits not the workers, both local and foreign, but the rich and powerful, both local and foreign.
When I get on the air in the US, it is the guy whom I met at the park and the old lady at the hawker centre who cleans tables whom I have have in mind.
This exploitation of Singaporeans must stop and Americans must know that their corporations cannot continue to operate in Singapore and ignore their corporate social responsibilities.
I call on the US not to remain silent when the Singapore Government, on behalf of American MNCs, exploits Singaporean workers.
The ultimate tragedy, Martin Luther King Jr once reminded us, is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3063-chee-stop-the-exploitation-of-workers
Quite true, i saw how the office cleaners labour in my office from dawn to dusk with miserable pay and they have to pay full bus fare because its not concession time...
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Agent3070. Your outlaw did well. He talk, just as anyone talks. We arent a commie state. Free enterprise flourishes. No different from any democratic country whom faces similar problems.
The deeper issues lies with capitalists. Our govt had long heard such calls and are enacting legislation to compel these capitalists employ those 40s and above, long even before the outlaw bothered to pick up a pen one fine morning to determine who he can use to further his own goals.
And besides talking, what had he done?
Had he called on american capitalists, the way he called on his so call 'human rights' organisations to force the issue? Nope. He remained discreetly silent on it.
Instead, he told americans on his supposed 'persecution', to save his own ugly ass. And burn every singapore citizen, young and old with trade embargoes, for his persecution by OUR ELECTED officials - the govt and its employees, all for his own personal self ambitions!
Let see how you whitewash the facts, 3070 and how he actually helped the ,,,,awwww...pitiful 40s year old he met on the street, that our society had long ago determined to help thru legislation, funds for upgrading, and other employment opportunities in other growth sectors.
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I rather find it adorable that he thinks America is a different entity from its corporations.
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In every society, there will be poor and the unfortunate ones, you cannot deny that, at time, being poor is just because some one is richer than you, so you call yourself poor. Fair or not?
With no doubt, Singapore poors and those unfortunate ones are much better than most of the countries around the world, and bear in mind, some old folks are just passing time and doing some exercising work, I met some of them, their childrens are rich or middle class singaporeans. So old folks are just plain stubborn, like my ah ma, still go and wash plates for our nearby kopitiam, and leave our house chores to the my maid. Haiz!!! too workholic liao. So dun be fool by some of them. At time, my dad will drove his merc to pick his mother up to the awe of the kopitiam peoples. But of course, some are geninuely in a sad state, mostly are those who need not treasure their life or family during their young times, but that is over, they can have a lots of avenue to seek for help, just a matter of able reach out to them. But they are stubborn. Kind of like they want to earn a living out of their own hands. All in all, Singapore had less such cases than countries having a full of them, the whole city can be in this state, so our so called poors or the unfortunate ones are more fortunate to be here.
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Originally posted by Stevenson101:
I rather find it adorable that he thinks America is a different entity from its corporations.
both corporate America and the state are in bad shape now. california is technically bankrupted. could this crisis prove the beginning of the end of American prowess.
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Currently at Apec, Hiliary seat on as Chair of APec foreign ministry, Obama as Chair of APEC heads of state, do u think America is going down?? They are Die hard people ya
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Why is children of such old folks no looking after them but allowing them to work as rag and bone collectors.
Where has Singaporeans' family values gone to?
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The resident X-rated Fraud is a shameless, imbecelic masochist that is ever eager to return to grasp the slightest opportunity to show-off its useless grandstanding performance to be a "running dog".
Originally posted by xtreyier:Agent3070. Your outlaw did well. He talk, just as anyone talks. We arent a commie state. Free enterprise flourishes. No different from any democratic country whom faces similar problems.
Only in the imbecelic mind of a X-rated Fraud will come someone to be "outlawlery" for its stand to be "civil obedience" - should we not fault the imbecile for its ability to even appreciate that everyone has a right to talk, as it will claim for itself ?
Is Singapore not a 'commie' state' - when even China does not need to pretend to be one by disenfranchising the Chinese Government from running any businesses, and State operated businesses are shut-down or hived off to PRIVATE CAPITAL ?
In Singapore's case, only the pseudo-intellect of a X-rated Fraud cannot discern that the PAP Government will be fraudulent to pretend to "PRIVATISE" the state operated Statutory Boards into Private Corporations that are capitalised by PUBLIC MONEY, and to offer the same Essential Infrastructural Services previously managed and were operated directly by the Government - as the commie countries such as the old Soviet Union, the old China, the present day Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba still are.
What problems have the X-rated Fraud suddenly alluding to when none were mentioned to qualify its position preferrred in a reckless statement made without any slightest degree at being circumspect ?
The deeper issues lies with capitalists. Our govt had long heard such calls and are enacting legislation to compel these capitalists employ those 40s and above, long even before the outlaw bothered to pick up a pen one fine morning to determine who he can use to further his own goals.
The bankrupt mind of the pseudo-intellect acting as a X-rated Fraud that pretend not to represent the PAP - can only be an imbecile to attempt to make anyone believe that there are any legislations in the pipeline - and proposed by the PAP - "to compel these capitalists employ those 40s and above".
It has long been the position of the PAP Government to allow the pseudo-practise of a "free market to control wages" - when the open door policy remain open for foreign talent (whether skilled or unskilled) to freely enter the Singapore labor market with NO minnimum wage to protect Singaporeans.
And besides talking, what had he done?
Obviously it is easy for a brainless pseudo-intellect to spout its verbiage without needing to think if LKY and his PAP will allow Dr Chee to do anything - even as LKY will have his PAP to muzzle Dr Chee and prevent him from talking any more truth on the real events occurring in Singapore.
Had he called on american capitalists, the way he called on his so call 'human rights' organisations to force the issue? Nope. He remained discreetly silent on it.
Has Dr Chee not called on the Great American Capitalists to address these abuses to the Singaporean Workers - in the thread titled - ‘Chee Soon Juan to go on U.S. talk shows asking Obama to address human rights abuse in Singapore’ (*1) - in which Dr Chee call was dishonestly twisted to read as - ‘Chee Soon Juan calls on US to erect trade blocks on SG’ (*2) ?
Obviously, the X-rated Fraud will pretend that it was not the opportunist rabble rouser to drive home its hot gassed efforts to tarnish the image of Dr Chee further ?
Obviously, the X-rated Fraud will hope anyone will believe its position that Dr Chee has remained silent towards Human Rights Organisation to support Singaporeans in the fight against the abuses of the PAP and its "running dogs".
Instead, he told americans on his supposed 'persecution', to save his own ugly ass. And burn every singapore citizen, young and old with trade embargoes, for his persecution by OUR ELECTED officials - the govt and its employees, all for his own personal self ambitions!
"Supposed persecuton" ?
Does it mean that Dr Chee was not persecuted ?
The X-rated Fraud must be hallucinating to think that anyone will take up his deceptive suggestion that LKY did not persecute Dr Chee with the same venom towards all the other Singaporean Politicians that he feared most.
Who has Dr Chee burn let alone whose lives has he destroyed ?
Can Dr Chee outperform LKY - compared to the number of lives and families that have been destroyed by LKY and the PAP since 1957, and all for the sake of LKY's vanity and personal ambitions ?
Is the X-rated Imbecile not attempting to wear the Size-XXX shoes that LKY will soon be leaving behind - by pretending that it can follow the same plagiarized political ideas, statements, and methods preferred by LKY ?
Can it even hope to deceive itself with any success, before attempting to deceive others whom it believe to be its wider audience interested in its grandstanding acts ?
Let see how you whitewash the facts, 3070 and how he actually helped the ,,,,awwww...pitiful 40s year old he met on the street, that our society had long ago determined to help thru legislation, funds for upgrading, and other employment opportunities in other growth sectors.
What legislations that the PAP has passed in Parliament that will help those dejected Singaporeans in their 40s and older - and which will force the MNC capitalists to remploy these Singaporeans in their 40s and onwards ?
Funds for upgrading to do what - when after the upgrading has been completed, the upgraded Singaporeans will have to compete with a cheaper foreigner for the same job ?
What other employment opportunities in what growth sector - when the PAP Talents are waiting for Obama to lead the US economy out of their troubled waters ?
The deceptive mind of the resident X-rated Fraud must surely not be in the group of Singaporeans to experience the changes to the education policy implement in 2002 - who were targetted to be nurtured to have developed Thinking and Problem Solving Minds that will not be afraid to think out of the box.
With all the exposed hollow thoughts of a bankrupt mind in the X-rated Fraud, it is clear that its expertise lie in the plagiarizing skills and imitative acts to simply repeat all the Lies often enough and hope that the Lies will become Truth.
Only a desparate acts of a Master Fool will want to white-wash the Bald Truth and further, so that the Truth can be worn out by the strong spot light thrown on it.
In the present struggle and debate, the X-rated Fraud will not wish to dwell on the fact that during Goh Chok Tong's term as PM - there was the - ‘Singapore’s Economic Development Plan for the Eighties’ – Parliamentary Report No 5, Session No 1, Vol 40, Sitting No 6 – 1981-03-06 (*3) - which had recommended that for Singapore to achieve prosperity, Singapore will have to get out of the vicious cycles of being trapped in low wage industries that the MNC capitalists provide.
This was the position of Dr Chee in his book "Dare to Change' published in 1992.
This position was further validated by a 2008 NUS report - ‘Lessons from “Benchmark” Countries: Korea & Ireland’ – Shandre M Thangavelu and Hu Guangzhou, Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore (*4) - in which the report had stated that "the open economies of Ireland and Korea, and reported their success in tackling the skills shortage problems faced by their economies and have adjusted their industrial structures to produce higher value-added activities."
It is dismal prospect for the X-rated Fraud to learn to be more honest,or even to be more respectful to its self-deluded wider audience by giving them the respect that they are more intelligent than its own pseudo-intellect.
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Originally posted by princessdiana:
Why is children of such old folks no looking after them but allowing them to work as rag and bone collectors.
Where has Singaporeans' family values gone to?
As per se, some old folks are just too stubborn, during my time as brownies, our school also ask us to help them, we went to visit their childrens, and try to get the old peoples to join their family and have happy golden age, but the old folks prefer to remain single and free, and like to work. Sometime, the childrens also give up on them. -
Fact : Foreign workers are brought into Singapore to lower costs as the wages are considered too low for local residents as they encountered high cost of living.
Government : Impose quota ie ratio of a number of local workers per foreign workers. Local workers' wages are higher than foreign workers's wages. However, these wages are still not sufficient to meet the high cost of living and hence the raising of GST from 5% to 7% to finance the implementation of the workfare scheme.
Businessmen : Need cheap foreign workers to keep costs low to survive and to function smoothly.
(A question is How come the businessmen cannot raise its productivity to keep costs low instead of depending on cheap foreign workers to keep cost low ? Is it due to high rental or land cost ?)
What need to be done to lower the high cost of living ?
Housing cost ? Transportation cost ? Food Prices ? Training Costs ? Health Costs ?
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Fact : Foreign talents are brought into Singapore to meet country's and companies' needs
Businessmen : Need not only cheap workers but also cheap managment staff and skilled and professional staff in order to compete in the world market.
Government : Help unemployed skilled workers and professionals to upgrade or change career through subsidies. Recruitment of these unemployed to become teachers and other government jobs.
What need to be done ?
Impose a quota too ie a ratio of how many local managers to how many foreign managers ? Is it feasible ?
Granting loans to these unemployed to set up their own businesses ?
Job matching them with overseas opening ?
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Stupid people will always be exploited, like those pros working in angel or kui po's la sup bar.
When you vote in the devil, surely you don't expect heavenly environment.
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Originally posted by deepak.c:
Stupid people will always be exploited, like those pros working in angel or kui po's la sup bar.
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Originally posted by deepak.c:
Stupid people will always be exploited, like those pros working in angel or kui po's la sup bar.
When you vote in the devil, surely you don't expect heavenly environment.
666 at it very best -
You'll only see SDP when it is near election period. I think Chee forgot that the election is here and not in US. No point selling his idea and telling his plight there.
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Originally posted by Nighthawkies:
You'll only see SDP when it is near election period.
Don't think that is true. SDP has been quite active since 2006.
No point selling his idea and telling his plight there.
What about Lee Kuan Yew giving his rubbish speeches in U.S?
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Originally posted by angel3070:
Chee: Stop the exploitation of workers
Friday, 13 November 2009 09:23
Chee Soon Juan
I chanced upon a man dressed in
office attire yesterday morning lying on a park bench. Covering his
face was The New Paper's Wednesday edition with the
headline in big, black letters: I WANT TO JUMP OFF WITH MY
KIDS.
It was a report on how Ng Chee Kiang set ablaze his flat, burnt his two children alive and then jumped to his death. He was a bankrupt and was being hounded by loan sharks, and was in the process of a divorce.When he lifted the newspaper from his face and saw me, Lim (as he later introduced himself) smiled one of those half-smiles. We chatted. He had just lost his job because his company found a cheaper replacement, someone from mainland China.
Lim was contemplating his next move, not knowing where he could find another job as he was in his forties. "I don't think anyone will hire me if I tell them how old I am," he said blandly.
Sadly, Lim's experience is not all that uncommon. As retrenchment and competition for jobs hot up, more and more people have no where to go - literally and economically. Singaporeans continue to face a difficult existence with wages plummeting but with the cost of living escalating.
This is the message that I have tried to get across in the 10 interviews that I have done, and about to do, with US radio stations these past few days.
All these years workers in this country have been getting the short end of the stick. They have no labour unions to speak up for them. The only existing one that has all the power has as its leader a cabinet minister who, incredibly, exhorts workers to work even "cheaper, better and faster".
Included among them are elderly
Singaporeans who have little option but to continue to work menial
jobs like cleaning tables just to survive. There is no financial
support for them in a system designed by a bunch of ministers who
pay themselves $10,000/day.
In the meantime, the Government floods Singapore with guest workers in the millions. More than one in three people you see on the streets in Singapore are not Singaporeans.
While my colleagues and I have never objected to foreign talent – and let me be on record that we are in need of such talent – the truth is that the Foreign Talent Policy has much to do with foreign but little with talent.
The reality is that the Government exploits cheap foreign labour to suppress local wages. Foreign workers are allowed into Singapore to keep wages low. Wages are kept low so that we can remain attractive to MNCs.
The result is that Singaporeans bear the brunt of depressed wages.
Do the employers, many of them multinationals from America, care? With generous tax breaks and almost 100 percent repatriation of their profits, these MNCs adore Singapore as a business venue. And you have a Government that outlaws industrial action and crushes workers' rights to boot. It's corporate heaven on earth.
The PAP even consults these foreign companies on how much Sinaporeans' should be paid. The National Wages Council has on its 2007/2008 board representatives from the US ( <!--{12580788934570}--Douglas Miller), Japanese (Shigeru Kobayashi), and German (Alexander Melchers) chambers of commerce.
The PAP's Foreign Talent Policy benefits not the workers, both local and foreign, but the rich and powerful, both local and foreign.
When I get on the air in the US, it is the guy whom I met at the park and the old lady at the hawker centre who cleans tables whom I have have in mind.
This exploitation of Singaporeans must stop and Americans must know that their corporations cannot continue to operate in Singapore and ignore their corporate social responsibilities.
I call on the US not to remain silent when the Singapore Government, on behalf of American MNCs, exploits Singaporean workers.
The ultimate tragedy, Martin Luther King Jr once reminded us, is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3063-chee-stop-the-exploitation-of-workers
These workers merely pave the way for those who think and dream, its natural selection at work. We cannot regress just to make way for these people, those who are able can get jobs, those unable to, just die.
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Originally posted by Vader1337:
These workers merely pave the way for those who think and dream, its natural selection at work. We cannot regress just to make way for these people, those who are able can get jobs, those unable to, just die.
This may be the way of the US and other countries, but not here in my homeland. We are more educated, civilised and egalitarian than them, because our society will make all attempts to ensure no one gets left behind.
Not just by voice, whine or complains, but by actions and funds. This is Singapore.
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Originally posted by Vader1337:
These workers merely pave the way for those who think and dream, its natural selection at work. We cannot regress just to make way for these people, those who are able can get jobs, those unable to, just die.
no, those unable, should go for upgrading, training and improve themselves to suit the society, the problem with many peoples here is that they dun except the truth or the reality of what we are facing, most are still hallucinating about their past life and way of living, therefore, they are incapable to adapting to changes, especialy in this ever fast changing world. In the end they blame the society and the peoples who rule it, but never blame themselves or simply reflect on their situation. -
double post
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Originally posted by xtreyier:
This may be the way of the US and other countries, but not here in my homeland. We are more educated, civilised and egalitarian than them, because our society will make all attempts to ensure no one gets left behind.
Not just by voice, whine or complains, but by actions and funds. This is Singapore.
What the fuck??! You high on cocaine??! In US if you lost your home you could take shelter in government run shelter home and get free meals for you and your family. In the mean time the people could try to find any job to try to save to buy an apartment or to rent one or to save to buy a car or whatever they think they need.
If you lost your home in Singapore then it's bye bye forever. How cute isn't it. -
Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:
What the fuck??! You high on cocaine??! In US if you lost your home you could take shelter in government run shelter home and get free meals for you and your family. In the mean time the people could try to find any job to try to save to buy an apartment or to rent one or to save to buy a car or whatever they think they need.
If you lost your home in Singapore then it's bye bye forever. How cute isn't it.He high on stupidity
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Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:
What the fuck??! You high on cocaine??! In US if you lost your home you could take shelter in government run shelter home and get free meals for you and your family. In the mean time the people could try to find any job to try to save to buy an apartment or to rent one or to save to buy a car or whatever they think they need.
If you lost your home in Singapore then it's bye bye forever. How cute isn't it.
"Statistics is NOT Science" - xtreyierThat pretty much sums up his stupidity. Forgive him lah. His eyes are only open to how "good" Singapore is, he doesn't see the pain and the underlying risks we are experiencing.
The perfect role model of a brainwashed citizen.
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Originally posted by soul_rage:
"Statistics is NOT Science" - xtreyierThat pretty much sums up his stupidity. Forgive him lah. His eyes are only open to how "good" Singapore is, he doesn't see the pain and the underlying risks we are experiencing.
The perfect role model of a brainwashed citizen.
He could very well be 1 of the foreigners living in sg and benefiting from the PAP policy -
Originally posted by fireng:
He could very well be 1 of the foreigners living in sg and benefiting from the PAP policy