Written by Our Correspondent
Concerned at the rising tensions between native Singaporeans and foreigners, the “nation-building” press has been called into action again to sway public opinion back to the side of its political master.
In an extensive interview with the Straits Times, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng made a spirited defence of the PAP’s much maligned liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies by using his life-story as an example.
Mr Wong recalled that his parents were poor immigrants from China too and life in the early years were tough for his family.
They eventually settled in Singapore and his parents became registered as Singapore citizens enabling them to vote in the 1959 elections which swept the PAP into power for the next fifty years.
Mr Wong pointed out that many of his classmates had parents born overseas and that not many Singaporeans can claim to have been here for more than five generations.
“Now, we feel foreigners who come here are intruding into our space. But we forget that that’s what our parents did before – intruding into the space of those who were here before them.We should remember that immigrant children will one day be like us,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
In 2003, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced his ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million people by 2030.
All of sudden, the floodgates were flunged open without proper screening and QC control, leading to Singapore being swarmed by foreigners from all over the world.
Foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.
A recent Wall Street Journal reported that the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore over the years has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
The Labor Report 2009 released this Monday showed that the wages of Singaporeans had declined by 3.2 percent last year while the price of resale HDB flats had grown by 8.2 percent with median Cash-over-Valuation doubling from $12,000 to $24,000 in the last quarter alone.
The Economist Unit ranked Singapore as the 53th best nation in the world to live in, below the likes of Croatia, Romania and Slovenia.
It is most disingenuous of Mr Wong to used the situation in the 1950s to justify Singapore’s immigration policies.
Singapore’s population was only slightly over a million people then and there was sufficient space and resources to accommodate more.
Besides, more than half the population were poor immigrants from China and India who did not expect much in life.
Today, Singapore is a developed country and the majority of its people regard themselves as Singapore citizens and not Chinese or Indian immigrants.
Singaporeans now expect much more from their country than their parents and grandparents.
It is the duty of the elected government of the day to take care of its own citizens first before welcoming more immigrants.
The root cause of public discontent against foreigners lie in the lack of social welfare benefits to the locals who are expected to compete directly with the cheaper foreign workers on an equal footing.
Furthermore, local-born Singapore males have to serve two years of National Service while the new citizens need not do so which will remain a sore point of contention.
Unless the PAP do more to level the playing field between citizens and foreigners, the simmering tension between the two groups is likely to grow in the near future.
- Temasek Review
He is not worth what he is paid for.
I question how his brain works.
Is this an original idea of the PAP ?
The PAP has run out of ideas for our continued economic progress - and have resorted to the development of Casinos that it disguises as Integrated Resorts.
At the same time it fell back to the old reliable ways of generating cash with "new and creative gambling programs" to suck more money from Singaporeans - and the method is no different from the gangsters who need cash to create gambling and prostitution dens.
The opening of the doors for more migrants is the method used by the Colonial Government to bring in new blood into Singapore - when at that time Singapore was less populated with a population of below 500,000.
It is the old Colonial Government method of not doing much by their own effort - but to bring in new capital brought in by new migrants with their own new drive and new ideas.
Can the government perform better then private enterprise ?
This was told to the PAP Government since the 1987 economic downturn, and repeated again after the 1997 economic crash, and again in the 2004 crash - when the Economic Review Committee had recommended that Singaporeans should have access to their own monies in the CPF to allow for private enterprise to develop.
The recommendation was for a smaller amounts of CPF contribution and allow more private capital to be in the hands of Singaporeans.
It is obvious that the PAP Government cannot release the CPF funds - as it will simply bankrupt the government - when each working Singaporean will have at least $10K to $500K in their CPF account.
Just returning the big and small amounts spread across whatever percentage size from an assumed working population of 2 million is enough to cause the bankruptcy - despite all the bravado claimed by the PAP Government.
The only alternative left to the PAP - is to have new migrants with their own private capital - as was the method of the Colonial Government long time ago - never mind if they compete with Singaporeans whose money are stuck in the CPF.
This is the kind of level playing field that the PAP Government has created and expect Singaporeans to accept and tolerate their open door policy.
all i picture OF immigrant children in THE near future,"FUXK U WKS DEEP DEEP!!!"
At the rate we are taking migrants from philippines, vietnam, bangladesh and myanmar, the day will arrive where the Singapore Chinese become a minority here. When this day arrives, will the subjugation of the Chinese in SE Asia be complete?
The Singapore Chinese can be generous to treat them on fair and equal terms. But as these people form the majority here, will they reciprocate in kind or will they revert back to their homeland's stand where the Chinese is treated with contempt?
If we are going down this pathway, we may as well remain in Malaysia and not split from them!
Like us? Wong KS is dreaming.
hum..more and more Singaporean will become what PRC call us - 四��。 That means, we are neither AngMo or Chiinese. We speak Singlish, Angmo dont understand, we speak Mandarin, Chingna dont know what we say, and we cant even speak the dialects of our forefather
Next time, with more Indian, Burmist, Indonesian, Vietcon and PRCs, we really become rojak. Dont tell me New York is the same, my Italian colleagues will laugh till drop death.
Old solutions to a new problem will never work. Perhaps the government has remained in yester-years.
Old solutions to a new problem will never work. Perhaps the government has remained in yester-years.
cheers!!
that is why i say, wks is not worth a penny
I think the remarks made by WKS were uncalled for and insulting to all Singaporeans.
Its also trying to make the racial groups in Singapore be unhappy with each other.
What he is trying to do? Make the Malays hate the Chinese and Indians because our ancestors are also migrants to Singapore, just like we hate the new incoming migrants?
This is the part:
“Now, we feel foreigners who come here are intruding into
our space. But we forget that that’s what our parents did before –
intruding into the space of those who were here before them.We
should remember that immigrant children will one day be like
us,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
As I mentioned, and mentioned again,
the PAP tactics is always THE SAME, in every single argument they made. They always use the "extreme" tactic.
"We should not reject (ALL) foreigners"
Since when did our brains become "Yes" or "No", "Black" or "White"? Never in our argument did we say, we must either say yes, or no, to foreigners.
I have always said that, I support the Foreign Talent policy, but with strict criteria. Only bring people that are truly talented, like the higher management, for instance.
Now, our foreign talent policy is nothing but a scam. Bringing in sub-par people that do nothing but offer (prostitute) themselves at the cheapest price to employers.
Frankly, the one race that irks me are filipinos. Absolutely not intelligent, and absolutely disloyal. My wife's firm specially banned filipinos from all jobs, because they apply from overseas, come to Singapore, and then leave the firm at the slightest increment ($50 increase in pay is enough for them to jump ship)
And they like to say "Sir" and "M'aam" like a servant, even in customer service. Reminds me of maids taking over the customer service hotline.
In USA, when someone says "Sir" or "M'aam" it's a form of respect, both to the addresser and addressee.
And WKS should just shut up.
As the guy who allow Mas Selamat to escape from under his nose, he has the cheek to dish out advice?
Mark my words. He may lose his GRC this round. And should that happens, that is sweet justice to a rat that is not worth a single cent he is taking from taxpayers now.
Originally posted by soul_rage:And WKS should just shut up.
As the guy who allow Mas Selamat to escape from under his nose, he has the cheek to dish out advice?
Mark my words. He may lose his GRC this round. And should that happens, that is sweet justice to a rat that is not worth a single cent he is taking from taxpayers now.
Bravo!!!
That is well expressed "rage" - written from deep inside the "soul" !!!
When he keeps quiet, you all said he is doing nothing, when he talks, you all said he talks no sense...so how? Are you all very sure you can vote him out???
Originally posted by angel7030:When he keeps quiet, you all said he is doing nothing, when he talks, you all said he talks no sense...so how? Are you all very sure you can vote him out???
One thing's for certain, when YOU keep quiet, we all rejoice.
Frankly, you are in no position to comment given
(1) You are thoroughly stupid
(2) You are an obnoxious fool
(3) You are not a Singaporean
if you quiet than i quiet lor..me just follow the laws of relativity, for any force given, there is a resistance ya. Life is stupid if you could not take the resistance ya.
Originally posted by angel7030:if you quiet than i quiet lor..me just follow the laws of relativity, for any force given, there is a resistance ya. Life is stupid if you could not take the resistance ya.
Just to educate you, coz I pity your lack of knowledge.
You are referring to Newton's Laws of Motion, NOT law of relativity.
"Whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction"
Even when attempting to rebutt me, you are still a failure, quoting wrong theories, using wrong references.
Continue posting. Just continue exposing more and more of your stupidity.
No lah, i am talking about Dharma, the buddhist scripture on the laws of relativity, you think only science got laws ar??? 2500 BC, Guatama already said that liao...notice the Nazi symbol or not??? taken from where??
I am not educating you, nor are you educating me,...just have a nice sunday breakfast after jogging mah...
Originally posted by angel7030:No lah, i am talking about Dharma, the buddhist scripture on the laws of relativity, you think only science got laws ar??? 2500 BC, Guatama already said that liao...notice the Nazi symbol or not??? taken from where??
I am not educating you, nor are you educating me,...just have a nice sunday breakfast after jogging mah...
Oh really? So tell me, what does relativity mean? The word relativity.
Explain it.
Huh? u say me stupid and still want to learn from me??? Oh no, i dun except disciple with a soul that is raging, change it to soul blessing, maybe i will think of it. In the meantime, go buy lunch for me first.
Originally posted by soul_rage:I have always said that, I support the Foreign Talent policy, but with strict criteria. Only bring people that are truly talented, like the higher management, for instance.
Sure, but we also need some sub-par people what? Who is gonna clean the toilet, street or construction worker or marine off-shore work (Fix ships, not the oil refinery one that go research on new petroleum)?
All these are quite dangerous or unhygenic environment where not everybody are willing to do (Not only low pay).
PS: I am not saying ALL these jobs are reserved to foreginers, but with 100% truly talented foreginers, they will also not do these jobs as mentioned and the amount of locals to do these is still not enough.
Originally posted by angel7030:Huh? u say me stupid and still want to learn from me??? Oh no, i dun except disciple with a soul that is raging, change it to soul blessing, maybe i will think of it. In the meantime, go buy lunch for me first.
So we can see that you don't understand the word "relativity" and just abuse the word.
Enough said. Not much intelligence again.
But what can we expect from a obnoxious fool like you?
Originally posted by Samuel Lee:Sure, but we also need some sub-par people what? Who is gonna clean the toilet, street or construction worker or marine off-shore work (Fix ships, not the oil refinery one that go research on new petroleum)?
All these are quite dangerous or unhygenic environment where not everybody are willing to do (Not only low pay).
PS: I am not saying ALL these jobs are reserved to foreginers, but with 100% truly talented foreginers, they will also not do these jobs as mentioned and the amount of locals to do these is still not enough.
From the above, I see you don't understand the word "Foreign Talent", or rather, you have been confused by the govt.
Those that you mentioned, are called "Foreign LABOUR". It's way different from Foreign Talent.
I always advocate that a country needs to import foreigners at 2 levels only. At the bottom, and at the top. Reserve the jobs in the middle for the locals. That's how the foreign immigrant system in other countries usually work.
oh! me understand or not is up to me...u also not my teacher, and even if you are, i would had long changed school.
Can u just cool down??? i keep laughing ya
Originally posted by angel7030:oh! me understand or not is up to me...u also not my teacher, and even if you are, i would had long changed school.
Can u just cool down??? i keep laughing ya
I just pity you *shrugs*
Don't understand, and just use a term that you don't know
what more can we expect from a fool like you?
The state propaganda machine is running full steam again to explain it's unpopular and much hated liberal immigrant and foreign talent policies.