PAP ministers hailed “contributions” of foreigners
November 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
In yet another sign that the Singapore government is unlikely to make any wholesale changes to its liberal immigration policies to allay the concerns and angsts of Singaporeans, senior PAP leader and minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Boon Heng hailed the “contributions” of foreigners to Singapore.
Mr Lim cited a photo he received of workers celebrating the completion of tunnelling work for the Circle Line as an example of foreign workers’ contributions here.
During a PAP event yesterday, the ministers were peppered with questions on the rising number of foreigners in Singapore.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong added:
“But if I didn’t have foreign workers, would you be able to build HDB flats, would Singaporeans be building the flats? If I didn’t have foreign workers for my factories, would I have wafer fabs here, would I have petrochemical plants here…….A single foreign chief executive who knows his business and has the experience to run a bank or factory can create hundreds of jobs for Singaporeans and others,” he said.
PM Lee is using oft-repeated circular arguments that foreigners are needed to create jobs for Singaporeans and to take up jobs that locals are not keen to do like in the construction sector.
While Singaporeans accept and understand that we need foreigners in crucial sectors of the industry, they are alarmed at the increasingly numbers of semi-skilled professionals who are competing with them directly for jobs.
For example, there was a furore a few weeks ago on a China national and Singapore PR Zhang Yuanyuan who proclaimed her loyalty to China on Chinese TV.
PAP ministers and MPs were quick to dismiss the concerns of netizens as an “over-reaction”, but chose to turn a blind eye to the crux of the issue.
It was revealed that Ms Zhang came to Singapore on a study pass with only a diploma from an unknown institution in China. She became a PR within 2 months of application while working as a Chinese teacher!
With due respect to Ms Zhang, she is not really considered a professional. Her job can be easily taken up by locals.
Till today, the authorities are still unable or unwilling to explain why Ms Zhang was given a Singapore PR within such a short span of time when she had already indicated that she only took up the Singapore PR to facilitate travel between China and Singapore.
PM Lee said during his national rally speech in August that he “understood” the concerns of Singaporeans over the rising numbers of foreigners in Singapore and would “slow” their intake.
It appeared from his latest speech that he did not really have the intention or committment to do so. Is PM Lee merely paying lip service to Singaporeans?
According to latest statistics released by the National Population Secretariat, foreigners now make up about 36 per cent of the population. This means that one of out three people you meet in the street is a foreigner.
Singapore citizens pay taxes and serve National Service, but they are entitled to few social welfare benefits from the government.
On the other hand, the government has no qualms splurging millions of dollars to make the newcomers feel “welcome” at home. A $10 million dollar community integration fund was launched lately to sponsor programs to help foreigners “integrate”.
This includes free language lessons for foreigners. In other countries like Australia and Canada, prospective immigrants must pass an English proficiency test (in Quebec, both English and French) before they are even allowed to set foot on their land.
It is no surprise why the ruling party is “sucking up” on foreigners. PRs and new citizens are routinely recruited to join grassroots organizations.
New citizens know little about the ruling party’s chequered past and are more inclined to vote for them.
With native Singaporeans becoming increasingly frustrated and disgruntled with PAP rule, the new citizens will form a powerful voting bloc to dilute the opposition vote so as to keep the ruling party eternally in power.
Related articles:
>> State media: citizens have more rights over PRs
>> Zhang Yuanyuan got her Singapore PR in only 2 months
>> Official reply from government on the Zhang Yuanyuan fiasco
>> Singapore PRC PR proclaimed loyalty to China publicly
>> PRC resident hung China flag to celebrate its National Day
>> PRC student in Singapore wants more scholarships for foreigners
>> PRC prostitutes solicit for customers on Singapore’s cyberspace
>> ERA: 40 per cent of resale flats buyers are PRs
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Posted in Editorial
Coz it’s true to character of...
Remember “No one will be left behind”, “More jobs for Singaporean” or “We are in a golden ERA”???
Have we not learned their tricks by now?
surprise… surprise! while over the weekend celebrating my grandmom birthday, our close relatives met over makan.
sudden discussion over the coming election, i was surprised by my aunties n uncles in their fifties n sixties, nothing was said “good feel” for the ruling party on the ever increasing costs of living and so called FT/FW issues.
interesting mentioned overheard this time, my elderly are voting for their sake of their grandsons and grand daughters future. hurray!!!
surprisingly, my cousins surf and knows TR, TOC, SgpNews alternate….etc eventhough we seldom met n talk about sgp politics.
thanks to TR, TOC n all other blogger sites. Victory shall come forth.
If you dont believe in them. There will be no disappointment.
得道多助，失道寡助
“PM Lee is using oft-repeated circular arguments that foreigners are needed to create jobs for Singaporeans and to take up jobs that locals are not keen to do like in the construction sector.” – It’s bull. Are the locals paid a fair wage for the so-called ‘jobs that locals are not keen’? The arguments used by the govt defy logic – and the only outcome is an increasing income divide among the population. The end result – the foreign workers propping up the economy with the ministers rewarding themselves with hefty salary increases and a compliant electorate voting the same ruling party elections after elections. Brilliant – the facade of a first world economy and an authoritarian government. After all there are also ‘free’ elections in dictatorships.
More articles on foreign workers and their disruption to Singapore workers must be compiled and saved for use near election time.
The Singapore workers who suffered much ignominy from our government’s open door policies to foreign general workers should be making known to everyone during the general election. The detrimental effect of foreign workers should be well researched and spill out to the public at the right moment. The loopholes and exploitation that enable the foreign workers gainfully employed within our borders depriving Singaporean the first bite to a better job should not be left out. The disadvantage Singapore workers pride should not go unnoticed in the coming election.
Presently the government attempt to cool the influx of foreign workers in order to create a less tense environment to win votes during election time and we all know once the election is over they will be back to their old ways. When election nears, hopefully all the online media at least will give a good bang on this subject because it involves bread and butter issues.
After the next election, hopefully there will be a dispersion of power and PAP no longer hog overwhelming power to carry on their damaging policies. We, Singaporean, deserves a better life and share the wealth of this country in a fairer manner.
It is not easy to explain to taxpayers, and people who voted in the government, how money is used to attract foreign talents, the exact same people who are competing for the same pool of jobs and resources in Singapore.
The biggest party to benefit is the government and the masters of these huge companies. Little is trickled down to the ground person.
In my opinion, the extreme influx of foreigners is not a tool to garner votes. Logically, the reason why we need it is because some people are still following a developing nation model, when we have already surpassed that point.
To sustain growth based on a lower labour cost model, in a country where cost of living is escalating, would be to bring in more lower cost labour. To ensure taxation would still be able to feed multi-million dollar governance, you would need to have more feeder points.
Simply put, if we were to compare the world to mass consumer businesses, a developing nation would be like an upstart supermarket. You compete based on price, but you make up for lower profit margins per sale by moving more volume.
However, there will come a time when you have reached a plateau, when that model will no longer be able to sustain based on having only 1 store (and Singapore’s a really small one). So what do smart brands do? They sell other benefits. Quality, reliability, stature, etc. That’s the intangible value-add that you must achieve after arriving at the peak of the competition.
To carry on pursuing a price war is foolish, as it can only be successful for a business capable of shifting phenomenal volume (ie. having more than one little shop to sell it from). Unfortunately, when you stifle thought, creativity and open debate, such value-add is impossible to cultivate, no matter how hard the attempt to artificially prop it up. All previous efforts have resulted in bubble after bubble of failures, never to be mentioned again. No wonder they reverted to the old model.
But there’s only so much volume 1 little store can support. I just hope I’m out of here before then. Sadly, I have lost faith in my fellow man to vote us out of this mess.
Yes, I want to be a quitter.
@x12831
Didn’t read your post before I posted, was too frustrated.
Well said, you’ve hit the nail on the head very succinctly. I shouldn’t have bothered with my own post. LOL
I wonder if DUO-Citizenship will be allowed in future?
I had a nap just now and dreamt that
it was allowed and all of a sudden the population problem no more as PRs get to keep their citizenship and still become a citizen here. All of a sudden, the ‘loosers’ get replaced by new immigrants. All of a sudden the composition changed. Bucking the trend.
when i woke up, i realised it was a napmare. phew!
We, Singaporeans, deserve the government that we elected year after year for the last 50 years. Our parents and grand parents, our relatives, our siblings, our friends and associates are all responsible for voting in the respective MPs into Parliament, and for the forming of the government to lord over all of us.
Therefore, there is no one to blame or to complain to except ourselves.
Well,i think to be fair,we must be grateful to those FWs-forrign workers who help us at the construction sites to make life better for ALL of us!
They too have been left out for too long and taken for granted by our people and MINISTERS Who preferred to hype on the FTs where the real contribution actually came from the FWs WHO CAME HERE AS C O N S T R U T I O N
CONTD FROM PREVIOUS POST
workers WAY BACK IN THE 1980s,1990s up till present!
Did we,singaporeans COMPLAIN about them in the first instance?
Honestly,whilst STRAITS TIMES harped and hyped about the Foreign Talents A FEW YEARS AGO, I WAS WONDERING TO MYSELF WHY
NOT THE FWs who help build our housing?
Dear LEADERS,we ARE NOT complaining about these group of foregin workers(FWs),wy the diversion?
We have to show PAP government our disappointment and anger in the next GE. Otherwise, we will continue to be victimized by them!!!
Singing their own praises again of COCKROACH CAPITALISM??
The usual suspect – continued mass migration influx is the real message. Any surprise??
Cockroach capitalism of foreign investement, foreign workers and now foreign population – ALL CONTRIBUTION AND GREATNESS ATTRIBUTABLE TO FOREIGNERS. Local born natives irrelevant except for the self-adoring elites who generously paid themselves millions to sing praise into our irritated ear drums.
the fact is we have foreign CEO runnings whatever, but there are no jobs created for Singaporean.
They are stopping singaporeans from access those jobs so that these singaporeans could not eventually contest against them and take power from them.
It is their selfish interest that singaporeans ended losing share in the pie that has been growing at singaporeans’ expense.
I bet you if you let Singaporeans run the businesses, you will still see jobs created and higher pay for Singaporeans.
PAP is a liability.
That is why even in their new book MIW, they don’t use the term PAP in the title.
Every one will spit at it.
Also, without Singaporeans, who vote for him?
Without Singaporeans working in the factories/banks he mentioned, then who take up those new jobs created.
Singapore politicians from PAP is a pack of rats.
//UD
You have written a thoughtful post. Your frustration is understandable. It is time for you to move on and look beyond the island. Cheers.
Is there anything of praise or something “good to say” about the local citizens from the government reps?Not even a single one?Anything at all?
Elections are coming. They will pretend to make some changes. They will throw some money at you. They will even pretend to listen to you. But after 50 years, the electorate have become wise to these tricks.
Time for Change. Change must come now or the people will continue to suffer with GST at 15 per cent.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_449149.html?vgnmr=1
AS A longtime resident of opposition-held Potong Pasir constituency, PAP member A.K. Lakshmanan wondered if the ruling party had ‘abandoned’ the constituency after losing again at the 2006 general election.
…..Speaking to the party’s executive committee at a dialogue during Sunday’s convention in Downtown East, he asked if anything could be done for PAP activists and loyalists who had supported the party all this while, adding that he did not think that any last minute arrangements just before the next general election would help the party win back Potong Pasir.
==============================================================
Is that why they join the PAP? What can you do for me? We supported the party, so what can you do for me? What can you do for me.
Sad that there are so many people who join the PAP for their own self interest. There is no passion to serve the people.
It is for these reason that I will vote for the dedicated members of the opposition in the upcoming GE.
//citizen
“Is there anything of praise or something “good to say” about the local citizens from the government reps” – Yes, they are good at carrying out the orders of their political masters and lapping up the privileges and entitlements that came their way. Without the experience of living life in a functioning democracy, Singaporeans (i.e. citizens) could not and would not be able to appreciate the difference between a free country and the dictatorship that is Singapore.
very interesting issue, this foreign policy.. because just last night, i caught the newpaper, and saw that many singaporeans are flocking to australia.. australia is also open to the foreign policy.. BUT, there was a little paragraph that says that this year, they are controlling inward immigration because of the recession. australia’s govt is not letting too many immigrants to enter australia because they wanted to PROTECT CIVILIANS’ JOBS. interesting because this is exactly the opposite of what our beloved leaders are doing – instead of SAFEGUARDING OUR jobs, they make us more ‘COMPETITVE’.
The problem with us,singaporeans, is that we don not in actuality “move as a team”,whether as fellow singaporeans or
as leaders to singaporeans!
See how some of our FTs truly “jaga each other”.
So what some of our friends’ complaints in this blog is genuine and valid.
NO rcial discrimination really,but a FT CEO or even a higher level corporate FT executive tends to RECRUIT their own kind
and this i observed in many instances.I am sure some of you might have noticed too!
So it is a fallacy that FT CEOs of local companies or even singapore-based MNCs would neccesarily increase job opportunities for local singaporeans.
One cursory glance in the lunch-time crowds at Raffles Place or
Shenton Way would confirm my humble observation.
It used to be alot of “ang-mohs” flocking together(pls angmohs do not take offence)but now i see flocks of indians in the lifts,at hawker centres and amazingly relatively less locals.
I am open to competition but it must be “FAIR” and not work
against locals who have struggled,together, to build a rather
conducive all-rounded environment- whether at work or otherwise-only to be unfarily denied of a decent livelihood .
In my simple mind,with such an aggressive stance of FT POLICY
by our very own ALL-SINGAPOREAN GOVERNMENT TEAM is already creating an unfair employment situation for our very own singaporean workers and worse still,those unfairly retrenched and now hunting frantically for a job for the basic survival o their families!
Nowhere in the developed world do i manage to find in the internet or otherwise materails relating to a government’s prejudice against their own workers as in “not enough local talents”???
I guess if that is true,better wind down our higher education institutions as they probably are doing a lousy job!
Might as well save taxpayers’ monies to help the low-and down-
amongst our fellow citizens!!!
I wonder is it because the pro-ft people and policy makers initially thought this up to bring in their own overseas buddies [they get to know thru side line business or otherwise], help out overseas friends [while studying overseas get to know, friend jobless or pay too low...help him/her over here in singapore by making them out as FT] or indirect families [no choice lei married foreign bride so must help him/her relatives or friends by bringing 'em over to singapore as FT] initially…and in the end from a minor change/just helping out it became a monster in the end.
As it is make as an official policy.
To the detriment of singapore and its real citizens….not transit “new” citizens [who we know many] upon receiving the red passport will make for the real 1st world like europe, america etc.
Haiz.
QUOTING…
N on Mon, 2nd Nov 2009 5:02 pm
Remember “No one will be left behind”, “More jobs for Singaporean” or “We are in a golden ERA”???
Have we not learned their tricks by now?
UNQUOTING…
And HIS apapa said too once… That Ministers in PAP Cabinet in Parliament MUST have “Business Acumen”!!!.. Perhap the now really old gheeko did not use the word “acumen”… but that was whathe meant anyway!!!… AND SO…
Since old guy applied THAT… Right ACROSS-THE-BOARD…
Why ARE WE SO SURPRISED… THAT EVERY MINISTER… DOES his JOB PRECIOUSLY… TO MAKE MONEY out of us and to OUR FINANCIAL DETRIMENT In OLD AGE???…
Many times… I Do NOT find so-called “MM” (given by son so he said lah!)… indepth… unlike when he displayed THAT PARTICULAR “FLARE” AND “FLAMBOYANT SHEEPISH EXUBERANCE” in recieving accolades of his “acheivement’ most self-righteously!!!
Sinkees must learn to look out for each other if they were to win back what is truly theirs in sinkapore. If you look at a typical classroom, you’ll see the PRC or Indian foreign students really helping each other out – but the locals will be like a ‘pan of loose sand’. Easily conquered and outsmarted by the united foreigners. Ditto for all sectors of the workplace.