Pro-foreigner columnist at Business Times turns out to be a “foreign talent” himself
February 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Even as the PAP leaders and the mainstream media are busy trying to convince Singaporeans that the government will “reduce” the inflow of foreigners, one Business Times columnist Vikram Khanna has continued to defend the “value” of foreign workers to Singapore.
In his commentary published on Business Times yesterday, Mr Vikram wrote that is important to read the recommendations from the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) as “it can easily be misinterpreted as a foreigner workers versus local workers issue.” (read article here)
“Contrary to some media reports, the Government is not about to clamp down on foreign workers. The ESC report notes that these workers ‘will remain valuable to Singapore’ and that ‘they fill many jobs for which there is a shortage of Singaporean workers’. In absolute terms, the number of foreign workers could well increase, at least in the short term. Over time, as new skills are developed, the reliance on foreign workers would go down,” he added.
Mr Vikram opined that since the ESC also “stressed that the aim is to increase productivity of the whole workforce – that is, both local and foreign workers”, this means that “incentives will be put in place for companies to retain foreign workers so that their skills, too, can be upgraded.”
He predicted that foreign workers will be needed in Singapore for the foreseeable future to boost both productivity and growth.
Mr Vikram appeared to be blind to the negative impact of the large number of foreigners in Singapore.
In a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, it was reported that the influx of foreigners into Singapore over the last few years had depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing, decreased labor productivity and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
It is strange that Mr Vikram chose to advocate for foreigners to be retained in the Singapore workforce when they already make up more than one third of it and Singapore’s population as well.
Mr Vikram’s pro-foreigner stance will not come as a surprise to unsuspecting readers if he revealed to them his background right from the very beginning: he is a “foreign talent” himself!
According to his CV on LinkedIn, Mr Vikram was born in India and educated in the United Kingdom. He has been with The Business Times for 16 years since 1993. It is not revealed if he is already a Singapore PR or citizen.
With due respect to Mr Vikram’s professionalism as a journalist, he may have certain blind spots as a result of his upbringing.
Being a foreigner, he may not be able to understand or appreciate certain facets of Singapore society at large.
While he is perfectly entitled to his views, he should have informed readers of his background for them to judge for themselves if his articles are made without any inherent prejudices.
Besides Mr Vikram, there are an increasing number of foreign journalists in SPH who are tasked to write on domestic affairs including China-born journalists.
It is little wonder that some of SPH’s articles appear completely out of sync with the public sentiments on the ground.
Being the sole media agency in Singapore, SPH has the social responsibility to Singaporeans to reflect the sentiments of the majority of the population.
Right now, the prevalent view is that Singapore should slow down or even reverse the inflow of foreigners which doesn’t seem to be reflected in the mainstream media.
Perhaps SPH is increasing its intake of “foreign talents” to better cater to the needs of the new immigrants.
After all, at the rate the PAP is mass importing them to replace native Singaporeans, they are likely to become the majority in a few years’ time.
Posted in Editorial
Please do not insult the word “talent”..this guy is a “trash”
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Talk about f*’ing conflict of interest!!!! Not even a word of Disclaimer. Lousy buggers. There goes the Business Times’ credibility (not that it had a lot to begin with though).
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am not surprised at this loser. there are many low talent ppl at SPH. the asiaone website has so many basic grammar and spelling mistakes almost every day. even TR doesnt!
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Actually, Vikram has been with SPH for longer than 16 years, he was previously with Straits Times, spent time at the World Bank/IMF and then returned to Singapore and Business Times…how long have the backers/editorial team of Temasek Review been in S’pore?
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send him back to india to write children fairy tales to indians about what a paradise singapore is..
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Bias report.
Ask him please be honest. If the goverment started to heavely tax this FT guy, see will he write such bias report.
The reason for him to be in Singapore because there is good money to earn. Once this is taken away, I am sure he will be the first to leave this country.
Election is near;
VOTE OUT PAP!!! Let our voice to be heard.
We don’t need such high paying fire fighter goverment.
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Last we have Strait Times as ShittyTimes, now we even have Business Times as BullShitTimes. You can imagine how much bullshit is there about business.
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Vikram Khanna = LPS(L*n P* S*r) of MIW
All MSM are vehicles of MIW propoganda.
Imagine is this ah nei dun po (carry balls) MIW, do you think he can survive in BullShitTimes?
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“Actually, Vikram has been with SPH for longer than 16 years, he was previously with Straits Times, spent time at the World Bank/IMF and then returned to Singapore and Business Times”
So ? Isn’t the fact that he is in SPH for 16 years and with ShittyTimes before, tell you how capable he is in spouting bullshit and nonsense ?
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What do you expect. It is only natural for a person to fight for his own benefit. That is why leaders need to weigh the needs of different groups and decide on what is a just decision that benefits the most people in the long run.
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Foreign trash on Local Trash, aka Straits Trash. Screw you, FTs. Singaporeans don’t need you ‘talents’ to write such ‘talented’ articles on such Trash.
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Let’s not insult the word “TRASH”. There is not word to describe all this FT.
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this this indian dog serve his NS ?
How come so many millions indians in shenton get job in aircon comfort while sg males got to sweat it out in penkang hill for 2 years and still cannot find a job ?
I propose it should be the other way round. Get all these FT parasites to do 2 years of NS while Sg citizens enjoy air con comfort.
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Spouting vitriolic name calling is not helping.
Why not engage this person by sending an opine, why he is mistaken.
Obviously he is commenting from his ignorant viewpoint.
He has never served NS, or has been affected by the high cost of living, on top of that, I don’t think he even care or know, his Indian brethens from India who work here as manual labourers work for a small pittance.
I don’t think he would be so positive about the ESC report, if he has to work as a construction worker, who gets paid under $800 and share a room with 7 others.
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Enlist Mr Vikram for National Service as talented are smarter to protect singapore.
Enlist Mr Vikram for National Service as talented are smarter to protect singapore.
Enlist Mr Vikram for National Service as talented are smarter to protect singapore.
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//#Kojakbt
Agree.
Ask the joker to check out Paul Krugman’s essays on Japan.
No where did he say the solution to Japan’s problem is foreign talent or trash.
And he won a Nobel prize for Economics.
Who is this guy pretending to be all knowing in economics?
And I am not talking about LKY.
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Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Send this bloody indian for NS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let’s see how far he can TCSS ( Talk Cock Sing Song ) after his national service and yearly in-camp reservist.
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brother sorry because we veto for them so treat us like dog , and foreigner like god so this real life of our PAP gov
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I have not heard of a single reputed economist telling JApan that its problem is not taking in foreigners.
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**shiver** Penkang Hill….
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xingrencha:
“Actually, Vikram has been with SPH for longer than 16 years, he was previously with Straits Times, spent time at the World Bank/IMF and then returned to Singapore and Business Times…how long have the backers/editorial team of Temasek Review been in S’pore?”
may i ask why after 16+ years is Vikram still not a citizen?
could it be he wasn’t offered citizenship because he is not a talent and thus is spouting biased hogwash on Straits Times?
or could it be he knows that Foreigners are always treated better by the PAP government than Singaporeans?
Vikram’s long term presence at a PAP Propaganda Publisher only shows that PAP is only paying lip service to Singaporeans on the cutting of Foreigners issue.
the PAP government can say whatever they want. today you see them making a U-turn and support Singaporeans, tomorrow they change tune and support Foreigners.
despite PAP’s claims to control the Foreigner Population, we are still having dormitories in town estates, more filipinos in our Casinos, more China and Indian workers in our workforce, more Foreign Sportsmen, more Foreign Students taking up places of rightful NS-serving Singaporean students and more Foreigners flooding the housing market.
till today, their actions contravene greatly with their words. Singaporeans should wake up and realize the PAP today is all talk no action.
vote for Change, vote the PAP out
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Has anybody noticed how many Parasitic Rubbish Cunts (ak PRCs) there have been here defending the MiW recently? If this isn’t a tacit admission by them that the MiW are Commie puppets, what is?
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Yes. Should ask the ESC to make it compulsory for FT to do NS. This will surely put a brake to all those indians who say they love sg and ask for more of their billions in the dark continenet to come here but never serve a day of NS.
Conversely Sg citizens should not have to serve NS as that define the previledge of being a singaporean.
Only the PAP will turn the table round have make Sg citizens serve 2 years of NS to become second class citizens in their own country.
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I see a discarded rubbish from India writing rubbish to protect himself…………..
Teo Chee Hean, enlist this chap for national service.
Charge and jail him if he refuse to be enlisted !
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At the rate things are going,Indian FTs,mostly from Indian INST.of MGMT. will be manning our media and financial institutions while the PRCs will be cooking your food and ‘raising your temperature’?
Well,might as well pay a couple of them a couple of milliions to be ministers?!!!
All these bullsh@ts need to be STOPPED!
VOTE FOR JOBS N DIGNITY,VOTE FOR GUYS WHO WILL SPEAK UP FOR YOU!
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It is great that you uncovered this about journalists in Straits Times and Business Times. I had thought they should be Singaporeans loyal to the party. No wonder the STANDARD OF ENGLISH, particularly in the Straits Times, is so poor. There are countless grammatical errors in the daily, even on the front page and captions!!! I just wonder whether there is any editorial work done…..years ago it was outsourced to Australia…don’t know about it now.
So much for SPH’s low standard of English which is not helping young readers who are schooled in Singapore and deemed the future leaders of Singapore.
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Sometimes I wonder for people who are not Singaporeans commenting on domestic policy (or politics), are they considered as foreign interference with Singapore domestic politics.
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FT = FOREIGN TRASH
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On a SMRT bus home yesterday, a quick count on the back 20 seats of the public bus – 12 China Chinese (they were occupying one seat each, chatting loudly among themselves), 6 India Indians, a Malaysian hot chick talking on her mobile phone and a SOLO Singaporean…ME!
Not the first time…am i in Singapore?
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The problem is very very dire…..There are 1.8million foreigners in Singapore versus 3.2million Singaporeans.
Almost all the foreigners are working (at leat 90% of the 1.8million are working) which amounts to 1.62million
On the other hand out of the 3.2million Singaporeans I would say only 50% are actually in the labour force (because these 3.2million citizens include Old, young, and the unemployed ) which amounts to only 1.6million.
Therefore the foreigners working population in Singapore is not 30% but more tha 50%……and still growing.
No wonder so many of the younger citizens are emigrating or planning to emigrate….
Time has come to vote out the PaP before Singapore really goes to the Dogs.
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I wonder the later the election is held, will there be more new citizens like this columnists?
Lets embrace them and help them succeed.
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We really have no time left now.
We need to reach out and let citizens know what is happening.
Soon we may become minority. many still oblivious as usual.
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Everywhere u walk/go to, foreign workers everywhere!!
Crowded everywhere too! Those PAP jerks can’t b bothered coz they lived in pte properties, drive cars & they don’t need to take MRT daily,eat at hawker ctr. Those PAP jerks really lose touch & sense of reality what’s happening on the ground. Those authorities recently took action against illegal activities in Geylang,in Geylang there’r 90% foreign workers,all sorts of illegal activities stil operate there,the police can’t do anything as FT(Foreign Trash) outnumbered local authorities…
Look at most of those irritating trash jerks – those arrogant Indian FT & filipinos,pieces of trash.That’s why they’r called Foreign Trash(FT)
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The foreign talents are not only in the main stream media but in all the financial services companies (banking, insurance, investment and hedge funds), the multinationals companies (oil refining, IT and consumer products). They hold all the top jobs and are comfortable only with their kind so that in time they fill the top management positions with their own countrymen. These are the foreign talents that they government uses as examples to justify throwing open the doors to welcome them.
The other foreign talents and we all know about them, the construction workers, the market stall assistants, the masseurs take all the low level jobs which the government justifies as jobs nobody wants.
While all this is happening we have a government that is oblivious to what is going on, sitting on their hands, in total and complete denial of the problems facing the ordinary Singaporeans.
Let’s take the argument for foreign talents to its logical conclusion. If the ministers think so much of them, let the foreign talent run for political office. If they can promise (not deliver) things better than what the PAP is promising (more blood, sweat and tears), I say let them run the country. After all, what have we got to lose. We already have a government that doesn’t care a rat’s arse about the very people who voted them in. In their minds, Singaporeans are a troublesome lot, complacent, demanding, complaining and ungrateful.
My blood boils when I watch LKY on tv. Here is a man way beyond his use by date, wagging his finger and admonishing Singaporeans like little children. If we don’t send him the right message in the next election, we deserve to be consigned to the dust bin of history.
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If you throw a stone into any of SPH windows, you are likely to hit a foreigner than Singaporeans.
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Did this prick served NS?if not, he shld shut the fxxx up and go eat shit and die.
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Everywhere foreign trash ! Enough is enough, it is time local citizens show the gahmen that their views should be heard.
VOTE THE PAP donkeys OUT at the next election !!
Singapore deserves better leaders !
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IF PAP WINS,
Let us march in the hundreds of thousands in civil disobedience!
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In the USA, foreigners are always labelled as “aliens”.
So in that spirit, don’t hesitate to call such a group
and “Vikram Khanna” as “Aliens” and
a bunch of “Alien Trashs”!!
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“I have not heard of a single reputed economist telling JApan that its problem is not taking in foreigners.”
This guy probably thought that all Singaporeans are stupid and will take it what the mainstream media will say. He’s trying to pull a fast one over us. I can’t believe that a BT journalist can dare to say Japan’s problem is due to lack of FTs…. what a guy…
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It is sad to see how much personal abuse and insult there is on this forum and how little substantive comment.
We can debate, agree, disagree, but it is impossible to have any proper discussion in the face of such vitriol. Nobody can learn anything from anyone; it’s just a frenzy of abuse.
To get some insight into what is really going on here, read a fine article by Rachel Chang on pg 2 of today’s ST, entitled “Power of the Net to Polarise.” She talks about “cyber-polarisation” in which “when people interact with others who share the same views, they tend to become more extreme….Racists for example, become more racist if they are surrounded by other racists.”
This appears to be the dynamic playing out on Temasek Review. which has sadly degenerated into a foreigner bashing forum.
I hope this site will see better days.
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Perhaps someone could shed some light on this: I get resumes from a lot of foreigners who are not currently employed in Singapore but have Singapore mailing addresses applying to just about every other job out there.
My question is this– can I then assume that these jokers are here on social visit passes and putting up at the homes of friends etc and trying to land themselves jobs within the 3 months they are here, or are they actually holding jobs with other companies but want to avoid the stigma of job-hopping?
Any HR managers here that can share insights?
BTW, I’ve gone on board to oversee HR and recruitment at an MNC for the ASEAN region, and as far as Singapore is concerned, I’m making a conscious effort not to employ foreign workers and stick to strictly Singaporean citizens and SPRs only.
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I think we shouldn’t flame this fella so much guys…16 yrs is a long time for a person to be in Singapore. I’ll actually consider him one of us already.
But, one of us or not, the fact is he brought up a good point. The govt does not truly mean to “clamp down on FT intake”….just read on Singabloodypore’s blog the following;
“…This was followed by a 2001 report from Economic Review Committee led by then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong which promised to “…carefully manage the inflow [of foreign workers] to benefit our economy and our people. An appropriate levy will regulate the demand for foreign workers, and ensure that they complement rather than displace Singaporean workers…” This “careful” management of foreign worker inflow through “an appropriate levy” has led to our population being made up of 38 percent of non-Singaporeans.”
So you see, he brought up a really good point about the current ESC plan. The plan is in the fine print and he highlighted it to us. Let’s thank him for it, and move on with the voting.
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MM has always said that foreigners have no right to discuss our domestic issues, so this guy should be arrested and deported.
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If it’s a true talent which SG is lacking then I’ll support wholeheartedly. The SG gov should come up with measures to allow these imported talents to groom or have their skills transferred to us. I feel that’s value add to our economy benefiting our citizens.
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I can only hope that at least half of all commies traitors are sent back. Then probably we can have some of our life back. We cannot sent all back, not at one go.
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what is the ministry defend waiting for !!!!!
Quickly enlist this talent person for national service
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”
It is sad to see how much personal abuse and insult there is on this forum and how little substantive comment.
We can debate, agree, disagree, but it is impossible to have any proper discussion in the face of such vitriol. Nobody can learn anything from anyone; it’s just a frenzy of abuse.
”
if you been abused by SAF in a frenzy and vitrolic 2 and half years , all you want to take revenge on those freeloaders FT parasites who come in without doing NS and chase them out of this country.
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TR, TR, u are whipping up xenophobia… tsk! tsk!
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//xingrencha
Do you know what xenophobia means first?
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Under the Sedition Act, anyone found guilty of “promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between races or classes of the Singapore population” may be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed up to three years, if this is his or her first offence.
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that why I don’t read the msm
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