As I started reading the latest Kafkaesque masterpiece by
PAP propagandist Lediati Tan, I couldn’t help
but wonder if the PAP is unable or just
unwilling to understand the problems plaguing Singaporeans.
In her article on foreign workers, published in the 4th of
September edition of The New Paper, our confused journalist went
off on a surreal tangent and attempted to tackle the foreign
workers issue using the renowned fantastical PAP logic.
Reasonable Singaporeans of sound mind like myself are concerned
about the suppression of wages and the all too willingness of
employers to offer low or medium level jobs, which can be easily
taken up by Singaporeans, to our foreign counterparts. In other
words, the bread-and-butter issues.
Ms. Lediati Tan seemed unfazed by such mundane concerns.
Medical dictionaries define psychosis as “a symptom or feature
of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in
personality, impaired functioning, and a distorted or nonexistent
sense of objective reality.” As I continued reading her article, I
became more and more convinced that our confused journalist must be
going through a psychotic episode.
Instead of tackling the foreign workers issues from the obvious
bread-and-butter angle, Ms. Tan went out of her way to avoid all
foreign workers who crossed her path.
Many Singaporeans have voiced out their concerns about the
wanton influx of cheap foreign labour, but those voices of reason
have not advocated a boycott of services provided by foreign
workers nor have we went out of our way to shun foreign
workers.
Thus, I was completely flabbergasted when Ms. Tan described how
she incurred inconveniences when she avoided services provided by
foreign workers.
“Twice, I had to miss a bus and wait an additional five to 10
minutes because the first bus was driven by a foreign driver.
In the office, the first thing I did was to hide my wastepaper
basket under my table. One of the cleaners is a foreigner.
I also had to be extra careful when using the toilets at my
workplace as some are cleaned by foreign workers. Thankfully, the
one nearest my office are usually cleaned by local aunties.”
It’s just too difficult by Lediati Tan (Saturday, Sep 04, 2010,
The New Paper)
As Ms. Tan went on to describe how she failed to purchase a bag
for her friend because the retail outlet was staffed by foreigners
and avoided using the public toilet at the mall because she thought
it might be cleaned by foreign workers, I got increasingly worried
for the state of her mental health.
For a person who uses such impeccable English; whose grammar is
sensible, it seemed improbable that she could have missed the
obvious angle. Namely, the concerns we Singaporeans share over the
suppression of wages and the loss of our jobs to foreign imports
who aren’t necessary more qualified, or talented, than us.
She could have asked the million dollar question. She could have
asked why, oh why, have so many foreigners taken up low-level jobs
that could have been easily filled by Singaporeans? Bus driver,
cleaner, sales assistant and restaurant servers. These aren’t
specialized professions that require exotic foreign experts to
fill!
But she didn’t ask, did she?
Instead she set out to do exactly the opposite of what a good
investigative journalist, a proper one working in a country with a
free press, would do. She avoided the pertinent questions and
filled up the gaping holes in her articles with red herrings and
conjectures to mislead the public.
As I read her flimsily concocted conjecture that without foreign
imports, Singaporeans will be bereft of the essential services
provided by bus drivers, cleaners and restaurant servers, I became
more firmly convinced of her state of dementia. A lay person, who
is untrained in journalistic techniques, could easily see that
without the foreign imports who are doing jobs that require no
specialized talents, it just mean that the employment rate among
native Singaporeans will go up!
The fact that Lediati Tan failed to see the patently obvious
could only mean that either her cognitive faculties had severely
deteriorated or like her political masters, she was unwilling to
empathize with her fellow Singaporeans.
But the latter cannot be true, can it? Because Ms. Lediati Tan
is not even a Singaporean. In her article published on the 1st of
September in The New Paper, she herself declared that she “spent
more than 15 years here”, but still holds on to her Indonesian
passport.
“Though I’m still holding my green Indonesian passport, I can
barely lay claim to being a true blue Indonesian.”
TNP’s Lediati Tan pledges allegiance to
Singapore by Lediati Tan (Wed, Sep 01, 2010, The New Paper)
Now it all becomes clear. And with that clarity comes
understanding. Here is an Indonesian who spent 15 years here,
claims she knows Majulah Singapura better than the national anthem
of her homeland, and yet refuses to give up her Indonesian passport
to become a Singapore citizen. At the same time, she earns her pay
by writing articles approving the wanton influx of “foreign
talents” such as herself.
Such a person will never be able to understand the sufferings of
native Singaporeans. Nor will she want to jeopardize her livelihood
by doing so.
By: Singa Crew
Link to article:
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/09/11/confuse…
