Consequences of the FT policy coming home to
roost
TUESDAY, 08 JUNE 2010 Singapore
Democrats
Five men
went on a violent rampage in Kallang gruesomely
killing one, hacking off the hand of another and slashing another
two - all for a few hundred dollars. Six men wearing ski masks
punched out two money couriers and robbed them of more than
$215,000 at an HDB block at Dorset
Road. Two teenagers were slashed at Ang Mo
Kio by three machete-wielding men, apparently for no
reason other than one of the victims being a Caucasian.
All this in just the last two weeks.
Then there is the break-in to a high-security MRT depot allegedly
by a Swiss national who had spray-painted colourful graffiti on a
couple of the carriages.
Vice is also catching on. The business of high-end prostitution is
booming because foreign professionals and businessmen are hiring
escorts to "accompany them to business meetings and casino games at
the IRs."
This is over and above the roaring trade that goes on in the
"economy class" red-light district of Geylang. In 2007 the police
arrested 5,400 illegal sex workers in Singapore, an increase of a
whopping 25
percent from the previous year. Many of them were from
overseas.
And where prostitution flourishes, so does pimping. With pimps come
gangs and with gangs come drugs. In 2007 the use of heroin exploded
by 600
percent.
All these are the consequences of the PAP's policy of flooding this
island with two million foreign workers over the last several
years.
But of course, the Government has a masterplan in place to cope
with all the added people coming in. Or not. In 2009 when there was
a heated debate over setting up a dormitory for foreign workers in
Serangoon Gardens, Mr
George Yeo's constituency, the Minister shocked everyone when
he said a masterplan was needed to give “some idea of how many
foreigners we can accommodate in a sustainable, organic way”, he
said.
Shouldn't a masterplan have been in
place before the floodgates
were opened? This is the kind of planning that we have been getting
from this Government. The Singapore Democrats have warned before
that such an unscrutinised and ill-considered policy will result in
painful consequences for the people.
When the infrastructure and societal arrangements are not equipped
to handle the sudden and massive expansion of the population in a
tiny island like ours, something has to give. Are we seeing the
beginnings of the blowback? Is this what the future of Singapore is
going to look like where violent crime becomes increasingly
commonplace, and where sex, drugs and gambling dominate the social
scene?
We have said it many times before: Singapore must open her doors to
foreigners and foreign talent (FT), and they must remain open. We
are not a nation of xenophobes. By highlighting the ills of the
Government's FT policy the Singapore Democrats do not want to
demonise foreign workers in this country because the vast majority
of them are decent folks who simply want to earn a
living.
But bad policies have consequences. And it is the locals who are on
the receiving end of the FT policy. Apart from seeing foreign
workers being brought in to suppress wages and drive up the price
of housing, we are now seeing criminal activity
escalate.
The fact of the matter is that Singaporeans do not object to
foreign talent coming to our shores. But what upsets us is that the
PAP is exploiting cheap labour from the region to suppress local
wages so that it can increase revenue for itself and profit for its
GLCs. It can then tell all and sundry that the GDP is growing, that
so many jobs are being created and then the ultimate - that it is a
First World government.
In the meantime, Singaporeans will have to continue to make the
sacrifices so that the PAP can continue to make these
claims.
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3782-consequences-of-the-ft-policy-coming-home-to-roost
