A Singaporean/PR/expatriate by the name of William Jansen has
written a letter to the Straits Times Forum today praising the
“high standards” of life in Singapore in response to an earlier
letter by Ms Maureen Pollard expressing her “regret” in giving up
Singapore citizenship.
“Giving up Singapore citizenship is a serious matter and,
apparently, there is no turning back. This quality of life must be
hard to beat even if one emigrates to a developed country,” Mr
Jansen wrote.
He did not quote any reports to substantiate his claims.
However, Singapore is ranked the 70th best place in the world to
live in based on the Quality of Life index computed yearly by
Ireland-based magazine “International Living”. (read report
here) which is corroborated by
a similar ranking by The Economist Unit.
The index is produced based on the following nine categories:
cost of living, culture and leisure, economy, environment, freedom,
health, infrastructure, safety and risk and climate.
Each country in each category is graded on a curve and it is
scored relative to every other country. The scores run 0 to 100 for
each category. This means the country that gets 0 is the worst in
that category, and the country that gets 100 is the best.
The data is collated from official government sources, the
World Health Organization, The Economist, and
many other journals, tables, and records.
Below is Singapore’s scores for each category:
While Singapore scores high on risk and safety, health and
infrastructure, it scores poorly in environment and freedom,
bringing down its final score to a mediocre 61.
Mr Jansen also claimed that he was “told” that many Singaporeans
who migrated to other countries have regretted their decision again
without substantiating them:
“I have been told that there are many cases of Singaporeans
who have emigrated to other countries and have regretted their
decision to leave because they have suffered discrimination and are
treated like second-class citizens in the country of their
choice.”
If what Mr Jansen has heard is indeed true, then the Home
Affairs Ministry would not be busy trying to entice Singaporeans
working overseas to return to Singapore.
Every year, about 1,000 Singaporeans give up their citizenship
in search of a better life elsewhere. There are nearly 200,000
Singaporeans working and living overseas and it is highly doubtful
that they will return to Singapore eventually.
Even the mainland Chinese, whom the ruling party is so
desperately trying to attract to Singapore to boost its declining
birth rate, are giving Singapore a miss.
In a Gallup conducted in July last year, the top three
emigration destinations for China college students are the United
States, France and South Korea. Singapore was not even featured in
the top five.
Mr Jansen ended his letter by urging Singaporeans to appreciate
the “quality of life” they enjoy in Singapore and be “thankful” for
what they are.
Only Singaporeans of a certain “economic class” are able to
enjoy a decent standard of living in Singapore.
Under the rule of the PAP, Singapore now has the highest income
gap between the rich and the poor among the 30 most developed
nations in the world and one of the lowest domestic purchasing
power.
With the sycophantic state media censoring critical articles
and publishing only spins and half-truths as such
which are completely “divorced from reality”, it is no surprise
that the PAP leaders are still sleeping comfortably high up in
their ivory towers.