January 12, 2010
For the second time in two days, another PAP leader has stepped
forward to espouse the “virtues” of the ruling party’s
pro-foreigner policy.
Two days ago, Mayor of South East CDC and PAP MP was quoted by
Channel News Asia as saying that “Singaporeans must welcome
everybody, just as Singapore welcomed our own forefathers.”
This time, it was Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong who boasted
that “Singapore has established a strong reputation as a great
place to do business due to its successful strategy on talent.”
“Besides local talent, overseas investors are attracted to
Singapore as they know we have a strong pool of global talent which
further enhances Singapore’s competitive edge,” he added.
Mr Gan also pointed out that “there are now about 100,000
foreign professionals working and living in Singapore”. However he
did not elaborate more on his definition of “talent”.
Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policy, large
numbers of foreigners have flocked to Singapore to study, work and
live in recent years.
Foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up
from 14 per cent in 1990.
According to the Home Affairs Ministry, there were over 90,000
PRs and 20,000 new citizens in 2008. Two out of every three PR
applicants are successful, a astonishingly high success rate for a
developed country.
Even cleaners, masseurs and construction workers are able to
obtain Singapore PR and citizenship relatively easily. It is not
sure if Mr Gan considers them as “global talent” as well.
Speaking at the official opening of the Employment Pass Services
Centre, Mr Gan noted that more overseas Singaporeans are also
returning to work in Singapore, attracted by the opportunities back
home without providing any figures.
“The global downturn has further accentuated the
attractiveness of Asia. We should capitalise on this to make
Singapore an even more attractive Home for Talent – both local and
global,” he said.
Singapore has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world
at only 18 per cent, but what makes Singapore really attractive to
MNCs and foreigners is the staunchly pro-business ruling party, an
educated workforce and the absence of “troublesome” trade
unions.
The bottomline of all businesses is to keep the profit margin as
high as possible and this will necessitate them to keep labor costs
to a minimum.
In any other countries, the trade unions are responsible for
fighting for higher wages and better working conditions for their
workers.
Some of them, like those in France and Germany are powerful
enough to even shut down entire industries through strikes.
In Singapore, there is only one recognized trade union, or
rather an amalgamation of various government-approved unions under
a umbrella organization – NTUC which is always headed by a PAP
minister.
The wages of Singapore workers are adjusted by the National
Wages Council which has American, German and Japanese business
representatives sitting on it, an unique phenomenon not seen in any
other countries in the world.
The monthly median wage of an average Singapore worker is only
$2,600 compared to over $180,000 for Minister Gan which is further
depressed by the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers, or
“global talents”.
Though Singapore is the second richest country in Asia after
Japan, there are few social welfare benefits for its citizens. Its
income gap between the rich and the poor is the highest among
developed countries after Hong Kong. A UBS report last year ranked
Singaporeans as having a purchasing power similar to that of
Russia.
Despite the increased competition faced by Singaporeans from
foreigners in every sphere of life, the ruling party does not
appear to care much as long as Singapore’s economy continues to
grow. (A substantial portion of the PAP ministers’ multi-million
pay package is pegged to Singapore’s GDP growth).
In a recent interview with National Geographic magazine,
Singapore’s paramount leader Lee Kuan Yew said it is a “good idea”
that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants as they are
more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than the locals.
“If native Singaporeans are
falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,”
that is their problem,” he was quoted as saying in the article
“The Singapore Solution.”
[Source:
National Geographic]