December 23
PAP MP Dr Amy Khor and Chairman of REACH has
urged Singaporeans to embrace PRs and new citizens to make them
feel welcomed in Singapore.
“By and large, most of them are wanting to start
afresh here, build up their home and future here and our locals
must give them a chance and welcome them and together forge a new
identity with them so that together, we can build a good future for
Singapore as a united people. We need to continue to do that,”
Dr Khor told CNA in an interview on the top issues received by
REACH in 2009.
Foreign talent, and integrating permanent residents and
new citizens into Singapore society are the issues most frequently
discussed on the government feedback portal, set up to provide a
“feedback channel” for the people.
Despite the government’s efforts to promote REACH, its
readership lacks far behind that of independent news sites like the
Temasek Review which garner on average, about 400 – 500 comments a
day.
Dr Khor opined that while it is understandable that locals
are afraid of foreigners crowding them out, they need to understand
at the “intellectual level” that there is a need to “augment” our
population with new
“And we got to continue to assure them that – be it in
terms of sharpening the differences between PRs and citizens, as
well as appealing to them to have open hearts and open minds to
understand that even for new citizens, they have actually taken a
big step forward, given up their birth rights in their own country
to set up home here,” she added.
Singapore has one of the most lax immigration policies
among the developed nations.
In other countries like Australia, Canada and United
Kingdom, only skilled workers and professionals who reside there
for a number of years are granted PRs.
In Singapore, even cleaners, construction workers and
masseurs are able to “qualify” for PRs and citizenships and they
often receive it in a short span of time.
It was reported in the state media that a Chinese PR who
worked as a Chinese language teacher in a private school Zhang
Yuanyuan received her PR within two months of
application.
Dr Khor’s views were echoed by Halimah Yacob who warned
that doing away with foreigners will “bring our economy to a
standstill, particularly in those areas where it is
difficult to get Singaporeans to work and in those areas where
there continues to be a knowledge and skills gap in the
workforce.”
While Singaporeans do understand the need for foreign
workers to take up jobs not wanted by locals, what they are unhappy
about it the ease at which the ruling party is “selling”
Singapore’s citizenship away.
A commonly cited cause of the problem is that
Singaporeans are not producing enough babies which is caused
chiefly by the high cost of public housing in Singapore.
The government should tackle the source of the problem by
making public housing more affordable to Singaporeans so as to
encourage them to start a family earlier and to have more
children.
Though there was a recent change to allow citizens one
additional ballot for primary school application, the underlying
fundamental pro-foreigner policy of the ruling party remains
essentially the same.
A $10-million Community Integrated Fund was unveiled
lately by Minister of Community, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian
Balakrishnan to make the newcomers feel “welcomed” in Singapore at
a time when the construction of the Singapore Sports Hub was facing
repeated delays due to financial constraints.
Dr Khor appeared to be happy that her CDC is already
tapping on the fund to win the allegiance of the new
citizens:
“For the Southwest CDC, we have actually applied for
the community integration fund and this is a first-ever “Getting to
know Singapore Integration quiz” that we are organising for all 16
constituencies in the district…..In addition, they also get to know
about Singapore, because the quiz is about all things Singapore –
the people, the culture, the food – and we are also getting the
community to participate so that more people will be involved in
this bonding programme in terms of integration,” she
quipped.
Singaporeans should not be deceived again by the ruling
party’s latest “wayang” to appease them as PAP ministers continue
to reiterate that allaying the fears of Singaporeans about “foreign
talent” is a “long-term” initiative.
By the PAP’s definition, “long-term” can be 10, 20 or 30
years by when locals may find themselves in the minority, being
swarmed by the flood of foreigners the ruling party has gleefully
opened Singapore’s doors to.
As history has shown, the ruling party will have no qualms
throwing “crumbs” to Singaporeans just before the election after
which they will take whatever they have given earlier (on top of
“interest”).
