Born To Serve
Foreigners
The
year was beginning of the 21st century, we saw the
influx of foreigners into our society and in a real moment, for the
very first time, we begin to feel the impact of it. Unlike the 90’s
where we still were tolerable about it, something like an intrusion
of privacy, as in human instinct, we are bound to territorial
protectionism, there should be no intervention from people of a
different culture and countries. This is true and proved in history
where tribes fight against tribes and in modern time, occupation of
land and wars. Therefore it is not surprising that many were in
shell shock when they feel that their jobs were at stake and life
getting disarrayed from the norm. We are talking and seeing peoples
unlike us, they are youthful, can be ill mannered, lack of
gracefulness and more importantly, renewable. Therefore they always
look youthful, always talking loud and always different from us.
Unlike our own, we are aging, falling health and getting less and
less both in population and opportunities. From here, the outcry
and outpouring is going to be a daily process from our very own
aging population.
For who
can blame us, your land is invaded by the so call economical
foreigners (with doubts), your jobs and pay check is getting from
code green to red and your physical strength is getting weaker and
weaker to match them. The pleadings, the complaints, the non
satisfying feeling and the ultimatum of some getting into mental
disorder are gaining it momentum. No country has ever allow
foreigners to flow into it land like tap water free flowing,
massive amount of them causing further crime rates and some society
instability. So why are they here? To helps us or to help
themselves? It goes both ways, it was claimed that when they are
here, we get the jobs, so that mean to say that when they are not
here, we get no jobs? Weren’t we survived and built this nation
from swarm lands to industrialisation with our bare hands and
intelligent brains without any of these peoples? Oops, yes, we are
getting old and we are not producing to generate the next batch of
wage earners, and when there is insufficient peoples, we simply
cannot operate this nation that link it economic to the global
arena.
All
right! Fair enough, we need peoples, we may go automation, but we
still need peoples otherwise we will have to go down from the first
world to the third or maybe even the fourth world again. Is it that
bad to be in the third and fourth world? Well, if one wanted a
blissful life with a slow pace of living and less stress to take
care of, why not? Back to kampong and fishing village life, some
don’t mind, we just have to be thrifty, lower the cost of goods and
slowly build our population again, just like before, each couple
producing 5 to 10 children at ease. But how about the rich and the
middle class citizens, that bulk of them is not going to agree
because they are going to loose all their luxuries materialism, and
there are about 80% of them leaving the 20% keep on cursing and
complaining. So what is the option? Well just by looking at the
80%, you can forgo the other 20% poor, old and less educated. And
that is how and why the foreigners are still flowing in to tap the
sweet juices that we and our fathers and mothers laboured hard to
give them. Aren’t we the servant of the foreigners?? In the end, we
can only conclude that we are not united and never face a problem
with the same frequency of mind. And that goes well with the policy
makers who had planned not for us to get united. After all, class
differentiation and multi racial can be a blessing in disguise for
our govt as the best choice of ruling this place.
You know, angel, I often dreamt and reminiscent going back
to the bungalow in Bali, relax on an easy chair overlooking the
calm blue South China Sea with the cool breezes blowing around me,
as I read my novel, awaiting the beautiful sunset to end a lovely
day.
But those days are gone, as I have to be realistic and work
doubly hard to earn a living. These are the worse of times, most
unstable of periods, and ever dangerous juncture of employability
and sustenance of our lives.
I am aware many are hurting, just as I am, and worried of what
the future will bring. Some may be out of jobs, desperately looking
for one, taking buses and trains, walking under the hot sun
dripping with sweat, attending interview after interviews, only not
to be hired because there were limited vacancies and even though
only for Singaporeans.
Some stuck at a job that they do not love, or even hate, or
earning way below their capabilities, but at such times, had to
grin and smile, at obnoxious smug bosses or managers who never
hesitate to show you the chop if you so much as look sideways
wrongly.
Whomever you are, you are not alone. No one is. The whole wide
world is suffering right now just as you are. Totally
unprecedented. However, there is hope and will always be hope as
long as mankind do not give up, and never did as history had
shown.
I read your piece and enjoyed it, in fact, i almost wanted to
find comfort in it. But being educated, I cannot afford such
luxury. It's flaw and fallacies are hard to swallow, as much as i
try to bluff myself.
Eversince independence, when had we not been 'born to serve
foreigners', as you crudely put it?
Who were the industrialists who set up factories in Singapore
post independence? Who were the managers whom our forefathers had
to kowtow to? Worse still, they were scolded by the Japanese
engineers, whose very fathers had exterminated ours!
Yet we survived and thrived, because our forefathers believe in
a future in our homeland, and one day successive generations will
learn and form our own companies, which many of them did.
But unfortunately, our home market is only of 2-3 million
people. How could entreprenuers hope to survive relying just on our
own market alone?
Small food cottage industries may survive, but certainly not
electronics or big biz How would they dare to pit themselves
against MNC and lacking the massive funds from massive markets to
compete against?.
Instead, foreign MNCs were welcomed here. . Even right up till
today, senior management were still foreigners. So long as we get
our cheques and a stable career, who cared, until this
unprecedented and unpredicted global event hit us?
Only the govt have acess to such massive funds for
international expansion. Some say the govt should give out the
money and help our entreprenuers to expand. Good idea, but give to
who?
Should Singapore go the Malaysian cronyism way? And who will be
responsible for OUR money when such companies go bankrupt, whereby
the CEO just pat his backside and walk away?
Perhaps it would be better if our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES handle
such funds and be fully accountable?
80% are middle class, but we are funding the other 20% to
upgrade and keep their jobs. I doubt if we as a society had cruelly
cut our ropes and left them high and dry as you presumed. Even as i
speak, plans are already afoot on how to help our middle classes
more. It may not be enough, but NO ONE WILL BE LEFT BEHIND.
I know what i say goes against the grain of some
personal beliefs here. The truth hurts, and is painful, but we must
acertain what are the fully analysed facts and only by
acknowledging such facts with rationality, only then can we hope to
find solutions, improve, and grow.
To dream, or hanker after lost hopes, is regression and will
only do more harm to our society and the precious next generations,
if not ourselves. We are still breathing, thus we are still alive,
after 6 months of this crisis.
We arent dead yet and will never be as long as we dont give up
hope on ourselves and others. Not hanker after or delude ourselves
of a paradise that didnt happen - where we Singaporeans were
masters of ALL enterprises on our island.
