So the wait for an olympic medal is over at long last. Li
Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei have done what no others have
done for the past 48 years, that is win an olympic medal for
Singapore. The foreign talent scheme has apparently succeeded
in its aim.
Ah yes, the same old foreign talent scheme. A
controversial topic that will rear its ugly head even in our finest
sporting moment. Maybe we should first look at the background
of this scheme for a moment before deciding on anything.
It was in the 1990s and early 2000s that various local sports
organizations, such as table tennis, badminton and athletics
started to recruit young players from China. Singapore sports
and government officials would go to China and speak with potential
young candidates. Do you want to play for Singapore? We have
such and such benefits, so on and so forth.
As a young athlete wanting to make your mark but unsure of your
future in China, would you take up the offer? Sure you would.
But would you have known much about Singapore as a country?
Unlikely. Nevertheless, they came over, trained hard, and
tried their best to adapt to our society and way of
living.
Some of this worked fantastically well. Li Jiawei, Jing
Junhong, and now Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu have become superstars
in their own right, flying our flag high. But equally so
there have been others who have not worked out, like the shot
putters from athletics. Dong Enxin, Zhang Guirong and Luan
Wei etc have not have the best of times. Some have even
returned to China.
When our players do well, such as now, winning a silver in
Beijing, they are seen as heroes or heroines. They are now
100% Singaporean, and many are lining up to blast those critics of
the foreign talent scheme by saying "why can't we accept them as
our own".
But do we really? Because when they fail to perform, as
sportsmen sometimes do, many of these same people will hope over to
the other side of the fence and say "these guys are a waste of our
taxpayers money and should never have been brought over."
Ahha, so as long as they are winning for us, they are true blue
Singaporeans. What if they are not? We conveniently forget
that they have made a commitment to our country, and we see them as
outcasts yet again.
Commonwealth and SEA games gold medallist Zhang Xueling recently
made the decision to return to China with her husband.
Imagine that. Such a decorated athlete for Singapore but she
somehow still felt that this was not her home. And rightly
so, living in Singapore is not easy. The high costs of
living, having your sons serving in the army, and even her career
was not guaranteed to be smooth sailing given that STTA had
continued to recruit new talent like Wang and Feng despite her good
performances. And the poor soul, she could have been happily
married with kids still if she had been convinced to make Singapore
her home.
Our government is constantly telling us to develop the Singapore
spirit. Be stayers, not quitters, they say. yet they
specialise in getting others to quit their own country to join
us. There is no denying the merit in the Foreign Talent
Scheme, but you have to wonder what will happen at the next
games. Wang and Li may have retired, so what do we do? Hire
more talent like Feng once again?
Li, Wang and Feng have fought for Singapore. They are more
true blue Singaporeans than many of our own fans, who only want to
support those who are winning. The mark of a true citizen is
to stay loyal even when things are not going well, and not simply
jumping on the bandwagon when things are. Are you supporting
them now only cause they are winning, or do you believe that this
scheme is making them into true Singaporeans? Does our government
even put in place the measures for these people to indoctrinate
themselves into local life especially when their playing days are
over? Or are we simply like Arsenal football club?
What does it mean to be a Singaporean athlete? Our government
and sports council needs to know it for themselves, if not, how are
we going to show what it means to the new players we bring in?
