'I owe Singaporeans a responsibility' to get foreign
worker balance right: PM Lee
SINGAPORE: It is the Government's duty to grapple with the "very
difficult issue" of getting the inflow of foreign labour right -
and at the same time maintaining the unique identity of the nation,
said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
"It is an issue where honestly
speaking, there are no easy choices. There are trade-offs," said Mr
Lee, speaking on Friday (Jul 31) in a television interview with
Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee, chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew
Centre for Innovative Cities.
"I would like to keep this a
Singapore-Singapore ... it has to maintain that Singapore
character."
The programme, A Conversation
with the PM: Our Future, Our People, was telecast on Sunday (Aug 2)
on MediaCorp's Channel 5 and Channel NewsAsia. In the show, Mr Lee
touched on concerns about the economy, anxiety over job competition
with foreigners and a possible identity crisis in the future.
Here are some excerpts from the programme.
Prof Chan: Some people say the Government is
being populist when you are now curbing population.
PM Lee: Well, I have two answers to that.
First, we do have to watch to see how the foreign workers and
immigrants are fitting in with our community, and you have to watch
them mix so that you don’t overbalance the numbers or the tone of
our society. So it is not populist to take cognisance of these real
problems and to deal with them and to calibrate the inflow.
Secondly, I would say apart from any sentimental reactions or
emotional reactions, we do have to look at the overall population
size in Singapore and you cannot say that if I want X million and
the economy wants that, therefore I will have it. There is a
trade-off in terms of the space and infrastructure, the carrying
capacity of this island and we have to decide how far we can
go.
And so I think what we have tried to do over the last 10 years
when in the earlier phase, when the opportunities were there, we
needed the growth, we were more generous in bringing in foreign
workers and the immigrants.
But in the last five to seven years, since before the last
election, we have calibrated, we have brought the rate down. Last
year, the inflow was the slowest it has been in a very long time
and I think that is necessary.
Prof Chan: I don’t think Singaporeans worry
about the maids coming or construction workers. It’s your PMETs,
the professionals, managers and executives and technical people who
worry that foreigners are prepared to come in to work for less pay
and they are marginalised ... So, how do you stop PMETS from being
passed over and lose out as a result?
PM Lee: Well, from the PMETs point of view, of
course it is good to have domestic workers, it is good to have the
helpers and the nursing assistants who can take care of your old
folks and your children. But when a PMET comes to compete with a
PMET, I have a political problem.
Actually, if you look at it in a different way, from the point
of view of a Singapore blue collar worker, he could say, what I
want is more PMETs because they will create more employment
opportunities for me. I do not want that foreign sweeper or cleaner
or nurse to come here and take away my job or push down my pay.
So, I can understand the sentiments. I think we have to watch to
make sure that when we bring in people, where there are blue collar
workers, where there are PMETs, we also take care of Singaporeans
who may be in that sector and who cannot easily move out of it. And
in the old days, the PMETs were a very small portion of the
population. And so if you are a PMET, you are at the top 10 per
cent. You are presumed to know to how to look after yourself and
the numbers are not big, but now PMETs are maybe half the
workforce.
So, we can’t quite take a let things be approach and I think
that we have to make sure that the PMETs get a fair opportunity,
that they fairly treated and that we are not overwhelmed by an
inflow which is squeezing our own people.
We have made quite a number of measures over the last few years
to do this. We have the Fair Employment (Consideration) Framework.
We have the TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment
Practices), which is the committee to look at complaints in case
there has not been fair employment. We have got schemes to help our
PMETs specifically to upgrade themselves to master the skills, get
into their jobs and I think that we also have schemes to help the
PMETs who are displaced because if you are 40, 45 years-old,
middle-aged, PMET, you lose your job, it is not so easy to find a
similar job in another.
The response (to the schemes) is not bad but some of the schemes
are still new. So we will have to see how the response is and we
will have to adjust the schemes as we go along.
Prof Chan: Now with the curb on immigration
flow, Prime Minister, have you won more support from people,
compared to the angst of the PMETs and SMEs?
PM Lee: I would say we have addressed the
issue, we have made the difficulties more manageable. There will
always be frictions when you have a foreign worker population or
immigrant population in the country and we have to manage that, and
that requires good behaviour and adjustment both on the part of the
foreign workers and the immigrants as well as on the part of the
Singaporeans ... I would like to keep this a Singapore-Singapore
and that it has to maintain that Singapore character.
I would like to just make one more point about the population.
We argue the merits and the reasons and the logic of it and the
trade-offs. But finally, this is a very difficult issue and it is
one of those things which as a Government we have a responsibility
to deal with.
If we were not in the government, it is much easier. We can make
recommendations, we can write papers, we can make speeches, and we
can rouse arguments, unhappiness, point out all the problems we
have where we are standing. But as a Government, we have to deal
with this issue and it is an issue where honestly speaking, there
are no easy choices. There are trade-offs.
If we have no foreign workers, our economy suffers, our own
lives suffer. (If) we have a lot of foreign workers, the economy
will do well, (but) we have other social pressures, other problems
with our society which are going to be very real and which we have
to take very seriously and which we cannot accept.
Somewhere in the middle, we have a mix of evils; on the other
hand, we may be able to find a spot where all things considered,
this is something which balances our needs as well as our identity,
as well as our economic requirements, and enables us to move
forward. Then after three, four, five years we look at it again, we
revise our view and we adjust our policy.
But as a Government, I cannot avoid having to make this
decision, I have to do it on behalf of Singaporeans, we have to
think: How does this affect Singaporeans? Because that is where our
responsibility is. It not only affects you for now but also affect
you for the long-term. For your job prospects, for your children’s
future when they grow up in Singapore and what sort of Singapore
will they be in.
And it is our job to think of these issues and to make the best
decisions which we can, in our judgment, on your behalf and to
account to you, and say to the best of my ability this is what I
have decided I have to do.
And you may agree with it, you may not agree with it, but I can
tell you in complete honesty that I am trying my best to do this on
your behalf. And I cannot avoid doing this because otherwise I
think I will be letting you down.
I do not owe hundreds of millions of potential foreign workers
from around the world an obligation. I owe Singaporeans a
responsibility.
Prof Chan: You say that in 50 years, you worry
whether Singapore can keep up this identity, which is the
commitment of people to pull together and build the country. To be
committed to the country. Why in 50 years? Do you not think you
have to worry about the problem now, even now?
PM Lee: Well, I think you always have a
problem, but if you ask me whether in five years’ time, the
national identity can completely change, I would say no, because
the generation is there. I mean older ones will pass on, but the
core of the population essentially will be the same, and the
experiences they have lived through and that sense of togetherness,
cannot radically change unless something dramatic happens in the
world.
But if you ask whether over 50 years, I can assume that, without
doing anything, I would still feel the same when I can still have
the same excitement, buzz and cheer when I come to SG100. I would
say I am not so certain, because that generation is not yet born.
They are going to be born in a very different world, they are going
to experience very different growing up environments and
opportunities. They are going to travel a lot more than their
parents or grandparents.
And their sense of who they are, what defines them - that is yet
to be seen.
... You look at so many other countries who are 50 years old.
Whether it is Israel, whether it is Korea, there are so many of the
countries which have become independent after the war and when you
reach 50 years, 60 years, the mood in the country is very, very
different from the mood of the founding generation, that sense of
pioneering adventure, limitless boundaries, limitless
opportunities, the shades of real life close in.
And for 50 years, we have kept the opportunities very open and
we have stayed very united. Yes, we have issues, when elections
come, they are hot. But when you have National Day, we all
celebrate National Day and we feel it proudly. In many countries,
these things are passé. So to keep it like that, for another 50
years, I think is a big challenge.
- CNA/es
