SINGAPORE: Foreigners and population issues were the
most talked about topics in the first 11 months of 2012, says
government feedback channel REACH.
On the other hand, concerns over last year's top
issues - housing and transportation - have somewhat eased this
year.
On the whole, REACH said the volume of feedback
received has remained strong, more than a year after the last
General Election.
Releasing figures REACH said for the first 11 months of this year,
it received over 64,000 feedback inputs - a 42 per cent increase
over the 45,000 feedback inputs received over the same period in
2011.
The issue of foreigners remains the hottest topic for the
year.
REACH said contributors expressed unhappiness with foreigners for
what they perceived as crowding out of public infrastructure,
eroding social norms and values, and marginalising Singaporeans in
school placements and the job market.
This was also fuelled by a series of prominent cases involving
foreigners - including the insulting comment by foreign scholar Sun
Xu and the fatal accident involving a Ferrari driver.
REACH said these cases triggered heated views towards foreigners
and calls for a more stringent immigration policy.
Population and immigration issues were the second most popular
topic, up from third place last year.
Last year's discussion topics, which included issues of the
country's low fertility rate and putting "Singaporeans First" in
jobs, education and housing, continued to surface this year.
The discussion was also underpinned by concerns on the influx of
foreigners,
The discussion also gained traction with the release of NPTD's
(National Population and Talent Division) Occasional papers on
Citizen Population Scenarios in April and Marriage & Parenthood
Trends in June, followed by the NPTD Issues Paper and a 14-week
public consultation on population in July.
The third most popular topic was transportation - down from its top
spot last year.
REACH said the six train disruptions in April this year and talk
about public transport fare hikes generated a lot of discussion on
transport.
- CNA/de
