I had been hearing from a lot of people that the PAP had quite a bit of influence in how singaporeans think, even instrumental in the downfall of the WP and SDP when they were in the hands of potent leaders JBJ and CST.
Be that as it may, i want to leave it aside for the moment.
Thus for this thread, i rather focus on the differential between being a citizen in singapore versus that of a newly-minted citizen in another country.
I prefer experiences and first-hand accounts of life abroad compared to arguments and rhetoric. Arguments and rhetoric do no good to anyone. All they do is to cause a person to open his mouth and shut his eyes.
Do share about why gun control laws, no death penalty, soft drugs tolerance and racism do not affect the quality of life you have abroad.
There must be wonderful points about why the new country is so good and why life is so affirming in that country.
And thanks kiwibird7 for your points on these.
Leongsam,
i am not aware that the terms 'first-class' and 'second-class' are archaic; be that as it may, you get the idea i hope - the substance is the comparison between the benefits already accrued to a native citizen versus one who need to start life abroad.
i got the term from
http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=16286 and i am still hoping that MentisMortis will drop by and develop on the interesting aside that was brought up
I think first-class and second-class citizenship is archaic in Australia. It is only used by disgrunted people who wants to divide the people. I find the term mainstream community and ethnic communities used more popular.
First of all, we need to realised that the laws in Australia is fair to all. All of us have equal rights and just search any Australian government websites and you will understand what I mean.
Then we have the dominant community which is sterotyped as White. But if you look at the different cities, what constitute the dominant communty is different. In some cities, you include the 'seppo', 'pom', 'kraut', 'wog' and 'frog'. In the larger cities, 'chinx' are included (eg celebrity chef Kylie Kwong).
Then you have the ethnic communities, usually referred to Vietnamese, Malaysian, Lebanese, etc
What really set us apart are those born overseas and those who are born here. For those who are borned overseas, we usually have mixed identities and it takes a while before we are treated from tourists to locals. We are comfortable that we have a strong link with our motherland. Even my Pom colleague was asked "You have taken 3 weeks leave, are you going BACK to England" (there is no ill-intention)
Even after a drink at the pub, I was asked "Do you help out with your Chinese community for the Chinese New Year" Australia is diverse enough to to accept this type of talk.
Why? 1 in 2 Aussies have parents borned overseas.
But sometimes, we are reminded of political correctness. Eg When an Australian won a Victoria Cross medal, the first in a long time, some people will remind us, the Kiwis are also part of our ANZAC spirit, and they had a VC 2 years ago.
Or someone casually said, I think 4th generation Aussies are as far as we have gone, forgotting our Abo community.
There are also some people who will openly display racism. But don't worry, they will be people around who will rebuke these racist people.
Usually, it is the middle-aged women who will discriminate but such incidents are few in my city. Usually, the media will amplify such isolated incidents to sell newspapers. The same media also called Lee Kuan Yew President because its readers do not understand what is Minister Mentor.
But at the end of the day, we do not really care about these 1st class or 2nd class citizenship. I think Singaporeans are more concerned about these division because of the way they treat outsiders. (White, China people or kelings)