Of course they have a choice to buy resale at half million or private at one million or more, just that they don't have the BIG advantage of profit from sale of HDB and stay in JB like a king that you said Singaporeans have lor.
Actually without profit from sale of HDB to start off, an income of $10k earned by two persons is stretched to buy private. Downpayment already need $200k? and installment would be how many thousand?
Some see only the advantages of being a Singaporean without the disadvantages.
Just like an ex local staff, lets call him Andrew, he said if he was born in Singapore, he would be the one who has a company now rather than me. Yet he has been to many countries and educated but continues to have a chip on his shoulder. He didn't know that i have an esteemed uncle in law who was one of those left behind when the government changed its method of teaching from Mandarin to English. He became one of those Chinese educated who were left behind? Did he bemoan his fate or gave up?
Today he is semi-retired, has his own firm and travels extensively to all countries. Before that he was even director and GM of several large firms.
Sometimes their statements are kind of self defeating, oh because i am Malaysian, i will always lag behind. Because i am a Malaysian, i go into Singapore and get spot checked. I will never succeed as i am a Malaysian.
Being Singaporean is not a guarantee of anything except perharps a sound education, even that is debatable these days as many foreigners are blissfully unaware of the many changes that took place in the education system as they tweaked and tweaked everytime somebody takes the seat.
Thats about it, i am not even going to go into the many obligations that one has to fulfil and the many stringent rules that made it impossible for many to downgrade. Many keep harping on the fact that you can sell your place but where do they stay? Not everyone wants to leave their own country if they have a choice. Why would they need to leave their own country in the first place? Only Singaporeans have it good? I certainly beg to differ here.
Majority of Malaysians who leave Malaysia, leave for work, Singaporeans who leaves Singapore, leave to to live.
Many forget that the guys who are the owners of Shangrila hotel are Malaysians and yes they have moved parts of their businesses out but they still have vested interests in the country.
Few actually knows that there are poor people in Singapore and there are also many rich people in Malaysia who despite all the challenges and many claims of biased treatments did well enough. I even had wild claims from some forummers recently and yes i never moderated.
If one can succeed in Indonesia despite all the even more staggering challenges and real riots then what more excuses does one have? I have many many relatives, many friends and peers who are not doing as well as some of my local friends in Malaysia.
Even the top earning cousin who is the proudest/rudest, government scholarship/president scholarship recipient and doesn't have the courtesy to address my aunties or my mum earns a maximum of S$12k which of course she and her mum broadcasts to all of us.
Its all in the mind at the end of the day.
I did not get any scholarship, any official tuition or much help from any relatives since young. (The only 3 persons who really did helped is one of my aunts (bless her) who helped me for a period with maths and a cousin (my mom side) with science. The last one has passed on, a stranger who helped me out of the blue, Auntie Hong, bless your soul. Especially these 3 i will never forget them. Wuqi repays his debts.)
My family and the government basically left me to fend for myself as i am already a "man" even at a young age. I was left out of the education "system" as i was deemed not good enough. Holding 2 jobs supporting the family, sometimes sleeping at staircases as i did 2 shifts at once to support the family.
Still, i never gave up despite so many asking me to. NS also made sure that i cannot support my family for 2.5 years and during that time it was really bad. Still i never gave up and took up many different courses, upgrading, studying, etc. For everything that someone said i cannot do, i went all out to learn it and become stronger everytime.
To summarize, again every country has its faults, no one country is 100% good and lets not forget the global "ranking" of our papers. If you can succeed, you will succeed wherever you go. If you can't succeed, you will turn back at the first dead leaf that blows across your path while leaving your own main gate. Its all in your mind.
I believe its all up to you, no matter how badly you were treated. If i can succeed, there is really no excuse you can't. Even a paralysed person, through his determination can overcome the odds and publish papers and be successful. Are you any worse than a paralyzed person? Look beyond your disadvantages for the world is bigger than that.
To those who thinks they can never make it(Singaporeans or Malaysians heck, anyone), i am not better than any of you, i just tried harder and never gave up.
A learned man once said of the 3 changes:
1. Change what you can when you are unhappy
2. Change yourself and live with what you thought you cannot
3. Change the location, leave when you cannot do 1-2[/QUOTE]
After reading your story, I'm glad that you have made it. So happy for you....
