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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - 151st Editorial defends Goh's PRC visit</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>9:44 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 5) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>23594.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Migrant angst and SM Goh's home truths
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THIS question is addressed to those who have ever spoken out unkindly about the rising tide of immigrants and guest workers from China and India. What did they feel when they read what Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said about Singaporeans' immigrant beginnings when he visited his ancestral village in Fujian province, China? He chose a poignant occasion - a visit to his grandparents' humble abode, where his father had been born - to address a vexing issue that would get more troublesome before it could begin to abate, if ever. He said: 'If most Singaporeans trace where they came from, I think they will be humbled by their origins.' Did dissenters feel some mortification hearing a plain-spoken home truth? Was it indifference they felt? Defiance? As in: 'So what? That's ancient history.' The wish must be that critics, the misinformed and the prejudiced would make the effort to take a practical view of a matter that Singapore will have to live with, owing to its circumstances.
Mr Goh's familial origins approximate those of the majority of Singaporeans. Without exception, their grandparents and parents left behind family and privation in China, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. From next-door Malaysia, push factors would be somewhat different. But they came, to Singapore and other points in South-east Asia, wishing to make good. They took risks, never knowing what to expect. Many imaginative entrepreneurs did make good and stayed to build what is now a well-known success story, a classy brand. Their descendants have built on the pioneering work, many of them in different, critical functions.
If they would honour what their forebears accomplished in crossing the seas, they would acknowledge it is ennobling to show 21st-century immigrants some understanding and to take in their stride the little annoyances they encounter. There is a character flaw in some people, who have become rich quickly and against the odds, to forget their humble origins. Sadly, some even choose to suppress them. There is no act of disloyalty more corrosive of societal values than to deny one's forefathers. The Government has responded to expressions of reasonable concern by gradually slowing the inflow of workers and residency seekers and to minimise friction by starting assimilation programmes for new settlers. They are being shown how to adapt to Singaporean life. But acceptance eventually has to be innate, not prescribed.
Above all, be alive to this scenario: As opportunities in China grow, there will come a reverse flow - a century after slow boats came to the 'south seas' - of Singaporeans going to Chinese cities to make a go of businesses and careers, even residency. Grandfather stories would have traced a full circle.
[email protected]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THIS question is addressed to those who have ever spoken out unkindly about the rising tide of immigrants and guest workers from China and India. What did they feel when they read what Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said about Singaporeans' immigrant beginnings when he visited his ancestral village in Fujian province, China? He chose a poignant occasion - a visit to his grandparents' humble abode, where his father had been born - to address a vexing issue that would get more troublesome before it could begin to abate, if ever. He said: 'If most Singaporeans trace where they came from, I think they will be humbled by their origins.' Did dissenters feel some mortification hearing a plain-spoken home truth? Was it indifference they felt? Defiance? As in: 'So what? That's ancient history.' The wish must be that critics, the misinformed and the prejudiced would make the effort to take a practical view of a matter that Singapore will have to live with, owing to its circumstances.
Mr Goh's familial origins approximate those of the majority of Singaporeans. Without exception, their grandparents and parents left behind family and privation in China, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. From next-door Malaysia, push factors would be somewhat different. But they came, to Singapore and other points in South-east Asia, wishing to make good. They took risks, never knowing what to expect. Many imaginative entrepreneurs did make good and stayed to build what is now a well-known success story, a classy brand. Their descendants have built on the pioneering work, many of them in different, critical functions.
If they would honour what their forebears accomplished in crossing the seas, they would acknowledge it is ennobling to show 21st-century immigrants some understanding and to take in their stride the little annoyances they encounter. There is a character flaw in some people, who have become rich quickly and against the odds, to forget their humble origins. Sadly, some even choose to suppress them. There is no act of disloyalty more corrosive of societal values than to deny one's forefathers. The Government has responded to expressions of reasonable concern by gradually slowing the inflow of workers and residency seekers and to minimise friction by starting assimilation programmes for new settlers. They are being shown how to adapt to Singaporean life. But acceptance eventually has to be innate, not prescribed.
Above all, be alive to this scenario: As opportunities in China grow, there will come a reverse flow - a century after slow boats came to the 'south seas' - of Singaporeans going to Chinese cities to make a go of businesses and careers, even residency. Grandfather stories would have traced a full circle.
[email protected]
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