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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>Mar-15 7:48 pm </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> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>30152.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Disgruntled Singaporeans vent their frustrations against PAP’s “FT policy” on online petition
March 16, 2010 by Our Correspondent
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http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/16/disillusioned-singaporeans-vent-their-frustrations-against-paps-ft-policy-on-online-petition/
Written by Our Correspondent
Contrary to recent media reports that Singaporeans are “happy” with the latest Budget announcements to “decrease” Singapore’s over-reliance on foreign workers and to boost labor productivity, it appeared that the sentiment on the ground is quite different.
A Singaporean by the name of Gilbert Goh set up an online petition to call on employers to give priorities to Singaporeans
“We urge all employers in Singapore to consider employing Singaporeans first before cheaper and younger foreigners. The recent high influx of foreigner workers in our midst have cause many local workers to be sidelined and unemployed. Some have also took the extreme measure of ending their own lives as they don’t see a quick end to the problem. If you agree with us, do support this petition so that we can rally together and provide hope to our fellow Singaporeans. Employ Singaporeans First!”
[Source: Employ Singaporeans first petition]
More than 200 Singaporeans have signed the petition so far with many of them venting their frustrations and anger against the PAP’s “Foreign Talent policy” for the predicament they are in.
Peter L wrote:
“The unbridled inflood of foreign workers in all these years has not really benefitted Singapore Citizen workers. The direct beneficiaries are the big bosses and ministers due to their pay scheme. What direct benefits do ordinary Singapore Citizens have? But the huge number of foreigners have created problems for Singapore Citizens in terms of higher prices, more expensive and shortages of housing, crowded hospitals, public transports, other public amenities, fewer job opportunities, just to name a few. Seriously, does the government seriously think that competing based on cheap, cheap inferior labour is going to be Singapore’s long term economic strategy? FOR THE RECORD, Singapore Citizens are NOT against foreigners. We welcome rich foreign investors, very smart foreign professionals, very diligent foreign blue collar workers/ hard labourers (who do jobs that Singaporeans shun). What we are against are those mediocre foreigners who are doing jobs that Singapore Citizens themselves can do.”
In 2003, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced an ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million people via immigration.
All of sudden, the floodgates were flung open without any warning and Singapore became swarmed by foreigners from all over the world.
Due to the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.
In other countries, the governments protect the jobs of locals, but in Singapore, citizens are expected to compete with the cheaper foreign workers on equal terms while remaining “cheaper, better and faster” at the same time.
Norman Tan sounded visibly frustrated:
“Please name another country in the world in which the ministers are the best paid, citizens need to serve NS, but jobs, scholarships and other goodies literally reserved foreigners? It’s time for the Foreigners’ Action Party to be taken down and taken to justice.”
Au Kah Kay added:
“Offer a pay that is commensurate with the cost and standard of living in Singapore. Many employers offer a salary so low that an ordinary Singaporean is unable to survive on such a salary. Singapore is a First World country. But its wages are far from being First World.”
According to a comprehensive UBS report last year, Singaporeans have the lowest wages and domestic purchasing power among the Asian Tigers. It has a standard of living comparable to Russia rather than Switzerland though it has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world.
The study was dismissed by PAP MP Halimah Yacob in Parliament recently as being “inaccurate”. She did not substantiate her claims with any evidence.
MC wants the government to scrap S and Q1 passes for foreign workers:
“Jobs for citizens. Pay citizens a salary which we can live on. We will never be able to compete on lower salaries with the foreigners. Scrap S and Q1 passes, be more stringent with the P2 passes. Give citizens a lifeline first – don’t treat them like stepchildren.”
Starter puts it succinctly:
“For this excerise, we need to start from ourselves first. We need to vote against PAP, boycott and show it to the foreigners right to their face that we are not happy wit them. If not, whatever we say or do, it’s going to be pointless.”
Singaporeans should not have place any hopes on the PAP to rectify the situation. In an interview with National Geographic magazine in January this year, PAP’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew admitted that it is a “good thing” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.
He added that if Singaporeans do not have “the spurs stuck in their hides”, it is their problem (and not the problem of the PAP).
The continued import of foreigners is crucial not only to keep Singapore’s GDP growth figures impressive of which a percentage of the PAP ministers’ multi-million salaries depend on, but to shore up the PAP’s flagging support base in order to perpetuate its political hegemony forever.
The immigrants tend to vote for the incumbent government and without increasing their numbers in the electorate, the PAP will probably lose power in a decade’s time.
The next general election is the last chance for Singaporeans to reclaim ownership of their nation. There is no point pleading with the PAP or providing feedback to it. As Minister Lim Swee Say said himself – they are DEAF to all criticisms.
Unless Singaporeans vote out the PAP, they will soon be relegated to second class minorities within their own country of birth with the males having to serve two years of National Service to protect the lives and wealth of the self-serving elites, new citizens and foreigners.
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March 16, 2010 by Our Correspondent
Filed under Headlines
Leave a comment
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/16/disillusioned-singaporeans-vent-their-frustrations-against-paps-ft-policy-on-online-petition/
Written by Our Correspondent
Contrary to recent media reports that Singaporeans are “happy” with the latest Budget announcements to “decrease” Singapore’s over-reliance on foreign workers and to boost labor productivity, it appeared that the sentiment on the ground is quite different.
A Singaporean by the name of Gilbert Goh set up an online petition to call on employers to give priorities to Singaporeans
“We urge all employers in Singapore to consider employing Singaporeans first before cheaper and younger foreigners. The recent high influx of foreigner workers in our midst have cause many local workers to be sidelined and unemployed. Some have also took the extreme measure of ending their own lives as they don’t see a quick end to the problem. If you agree with us, do support this petition so that we can rally together and provide hope to our fellow Singaporeans. Employ Singaporeans First!”
[Source: Employ Singaporeans first petition]
More than 200 Singaporeans have signed the petition so far with many of them venting their frustrations and anger against the PAP’s “Foreign Talent policy” for the predicament they are in.
Peter L wrote:
“The unbridled inflood of foreign workers in all these years has not really benefitted Singapore Citizen workers. The direct beneficiaries are the big bosses and ministers due to their pay scheme. What direct benefits do ordinary Singapore Citizens have? But the huge number of foreigners have created problems for Singapore Citizens in terms of higher prices, more expensive and shortages of housing, crowded hospitals, public transports, other public amenities, fewer job opportunities, just to name a few. Seriously, does the government seriously think that competing based on cheap, cheap inferior labour is going to be Singapore’s long term economic strategy? FOR THE RECORD, Singapore Citizens are NOT against foreigners. We welcome rich foreign investors, very smart foreign professionals, very diligent foreign blue collar workers/ hard labourers (who do jobs that Singaporeans shun). What we are against are those mediocre foreigners who are doing jobs that Singapore Citizens themselves can do.”
In 2003, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced an ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million people via immigration.
All of sudden, the floodgates were flung open without any warning and Singapore became swarmed by foreigners from all over the world.
Due to the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.
In other countries, the governments protect the jobs of locals, but in Singapore, citizens are expected to compete with the cheaper foreign workers on equal terms while remaining “cheaper, better and faster” at the same time.
Norman Tan sounded visibly frustrated:
“Please name another country in the world in which the ministers are the best paid, citizens need to serve NS, but jobs, scholarships and other goodies literally reserved foreigners? It’s time for the Foreigners’ Action Party to be taken down and taken to justice.”
Au Kah Kay added:
“Offer a pay that is commensurate with the cost and standard of living in Singapore. Many employers offer a salary so low that an ordinary Singaporean is unable to survive on such a salary. Singapore is a First World country. But its wages are far from being First World.”
According to a comprehensive UBS report last year, Singaporeans have the lowest wages and domestic purchasing power among the Asian Tigers. It has a standard of living comparable to Russia rather than Switzerland though it has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world.
The study was dismissed by PAP MP Halimah Yacob in Parliament recently as being “inaccurate”. She did not substantiate her claims with any evidence.
MC wants the government to scrap S and Q1 passes for foreign workers:
“Jobs for citizens. Pay citizens a salary which we can live on. We will never be able to compete on lower salaries with the foreigners. Scrap S and Q1 passes, be more stringent with the P2 passes. Give citizens a lifeline first – don’t treat them like stepchildren.”
Starter puts it succinctly:
“For this excerise, we need to start from ourselves first. We need to vote against PAP, boycott and show it to the foreigners right to their face that we are not happy wit them. If not, whatever we say or do, it’s going to be pointless.”
Singaporeans should not have place any hopes on the PAP to rectify the situation. In an interview with National Geographic magazine in January this year, PAP’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew admitted that it is a “good thing” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.
He added that if Singaporeans do not have “the spurs stuck in their hides”, it is their problem (and not the problem of the PAP).
The continued import of foreigners is crucial not only to keep Singapore’s GDP growth figures impressive of which a percentage of the PAP ministers’ multi-million salaries depend on, but to shore up the PAP’s flagging support base in order to perpetuate its political hegemony forever.
The immigrants tend to vote for the incumbent government and without increasing their numbers in the electorate, the PAP will probably lose power in a decade’s time.
The next general election is the last chance for Singaporeans to reclaim ownership of their nation. There is no point pleading with the PAP or providing feedback to it. As Minister Lim Swee Say said himself – they are DEAF to all criticisms.
Unless Singaporeans vote out the PAP, they will soon be relegated to second class minorities within their own country of birth with the males having to serve two years of National Service to protect the lives and wealth of the self-serving elites, new citizens and foreigners.
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