<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Oct 17, 2008
FOREIGN WORKERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Let us house them everywhere
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Tuesday's column, 'Workers are human, too' by Ms Lydia Lim, and the report, 'Former school site up for tender in Bukit Timah'.
Ms Lim propagates 'integrate, not segregate' and cites National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan stressing last month that segregation cannot be the way forward, not at the rate the foreign worker population is growing.
Now the Government has decided to integrate foreign workers with middle-class residents in Serangoon Gardens, we should aim for fuller integration and house them side-by-side with upper and upper middle class segments of society as well.
Opportunities are upon us. The former Jurong Garden School in Upper Bukit Timah Road is now up for tender and I hear Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) in Cairnhill Road will move from its current premises. Foreign workers are already housed in Jalan Kayu, Jurong and Woodlands and soon in Serangoon Gardens, and integration should be nationwide and extend beyond social classes. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Meanwhile, let's keep a lookout for a site in the East.
Surely, we need to provide more accommodation for foreign workers. Ms Lim reports that 'their numbers swelled by 102,000 last year alone, double the jump of 55,000 a year ago. And with major construction works lined up, a let-up is unlikely'.
Would the Ministry of National Development care to justify to taxpayers how it arrives at its decision to convert one school into a workers' dormitory and not another? After all, millions of dollars of taxpayers' money will be spent on the built-to-order slip road at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, just 'to appease Serangoon Gardens residents'.
It will be intriguing to see how other estates respond to the ministry's 'solution' to the shortage of foreign worker accommodation if it is on their doorstep. Jason Toh
FOREIGN WORKERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Let us house them everywhere
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Tuesday's column, 'Workers are human, too' by Ms Lydia Lim, and the report, 'Former school site up for tender in Bukit Timah'.
Ms Lim propagates 'integrate, not segregate' and cites National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan stressing last month that segregation cannot be the way forward, not at the rate the foreign worker population is growing.
Now the Government has decided to integrate foreign workers with middle-class residents in Serangoon Gardens, we should aim for fuller integration and house them side-by-side with upper and upper middle class segments of society as well.
Opportunities are upon us. The former Jurong Garden School in Upper Bukit Timah Road is now up for tender and I hear Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) in Cairnhill Road will move from its current premises. Foreign workers are already housed in Jalan Kayu, Jurong and Woodlands and soon in Serangoon Gardens, and integration should be nationwide and extend beyond social classes. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Meanwhile, let's keep a lookout for a site in the East.
Surely, we need to provide more accommodation for foreign workers. Ms Lim reports that 'their numbers swelled by 102,000 last year alone, double the jump of 55,000 a year ago. And with major construction works lined up, a let-up is unlikely'.
Would the Ministry of National Development care to justify to taxpayers how it arrives at its decision to convert one school into a workers' dormitory and not another? After all, millions of dollars of taxpayers' money will be spent on the built-to-order slip road at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, just 'to appease Serangoon Gardens residents'.
It will be intriguing to see how other estates respond to the ministry's 'solution' to the shortage of foreign worker accommodation if it is on their doorstep. Jason Toh
