TR EMERITUS

The immigration policy of Singapore in the last few years is likely to be a key theme in the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally tonight, according to political observers. In a recent survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), two thirds of the respondents felt that the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore will dilute its national identity while almost half said immigrants will compete with them for jobs, university places and public housing. Singapore's open-door policy to immigrants was formulated and implemented by PM Lee after he became Singapore's third prime minister in 2003, soon after which he announced his ambitious plan to increase Singapore's population to 6.5 million people without any debates in Parliament, let alone consultation with Singaporeans. All of sudden without warning, the flood gates were flung opened to foreigners from all over the world, increasing their percentage of Singapore's population from 14 percent in 1990 to over 40 perccent now. Of the remaining 60 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas. During last year rally, PM Lee claimed that he "understood" the concerns of Singaporeans and would "calibrate" the inflow of immigrants into Singapore. However, he appeared to renege on his word less than a year later when he revealed his plans to import another 100,000 foreigners, excluding their families into Singapore next year. PM Lee is likely to use the same old excuse that foreigners are needed to take up jobs shunned by Singaporeans to justify his ultra-liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies while ignoring the fact that there are an increasing number of semi-skilled professionals like the PMETs among the new immigrants who are competing directly with Singaporeans for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them. The uncontrolled influx of immigrants has sparked speculations that it is a political ploy by the PAP regime to maintain its hold on power in the backdrop of flagging support among native Singaporeans as new citizens are more likely to vote for the incumbent. The next general election may be the last window of opportunity for true blue Singaporeans to reclaim their country which will soon be dominated completely by the PAP ("Por Alien Party") and the hordes of aliens is mass importing from China, India, Philipines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Pakistan and elsewhere.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us  Read More →

“For a person who runs a million-dollar charitable organisation, $600,000 is peanuts as it has a few hundred millions in reserves.” – Mrs Goh Chok Tong "If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society…So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.” – MM Lee in 1983 “Save on one hairdo and use the money for breast screening.” Lim Hng Kiang “Only 5% are unemployed. We still have 95% who are employed.” – Yeo Cheow Tong “Retrenchment is good for singapore . If there is no retrenchments, then I worry.” – SM Goh “We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellecually and culturally anaemic.” – MM Lee in 1967 “Contrary to public perception, the White Horse classification is not to ensure that sons of influential men gets preferential treatment. Instead it is to ensure that they do not get preferential treatment.”- Cedric Foo. (This is really insulting our intelligence) “I give you an example: you put out a fun podcast, you talk about ‘bak chor mee’; I will say “mee siam mai hum”, then we compete.” PM Lee Hsien Loong (How profound) “I don’t think that there should be a cap on the number of directorship that a person can hold.” – PAP MP John Chen who holds 8 directorships . “It’s not for the money because some of the companies pay me as little as $10,000 a year.” – PAP MP Wang Kai Yuen who holds 11 directorships. “We started off with (the name) and after looking at everything, the name that really tugged at the heartstrings was in front of us. The name itself is not new, but what has been used informally so far has endeared itself to all parties.” – Mah Bow Tan on the $400,000 exercise to rename Marina Bay as Marina Bay . “Having enjoyed football as a national sport for decades, we in Singapore have set ourselves the target of reaching the final rounds of World Cup in 2010.” – Ho Peng Kee “I would want to form an alternative policies group in Parliament, comprising 20 PAP MPs. These 20 PAP MPs will be free to vote in accordance with what they think of a particular policy. In other words, the whip for them will be lifted. This is not playing politics, this is something which I think is worthwhile doing.” – SM Goh “If you want to dance on a bar top, some of us will fall off the bar top. Some people will die as a result of liberalising bar top dancing; a young girl with a short skirt dancing on it may attract some insults from some other men, the boyfriend will start fighting and some people will die.” – Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports “People support CPF cuts because there are no protest outside parliament.” – PM Lee “Singaporean workers have become more expensive than those in the USA and Australia .” – Tony Tan “No, it was not a U-turn, and neither was it a reversal of government policy. But you can call it a rethink.” – Yeo Cheow Tong ” I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill of more than $300,000 ” – Lim Hng Kiang, regretting the decision to save a baby’s life because KKH ran up a $300,000 bill “Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it.” – MM Lee Kuan Yew “Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this” – Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, post-2006 General Elections “How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?” – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan “People could buy frozen food instead of more expensive fresh food” “They could opt for house brand goods, which cost less than others. ” – PM Lee “Based on figures provided by ComfortDelGro , Singapore ’s biggest taxi operator, cabbies are pocketing about $11 more a day, earning about $318.” – Mr. Raymond Lim “GST hike is to help the poor.” – PM Lee “‘I mean, we are different. This was a lapse, what to do, it’s happened.” – PM Lee ‘You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you’ll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again…and your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people’s countries, foreign workers.’ - MM Lee – Justifying pay hikes for Singapore ministers, The Straits Times, 5 April 2007 'This should never have happened. I am sorry that it has.’ – Wong Kan Seng Lim Swee Say: Every month, when I receive my CPF statement, I feel so rich and the best part is, I know the CPF money won’t run away. CPF will still be around for a long, long time to come. Not only is it earning good interest, my capital is protected. Leaving the best for last… “Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore , I’m going to spend all my time thinking what’s the right way to fix them, to buy my supporters votes, how can I solve this week’s problem and forget about next year’s challenges?” PM Lee Hsien Loong, 3 May 2006.   Aaron Seah Editor's note: We have no resources to verify the above. If there is any misquote, we would be grateful if you could point them out to us. Thank you for your help, people.  Read More →

During a dialogue session with some 250 students on "The Singapore Dream versus The Singapore Reality", Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan heaped generous self-praise on Singapore's political system. He was asked by a student if the government has "monopolized" talent in Singapore. "I make no apology for trying to grab all talent available. Ultimately, whether the PAP stays in power or not depends on which party can attract, nurture and grow that talent pool and offer that talent pool to the people of Singapore to decide," Dr Vivian replied. Under Singapore's unique political system dominated by one single ruling party, the People's Action Party (PAP), the best talents are often given government scholarships at drafted into the civil service upon completion of their studies, some of whom are then "hand-picked" by the PAP to stand for elections under its banner. Due to the repressive political climate in Singapore, few Singaporeans are interested in politics, let alone join a political party such that even the PAP is experiencing serious problems attracting capable men and women into its ranks. Dr Vivian added that he and his fellow colleagues are running a "honest" political system for the sake of Singaporeans: "We are trying to run an honest political system that is based on integrity and talent and that will reflect the will of the people and that will do long-term good for the people." A honest political system is one in which political leaders take responsibility for their mistakes and apologize to the people when things go wrong. Judging from the recent YOG fracas, Dr Vivian doesn't seem to practice what he preaches. Not only did he blatantly refuse to account to Singaporeans how the YOG budget was exceeded by more than three times to a shocking $387 million dollars, he has refused to apologize to them for the numerous "glitches" which occurred during the much maligned Games. In the meantime, more than 900 Singaporeans have signed the online petition demanding a public apology from Dr Vivian for mismanaging the YOG. (You can sign the petition here.) As one of the commentators put it succinctly: "No doubt this Vivian character is not wholly responsible for the poor handling of YOG, [but] he is still the conductor [and] he should apologise even if only one member of his orchestra fumbles. Failure to do so, will merely manifest his arrogance."   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us  Read More →