TR EMERITUS

Dear Temasek Review I refer to the letter “Jobless reader cried with Mum on Mother’s Day” by 44 year old former senior manager Mr Alvin Tan published in the Temasek Review on 18 May 2010. I had not written this commentary earlier as I had stopped reading Temasek Review for a while. For those who are not familiar with the letter, Mr Tan’s situation can be summarized as follows. Born in Singapore in 1966 (based on Gregorian year calculation and ignoring specific birthday), Mr Tan performed full-time National Service and presumably completed any reservist obligations if there was any. From the 1980s onwards, his career grew steadily and he rose to the position of senior manager. In 2009, he was retrenched. As of May 2010, he remained jobless. This prolonged unemployment was a complete reversal of his earlier career growth. It became very stressful for him and his mother. The only consolation was that he did not have to worry about maintaining a spouse and children. After reading through the letter, I would like to highlight one thing. This was a total lack of in depth pondering as to the reasons for his predicament. He lamented about the purpose of performing National Service and had mentioned about the huge influx of immigrants but did not seem to analyze the situation further. Based on my experience, he may wish to consider the following points if he has not done so. When he was performing both full-time and reservist National Service, did he truly think the ruling People’s Action Party and its allies (PAP Group) would give priority to those who had served? During my period of service, neither myself nor anyone around me had thought National Service would put us in an advantage.   As Mr Tan was a senior manager, was he involved in the hiring or promotion of people in the organization? If the answer was no, I agreed there was a limit to what he could do when the PAP Group started to bring in a huge influx of immigrants.   If he was involved in the hiring and promotion, then the problem would be more complicated. Did he hire, recommend or promote a significant number of younger foreigners between the ages of 21-35 in relevant organizations between 1997 and 2009? Did he find people who had reservist obligations (including reservist remedial training) an unnecessary burden?   In certain positions where females dominate, did he prefer to hire, recommend or promote younger unmarried foreign ladies with no children between the ages of 21 & 35? Was his criteria biased because he felt these ladies were physically attractive? Did he find older women with children of growing up age an unnecessary burden?   When local people started to reduce their job and salary expectations due to employment problems after 1997, did he view these people negatively? Was his response similar to “Why did such a high level person apply for such a low level boring job. He should aim higher, especially if he is younger.” Did he at the same time told someone at a higher level that there was still “a shortage of talent in Singapore”?   When younger local people in the workplace highlighted certain work-related problems, what was his reaction? To be fair, I do not expect him to solve everything. Did he start to think “younger local people nowadays are so pampered and demanding”?  When younger foreigners said the same thing, did he use this to argue that “foreigners are more innovative”?   When younger locals started to leave the organization after 1-2 years due to a desire for career advancement, did he use this to justify hiring more “foreign talent because locals are picky”? When older locals decided to stay on the job with no hope of career advancement, did he use the “need for renewal” to throw out these locals and hire more “young and innovative foreign talent”?   When economic problems began to occur after in 1997, did he continue to spend huge sums of money in order to go on expensive tours, enjoy expensive high class dining, drink at expensive pubs, upgrade to expensive real estate and maintain expensive girlfriends? I will not raise the issue of car ownership as he may need a vehicle for work purposes.     When the immigration influx issue was raised during the General Elections (GE) in 2001 and 2006, did he continue to vote for the PAP Group? Did he keep thinking the unemployment or underemployment problem would not affect him?   If the answer is no to all the above points, then I truly feel sorry for him. If the answer is yes to any of the points, it is regrettable that he has indirectly contributed to his problem. I understand my tone may be sarcastic but the points raised are due to my 10 years of experience in dealing with senior managers aged 40 and above. Some of them are very keen to bring in huge numbers of immigrants to displace locals. The idea that they themselves can be replaced is unthinkable until it has occurred.   Yours truly Mr Chua Yuankai The writer is a long-term underemployed and marginalized local-born Singapore citizen who once aimed to become successful in Singapore. Currently he is barely making ends meet.  Read More →

As I read through the recent Kallang and Selegie crimes that involved  foreigner workers, I wondered if Singapore is as safe as it was before. This also reiterated the common fear among many that merely mass importing foreign workers into our country for the sake of economics  will backfire in the long run. As I prepared for this article, I also read of how one 65-year-old golfer businessman Heng Jui How mysteriously drowned  last week in the 4m deep pond near  the 18-hole Sentosa Golf Club. Was foul play involved here? No one actually knows for sure and police is still investigating but it caps off a frightening  month whereby serious crimes dominated the headlines for the past few  days. What has become of our squeaky clean safe environment which we all take pride in? I remembered many years ago I used to go out in the middle of the night to have a quick meal at the 24-hour kopitiam downstairs when I was feeling hungry. I never felt that my safety would be compromised or that I need to be careful of my immediate surroundings. Our young daughter could also go out in the evening without us having to worry for her personal safety.  Unfortunately, the same could not be said now  due to the current crime wave. Just six years ago, we were all shocked  by  the murder of young 8-year-old Chinese national Huang Na (left picture) in  Oct 2004. Malaysian-born Took Leng How, a vegetable packer at the wholesale centre, was found guilty of murdering her and hanged after an appeal and a request for presidential clemency failed. The Malaysian was supposed to be a close friend whom she played with on numerous occasions. I was also particularly saddened by the news as Singaporeans read first-hand account of how foreigners tried to re-settle in a foreign land trying their best to rebuild their lives against all odds. Many single parents from China became peidu mama (accompanying mums) when they work hard to bring their children up in Singapore hoping that they  will have a better life abroad. Many peidu mamas end up engaging in illicit work such as masseurs or karaoke hostesses to make ends meet. Many S Pass work permit holders also took  up hefty  loans to move abroad and struggle to pay them back on  high-interest instalment plan. The financial stress is amplified as they struggle  to cope with our high cost of  living here.   Many simply have no choice but to moonlight illegally to earn an  extra income to supplement their meagre full-time day job. Overseas students from China also moonlight openly as karaoke hostesses further complicating the underground vice situation here. Many in fact come here primarily to earn a fast buck than seriously wanting to study to better their chances at rebuilding their lives abroad. Some become mistresses of our local men hoping for  a short quick path to prosperity.  Many have more than one sugar daddy. There are currently more than 50,000 foreign students studying here and they are not allowed to work on  a student’s visa.  Nevertheless, this has not deterred many from working illegally at night engaging in illicit sex activities. Feeing Safe No More It is  this safety reason that residents in Serangoon Gardens protested profusely against having  a  hostel meant for foreign workers  in their posh landed estate  in 2008. The original plan to convert an unused school – Serangoon Gardens Technical School into a foreign workers’ dorm went ahead anyway. The dorm will be able to house 1500 workers in future in a residential population of around 2000 at Serangoon Gardens. With the influx of foreigners and recent spate of serious crimes, the same sense of safeness could not be felt anymore. There are constantly  groups of foreign workers milling around our neighbourhood estates whispering quietly in their own languages at their own corner. Sometimes, they may give you a quick glance as you walk past but other than that they usually keep mainly to themselves. Nevertheless, their overwhelming presence makes one feel uncomfortable. Feeling safe in one’s environment is mostly psychological and once this  is breached, it is difficult for one to have  the same kind of safe feeling again. As I researched for this article, I was glad to know that Singaporean still surprisingly has a very low crime rate compared to many other developed countries. According to Overseas Security Advisory  Council (OSAC) ,  a global security news and report portal, the summary of our  crime and safety report remains sanguine: “Singapore, a city-state of 4.8 million people, remains among the safest countries in the world, and while final numbers for 2009 are not available as of this writing, statistics from the first six months of 2009 show an overall decrease in reported crimes of 1.3 percent from the same timeframe in 2008.  Specifically, statistics for the first six months of 2009 show a decrease in both violent property crimes (-23.7 percent) and crimes against persons (-4.2 percent), and an increase in theft and related crimes (2.5 percent) and housebreaking and related crimes (17.5 percent).” Many credit the low crime rate to the strict laws we have in place in our society. For example, any foreigner who brings in packs of chewing gum can actually be fined and even put in prison for up to a year if left undeclared.   Our prisons are  packed to the brim as people are being place in jail for all sorts of crimes. Many also wonder if our social graces can be improved as they are done out of fear rather than real behavourial changes. Capital Punishment = Low Crime According to the book “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett,  a survey among 23 rich nations found that Singapore has the second highest prison inmates per 100,000 people. The number one tag goes to to the United States.  We also carry our capital punishment by execution and this has remained a strong deterrence against drug trafficking and serious crimes. Singapore has the highest per-capita execution in the world between 1994 and 1999 – 13.57 executions per million population.  Despite serious lobbying by civil rights groups to abolish capital punishment, the government remains committed to its policy of maintaining capital punishment as a form of deterrance. One wonders if Singapore will suddenly be plunged into social unrest  if the death penalty is to be one day lifted. The following table of executions was compiled by Amnesty International from several sources, including statistics supplied by the Ministry for Home Affairs in January 2001 and government figures reported to Agence France-Presse in September 2003.[2] Numbers in brackets are the number of foreign citizens executed, according to information disclosed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. (source: Wikipedia)   Year Murder Drug-related Firearms Total 1991 19 5   26 1992 13 7 1 21 1993 10 2   7 1994 21 54 1 76 1995 20 52 1 73 1996 10 {7} 40 {10}   50 1997 {3} 11 {2} 1 15 1998 4 {1} 24 {5}   28 1999 8 {2} 35 {7}   43 2000 4 {2} 17 {5}   21 2000   23     2001   22     However, in crime-ridden third world countries like Bangladesh and India, people commit crimes regularly and may not adjust readily yet to the way we operate as a society.  They brought into our society  their own customs and world  views and if integration policies are not carry out properly,  we may have societal fragmentation which existed  in migrant-friendly countries such as United States and Australia. Australia for decades used to  embraced refugee-migrants to its shore until they found that that many are actually hardcore criminals that have fled their country on the run. Moreover, a lack of integration has segregated migrants into different hotspots nuch to the dismay of the authorities. Migrants have actually set up their own township and mini-Vietnam, Hong Kong, Iraq, China and even Singapore have sprouted up all over Sydney. However, in Singapore, if committing serious crimes belong  mostly to those carrying unskilled work permits, then their stay will  not be permanent and hopefully when they leave our country after a short work stint, their unhealthy influence will leave with them. Many of the murder cases also involved illegal sex workers and it may be wise for the police to regularly round them up in sex hotspots at Geylang or Balestier. Most of the serious crimes so far were committed against other foreigners but  if left unchecked  I am pretty sure that they will spill over to our local citizens. I have randomly picked  some serious crimes committed by our  foreign workers during the past few years and it made uncomfortable reading:- 1. March 2010 The remains of Filipino tourist Roselyn Reyes Pascua, 30, who was found dead in a Singapore lodging house, on 15 March 2010, was repatriated on Friday to her hometown in Laguna. Representatives of OWWA assisted Ms. Pascua’s relatives in the release of her remains at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. A prayer session and blessing, officiated by Filipino priest Fr. Angel Luciano, had earlier been held in Singapore, attended by Philippine Embassy Consul General Neal Imperial, Vice-Consul Jed Martin Llona and members of the Filipino community in Singapore. On 19 March, Indian national Gopinathan Nair Remadevi Bijukumar, 34, was arrested and charged with murder for Ms. Pascua’s death. If convicted, Mr. Bijukumar faces the death penalty. Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Minda Calaguian Cruz promised to continue monitoring the developments of the case. “The Philippine Embassy in Singapore shall closely coordinate with the Singapore Police Force in its investigation to ensure that justice is served for the relatives of Ms. Pascua,” she said. 2. March 2010 THE naked body of a young Chinese woman was found drowned in a lap pool of a bungalow in an exclusive residential estate in Sentosa Cove on Wednesday morning. The body of Ms Li Hong Yan, 24, was found by a maid who was cleaning the three-storey house along Ocean Drive at about 8.30am. Paramedics pronounced her dead at about 9.30am. Ms Li is believed to have spent the night at the house with its owner, after they met at a party. While little is known about how she drowned, police said that there was no indication of injuries on her body. Police have classified the case as an unnatural death. Ms Li Hong Yan, 24, had come from China and was working two jobs – as a part-time karaoke hostess, and as a catering supervisor in an Indian restaurant.   Written by: Gilbert Goh  Read More →

Despite the best attempts of SMRT to sugar-coat the disastrous security breach at its depot, a deluge of letters appeared in the Straits Times forum today questioning its handling of the case. On 17 May, two foreigners slipped into Changi depot undetected and sprayed graffiti on the carriage of a train. A commuter recorded a video clip of the graffiti on the train and uploaded it to Youtube. SMRT lodged a police report only two days later. Ong Hong Boon still feels secure in spite of the official explanation by SMRT: "As a Singaporean, I am saddened and disappointed by the breach at SMRT's Changi train depot by two foreigners. The culprits have achieved wide publicity and demonstrated to the world that the well-guarded facilities in Singapore are not impregnable. How the strategic facilities in Singapore will be protected hereafter is paramount. The lame explanation for the security lapse and additional safeguards planned by SMRT do not mitigate the uneasiness felt by many Singaporeans." Another Singaporean Tim Mou Hui questioned the delay by SMRT in informing the public of the security breach: "SMRT has not provided a satisfactory explanation for the delay in informing the public about the security lapse. Considering that the incident was brought to public awareness only after video footage of the vandalised train was uploaded onto YouTube, one cannot help but wonder whether SMRT intended to avoid public discussion of the embarrassing episode entirely if it could indeed have done so." SMRT had explained that its staff did not make a police report immediately as they have mistaken the graffiti for "advertisements". However, it failed to explain why the gaping hole in the fence surrounding the depot was left unnoticed for two days. Its CEO Ms Saw Phaik Hwa also did not apologize to the public, having only expressed "regrets" over what had happened while asking commuters to do their "part". Her insensitive remarks drew flak from netizens who question her sincerity in addressing the security lapse. As Ms Tim puts it succinctly: "SMRT's emphasis on 'the need for commuters to play their part' skirts the larger public concern about the adequacy of SMRT's security infrastructure. While we are cognisant of our role in ensuring the security of the MRT system as commuters, we question the extent to which SMRT expects us to go in ensuring the security of the SMRT depot facility." In the meantime, the Ministries of Transport and Home Affairs continued to distance itself from the fiasco as if it has nothing to do with them, leaving the hapless SMRT to deal with the public fallout on its own.   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 →