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作者：冀居·谢 教育部傅海燕高级政务部长 钧鉴 你好！我针对你日前向报界记者的讲话。有华社人士认为教育部放宽华文B课程的标准，担心会拉低华文教育水平，你说民众不应对这个课题过于关注，因为其他科目也有类似做法。你的回应似乎没有切中要害，敏感或者其他科目也有类似的做法，和我国华文教育水平的高低似乎没有太大的关系，你是没法回答还是不敢回答？ 现晚报总编辑蔡深江先生早在2004年2月一篇题为 《华文B的趁火打劫》中已经明白说出：“华文B可视为华社的一种让步，……酣睡的人在梦境中否定床和枕头，是不自觉的愚蠢。 ”——让步之后还不可以敏感，是你自定的家规吗？ 国大讲师王昌伟博士在去年 2009年11月一篇题为 《我国华文教育失败的症结》已经提出，程度和教学内容（考试内容）的辩证关系：取法于上，仅得为中；取法于中，故为其下。 现在修读华文B的门槛越定越松，其实是鼓励学生往下走，而不是往上攀。 1. “从原来O水准会考成绩E8或以下才能修读，放宽到D7或以下就能修读。” 2. “O水准口试的比重，则从30%提高到35%。A水准的比重则增加十个百分点，达到 30%。修读O水准和A水准华文B课程的学生，口试比重则同样增加到50%，占总分的一半。”。 3. “无论O水准或A水准会考，华文B课程的及格率一向很高，去年两项会考及格率都超过95%，然而这两项考试的考题都并非容易（这是部长您说的）。” 以上的三个参数如果落到考试策略家的手里，让我告诉你策略是怎么走的：那些华文本来就不很好的学生，如果能争取在中一就开始读华文B，当然是最好不过。不然也要在O水准时考到D7以下，但不可以不及格，到了A水准读华文B，及格率去到95%的高水平，加上口试占了50%，那岂不是说文盲也可以有华文文凭，真的是“皇上英明，小的惶恐”了。 至于那些华文很好的学生，争取在小学和中学修读高级华文，在O水准之后就可以和华文永远说拜拜了。 你一直在说突破华文教学的困境和因材施教，我觉得思考那个“困境”是什么？很有意思。你所说的“困境”其实是政府方面的，因为早前规定母语必须及格才能够进入本地大学，那就是政府给自己埋下的“困境”。为什么是困境呢？因为政府不可以食言，怕引起民间的反弹，然而实际上我们是走向一个单语——英语的社会，所 以要绕个弯把“困境”化解掉，这是司马昭之心路人皆知的。 你说：“比如说在数学与英文方面，我们也有一些比较基本的课程，来照顾 一些学习上比较有需要的学生，所以华文B也是这样的做法，跟其他科目没有什么不一样。”——我觉得作为部长和政治人物讲话一定要有担当，不能含混其词。这我要分成两方面来谈，语文科目和其他科目这两方面。首先，真的有英文B吗？如果有的话，是否可以用来报读大学当成普通英文科目那样被接受？数理方面当然有 各种各样的课程，但是报读大学的时候，比如医学或工程，很多这些次等综合课程是不受理的，因此也就逼迫学生选读纯理科的课程，可是语文除了华文Ｂ到处送暖之外，还有其他“俗搁大碗”的科目吗？请不厌其烦地举例说清楚讲明白。 综合以上，你的部门根本就是告诉国人，目前只要达到O 水准高级华文这个上限（官委议员张松声说考到Ａ１还错字连篇的水准），政府已经很安慰了。所以拉低我国的华文教育水平是教育部双管齐下的政策，不是吗？ 既颂　　钧安 二〇一〇年三月十八日 小民：冀居·谢 来源：大马论坛  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Despite promises made by PAP leaders to slow down to the inflow of foreigners, Singapore companies, including Government-Linked Companies or GLCs which dominate the domestic economy, continues to hold mass-recruitment exercises overseas. Finance Minister Tharman said in his recent Budget speech in the first week of March that Singapore has to boost its labor productivity and reduce its perennial dependence on foreign workers. Just as when he was making his speech, a GLC - Keppel Corp has put up a recruitment advertisement in the Malaysian newspaper The Star seeking Malaysians to fill various positions in Singapore: [Source: The Star, 6 March 2010] The above advertisement was listed on The Star on 6 March 2010 in The Star by Keppel Offshore and Marine, a GLC owned partly by Temasek Holdings for job vacancies in Singapore for managerial and engineering positions. The candidates are advised to send their resumes to the Human Resource Department of Keppel Corp Ltd at 50 Gul Road, Singapore 629351. The PAP has always argued that foreign workers are needed to take up jobs shunned by Singaporeans. While Singaporeans may not be keen to work in Keppel shipyards, they should be willing to work as managers and engineers there. Singapore produces over 1,000 engineers yearly from NUS and NTU. Are there a shortage of engineers in Singapore? Why does Keppel need to go all the way to Malaysia to recruit their engineers? Are Malaysian engineers more highly trained and qualified than Singapore engineers? It is most disheartening that a GLC has openly disregarded the government's call to reduce Singapore's dependence on foreign workers. How can we expect the other companies and MNCs to follow suit? Based on anecdotal evidence from our readers, companies are still recruiting foreign workers who are preferred over Singaporeans due to their much lower cost and willingness to work for long hours. One GP we spoke to claimed that he does about five to ten work permit renewals for foreign workers a day. It is quite obvious that the PAP is only paying lip-service to reducing the influx of foreigners into Singapore which is no more but a gimmick to placate rising frustration, discontent and anger among Singaporeans ahead of the next general election. The rosy employment figures provideded by the Ministry of Manpower cannot be trusted either as they lump PRs and citizens together as one category - "locals". The exact unemployment rate and numbers of citizens in various industries remain unknown to this very day. The daily propaganda being churned out by the state media contrasts the reality on the ground - foreigners are still coming in droves and Singaporeans are experiencing a tough time getting a job which pays well. As Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong admitted himself, the recent "changes" in policies do not mark a major "U-turn" in the PAP's much maligned "FT policy" and that the number of foreign workers may actually increase in the next few months ahead. It is the duty of the government of the day to provide every Singapore citizen with a job which pays a decent wage commensurate with the standard of living in Singapore and not just to give them the "dignity" of having a job only, to quote the words of PAP MP and NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Halimah Yacob. Unless wholesale changes are made to current labor laws to forbid the recruitment of foreign workers for positions like managers and engineers which can otherwise by filled by citizens, Singapore companies, including the GLCs will continue their disciminatory practices of putting up job advertisements in other countries.  Read More →

OPINION It is an open secret among Singaporeans that life has been getting tougher for them in the last few years. Their wages have either decreased or remained stagnant and even for those who had a modest pay rise, they are grossly insufficient to cover the rampant inflation which hit a record 6 percent in 2008. A comprehensive study "Prices and Earnings" conducted by UBS last year revealed that Singaporeans have the lowest wages and domestic purchasing power among th Asian tigers. In fact, Singapore has a standard of living comparable to Russia than to Switzerland whose standard of living was promised by a former Prime Minister a decade ago. According to UBS, the average Singaporean experienced an 8 percent drop in gross wages between 2006 and 2009 as compared to the more than 50 percent hike in the salaries of PAP ministers during the same period of time. Naturally, when one belongs to the top 1 percent of the earners in Singapore, it is easy to overlook the common folks struggling to get by in their daily lives. Obviously Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was ignorant of the UBS report when he made the most unbelievable and audacious claim that foreign workers helped to increase the wages of Singaporeans: "The healthy growth of wages for low wage families from 2006 to 2008 corresponded with the period when the foreign workforce was growing most rapidly.......It was how we were able to offset the decline in wages for our lower-income group that had taken place in the first part of the decade,” he added. [Source: Straits Times, 3 March 2010] The discrepancy in the fitures can be explained by an error in the statistics used by Mr Tharman as pointed out by economist Kenneth Jeyaretnam from the Reform Party: “The majority of these new residents did not have dependents (hence the much faster rise in the resident labour force than the resident population) and all of them would have had jobs so the proportion of working adults in the average resident household would have risen. As a result we would have seen an increase in real median income per household member without any real increase in the median incomes of Singaporean citizens who were already here before this period began, i.e., the majority of us. Another reason why the Minister’s figure is misleading is that it excludes households consisting solely of non-working persons over 60.” [Source: Reform Party: A complacent Budget] Another PAP MP Halimah Yacob cast doubts on the results of the UBS study in Parliament and claimed that "anecdotal evidence" showed that there is a "significant" jump of about 20 percent in wages over the same period of time. “The discrepancy could have come from the limited sample of firms in the UBS study. The study’s figures do not give statistical averages as it covered only a few companies for each profession and city,” she suggested. [Source: Straits Times, 9 March 2010] It appears that both Mr Tharman and Madam Halimah have not checked the facts with their fellow colleague Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong which must have embarrassed them greatly when the Labor Report published this Monday had proven them wrong beyond any reasonable doubt: “Nominal earnings decreased over the year by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, easing from the 3.0% decline in the preceding quarter. Earnings in 2009 declined by 2.6%, after rising by 5.4% in 2008. After adjusting for inflation (2009: 0.6%, 2008: 6.6%), the decline in real earnings was 3.2% in 2009, deeper than the contraction of 1.2% in 2008.” [Source: Ministry of Manpower] The decline in wages in hardly surprising given the increased competition that Singaporeans have to face from cheap foreign workers which the PAP has let in indiscriminately. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial reported the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore over the last few years had depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing, decreased labor productivity and led to an overall decline in the standard of living. One reader who graduated last year with an Engineering degree from NTU told us that he is still looking for a job. "I have sent my resumes to countless companies, both local and MNCs and only a handful got back to me. They offer a basic salary ranging from between $1,500 and $2,000 which is completely unacceptable as I still have to repay my study loans. Others coughed at my NS obligations which need me to be away for up to four weeks a year. One HR manager told me bluntly to 'take it or leave it' as she can easily find a China or Indian engineer to fill the positions for less pay than I am requesting easily. These companies have no problems fulfilling the dependency ratio quota for foreign workers as they will help the new foreign workers apply for Singapore PR almost immediately after they are hired," he said. In other countries, jobs like engineering are reserved only for locals, but over here, the PAP expects Singaporeans to compete directly with cheap foreign engineers while remaining "cheaper, faster and better" at the same time. The PAP's addiction to foreigners is understandable at it "kills two birds with one stone": 1. Foreigners help keep labor costs down thereby increasing GDP growth artificially. A certain percentage of the PAP ministers' multi-million salaries is pegged to GDP growth figures - the higher the percentage growth, the more money they bring home. 2. The foreigners provide a ready pool of potential new citizens whose increasing numbers will help to shore up the PAP's flagging support among native Singaporeans. How can Singaporeans ever trust the PAP to manage the economy when its MPs and ministers are still living in a state of denial? Does it make any sense that while the salaries of Singaporeans have decreased by 3.2 percent, the PAP ministers will be getting a hefty 8.8 percent pay hike at the same time? Is this a government for the people or for a small group of self-serving elites only? It is time for Singaporeans to realize that there will be no economic rights without political rights and unless Singaporeans stand up and fight for their rights, they will always remain as slaves to the despotic PAP regime, waiting for the crumbs left over by them rather than to partake and enjoy the fruits gained by the nation's economic growth.   The UBS Series: >> Part 1: Singapore has lowest wages and domestic purchasing power among Asian Tigers >> Part 2: Moving towards a Russian standard of living >> Part 3: Why Singaporeans are paupers in a first world economy   Related articles: >> Halimah Yacob refutes UBS study findings >> Halimah Yacob: Productivity drive will be derailed if foreign worker challenge not addressed  >> Exposing the six major flaws in the PAP’s immigration policies >> Wong Kan Seng promises to tighten immigration policies >> SM Goh: Foreign workers numbers may still rise >> Malaysian car mechanic applying for Singapore citizenship >> PAP launches Singapore Citizenship Journey to help new citizens integrate >> Compulsory for new citizens to attend “sharing sessions” with grassroots leaders >> Wong Kan Seng urged Singaporeans to be more tolerant of foreign workers >> Tharman: Foreign workers increase income of low-income families >> Sylvia Lim: Pace and influx of foreigners over last few years is wrong >> Amy Khor urges Singaporeans to welcome foreigners >> PAP MP wants more money to be spent to make new citizens feel welcomed in Singapore >> Shanmugam: Foreigners generate jobs for Singaporeans >> Vivian happy there are 4,500 new citizens serving as grassroots leaders >> Cosmetic changes made to immigration policy >> SM Goh: New immigrants needed to make up population shortfall >> PAP ministers hailed contributions of foreigners >> SM Goh expressed support for Zhang Yuanyuan >> State media: citizens have more rights over PRs >> Zhang Yuanyuan got her Singapore PR in only 2 months >> Official reply from government on the Zhang Yuanyuan fiasco >> Singapore PRC PR proclaimed loyalty to China publicly >> PRC resident hung China flag to celebrate its National Day >> PRC student in Singapore wants more scholarships for foreigners >> PRC prostitutes solicit for customers on Singapore’s cyberspace >> ERA: 40 per cent of resale flats buyers are PRs   EDITORS’ NOTE: If you like our work and would like to support us, please transfer your donations via paypal to our account ([email protected]). Any amount will be greatly appreciated! Alternatively, you can also help boost our advertising revenue by clicking on the ads displayed. Thank you! Be a fan of our facebook here Join our tweet at: http://www.twitter.com/temasekreview  Read More →