TR EMERITUS

来源：新加坡文献馆26/01/2010 2009年1月14日文献集的《新加坡模式的朱门酒肉臭》借杜甫《自京赴奉先县咏怀五百字》的描绘感慨：杜甫所见到的唐朝社会阶级关系和贫富两极化在今时今日的新加坡似乎并没有什么两 样，掌握大权者榨取民脂民膏。即得利益者也正是活在美酒佳肴的神仙境界里，遥远的不知道什么是人间疾苦水深火热。这不就是‘荣枯咫尺异’。 去年1月6日海峡时报发表了一名新加坡常任秘书的法国之旅日志，炫耀自已的财富和高档生活品味。资深报人余长年认为这种言辞不合时宜，因为新加坡的普罗大众正值经济衰退面临失业或者工资下调的水深火热之际。一名网民指出这官员一家3口的5个星期消费对他们一家3口而言却可以支付8年的伙食和日用品开销。 2010 年1月26日大马中国报的一则新闻报导：『新加坡國務資政吳作棟說…如果我們在未來10年，要實現每年平均3至4%的經濟增長率，就意味人們必須加倍提高生產力…在比利時首都布魯塞爾，見到一名婦女如何一人包辦餐廳所有工作為例，指出歐洲的服務業工人體現的生產力，在新加坡透過發展綜合度假勝地來加強服務業之際，值得借鑒。他提到一個簡單例子，就是一名服務員不僅可充當司機，也可負責導遊及其他工作。當然，他們的工資可能也比新加坡工人多三四倍。“在歐洲，一名工人可以為很多顧客服務，我們這裡卻是很多人為一個顧客服務。這是因為我們速度不夠快。”』 同日的Today, Voices有一封由读者Jessica Chan撰写，标题为‘生產力，员工头顶多件帽子’的回应： 『这是有关‘1名员工3项任务’（1月25日）。我在服务行业工作已超过15年。在这一整个时段里，我从来不知道有服务员是受聘来从事单一的客户服务工作。 在理论上，这是服务生的优先职责，但在实际上，一名服务员经常都是进行‘全包’的工作。其他的任务包括在营业结束后进行清洁打扫工作 – 这种工作是客人或者外人看不到的。 当我在一家餐馆工作时，我的收银员同事必须兼任调酒师的工作。此外，由于她的柜台是在餐馆的入口处，她也必须欢迎和招呼前来的顾客并且在人手不足时兼顾带位的工作。她也在必要的情况下帮忙为顾客点菜下单和端菜。除此之外，她也必须在没有客人的时候进行打扫的清洁工作。 她之所以会心甘情愿的做这些杂工是因为在面试时，已经被告知这些打扫清洁工都是她多项任务的其中一件工作。 服务员已经头顶多件帽子好多年了。虽然如此，而我们的欧洲同行却是拿比我们高3倍甚至于4倍的高工资。 这是悲惨的却是真实的情况，我们都是无名的英雄。有朝一日希望其他国家的部长会以我们的服务员做为新加坡人的勤奋工作样板。』 Jessica Chan的短文表露了许许多多的无奈；新加坡服务生战战兢兢的勤奋工作，头顶多件帽子做着和第一世界服务员一般的工作，但却拿着第三世界的工资。 Jessica Chan最无奈之处应该是她的期待其他国家的部长能够以新加坡服务员的勤奋工作为样板，因为在她自已的国家里，她们的辛勤付出并没有获得认可和赞赏，却反而要遭受无良批评：新加坡服务员没有生产力，因為‘他们的速度不夠快’。 对许许多多的新加坡普罗大众而言，其中包括服务员，他们都是拿着第三世界的工资过着第三世界的生活。对这一社群而言，新加坡是第一世界的说法仅仅是一则神话，而部长高官的全球最高数额3百万元年薪则更是神话故事里的神话。 Jessica Chan的水深火热真实世界和高官的冷气舒适虚拟世界，竟然有如此天壤之别，这种‘荣枯咫尺异’现象发生在资讯通畅而且只有一个弹丸大小的新加坡，确实是匪夷所思。诚然，不食人间烟火的达官贵人毕竟是生活在如此高处不胜寒的神仙境界里。  Read More →

OPINION After being caught with its pants down, is YPAP going to strike back with another smear campaign against its online critics? The Straits Times Forum gave prominent coverage to a blatantly biased, inaccurate and one-sided article by a "Keith Gerard Tan" lampooning Singapore netizens critical of the PAP as being the new breed of "ugly Singaporeans." (read letter here) While there is no evidence of Mr Tan being a card-carrying member of the PAP, the extreme views espoused by him bears uncanny similarities to those harbored by some YPAP members and supporters as evidenced by their remarks made on the YPAP Facebook. Mr Tan wrote that it is worrying to see netizens hiding behind the anonymity of the Net and post comments that reek of prejudice, racism and envy. "For instance, it is virtually unavoidable these days to read anti-migrant comments online. These netizens flood message boards with anti-foreign worker vitriol that degenerates into childish name calling and personal attacks on those who are courageous enough to defend foreign workers," he added. Mr Tan should have quoted a few examples from some blogs and forums to substantiate his claims and to allow the public to judge for themselves if these comments are indeed "racist" and "prejudiced" instead of making such a sweeping statement which does little justice to both his letter and the Straits Times Forum. Why is the immigration issue such a hot topic nowadays? Why are netizens protesting so vehemently against the policy? The outpouring of frustration, resentment and grievances in cyberspace is an indication that there is a rising number of Singaporeans who are unhappy with the pro-foreigner policies of the ruling party and feel they are not getting a fair deal from their own government. The role of the elected government of the day is to take care of its own citizens first. While it is undeniable that Singapore does need immigrants, the policies should be fine-tuned to ensure that locals do not lose out in the process. There is some element of truth in the online postings of netizens as corroborated by an authoritative report by Wall Street Journal lately which described in vivid detail the negative impact of the relentless influx of foreigners in recent years on Singaporeans unacknowledged by the PAP - leading to a drop in wages of ordinary workers, increase in cost of living, especially that of public housing, decrease in labor productivity and overall decline in the standard of living. Singapore has been welcoming immigrants since the 1980s and 1990s from Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but Singaporeans have never exhibited so much negative sentiments towards the newcomers. Surely there must be something wrong with the government's immigration policies which have provoked such massive public discontent and disaffection. Mr Tan should have looked at the root cause of the problem and not the symptoms alone. Some netizens are behaving as such precisely because they feel marginalized in their own country and these concerns, anxieties and fears are not unfounded. In the second part of his forgettable letter, Mr Tan quoted the example of the Eric How saga to take pot shots at netizens for launching a "witch hunt" against the YPAP: "Another example: The Eric How controversy, in which an inflammatory Facebook diatribe by an unidentified individual who called himself Eric How and claimed to be a member of Young PAP triggered a witch hunt. As a result, two other people named Eric How were caught in the crossfire of postings about the issue." Had Mr Tan been following the saga judiciously on the new media, he would have realized that there was no impersonation or identity theft in the first place. The "Eric How" who posted those disparaging remarks about netizens on the YPAP Facebook on 1 January 2010 exists in real life. He had posted his particulars on his Facebook before it was deleted after the controversy erupted. There are many "Eric Hows" in Singapore and they can be posting comments on Facebook at the same time using their accounts which can be easily differentiated by their IDs on their "profile" section. Any sensible person with a modicum of common sense would simply clarify the matter on his Facebook or lodge a formal complaint to Facebook and close the case. The fact that the two "Eric Hows" had made police reports separately over such a trivial matter and to blow it up in the press is a reflection on their and the PAP's ignorance of the new media where such mistaken identities are pretty common. In fact, the entire fracas smacked of an orchestrated damage control exercise to salvage the battled reputation of the YPAP which has been coming under increasing pressure from netizens over the callous behavior of its members such as Sear Hock Rong. Unfortunately, the majority of the online community do not buy their story and YPAP Chairman Teo Ser Luck is made to look like an idiot by asking one of the Eric Hows to make a police report when there is absolutely no need to do so. Mr Tan ended his letter by expressing his concerns about this new "breed" of Singaporeans: "Those in this new breed of Ugly Singaporean worry me because they suggest a sense that beneath a placid exterior lurks a collective subconscious that is intolerant, mean and narrow-minded." Upon closer examination, this new breed of "Singaporeans" are largely the result of the repressive political system being promulgated by the PAP. Because Singaporeans have no where else to express their disagreement, unhappiness and anger with the ruling party, they have no choice but to keep their feelings bottled up deep inside which over time becomes "mutated" as outright fury. Many netizens are afraid of blogging openly using their identities in real life out of fear of being detained under the draconian Internal Security Act or sued for defamation by the litigious PAP. In countries where the mainstream media allows a diversity of views to be expressed, such "radical" views are seldom encountered in cyberspace as there is a middle ground to accommodate opinions from both sides of the political divide. All the flow of information in the public domain in Singapore is strictly controlled by the mainstream media which in turn is nothing more than a mouthpiece of the ruling party. Genuine concerns and criticisms of Singaporeans are often stone-walled while no efforts are spared to portray the PAP in the best possible light though it is becoming quite obvious that it has committed many policy mistakes in the last few years which has caused an inordinate amount of suffering to ordinary Singaporeans. Under such circumstances, it is natural to expect netizens to adopt a "hardline" approach against the PAP in cyberspace. The "witch-hunt" against the YPAP over the Eric How fiasco has valid grounds even if the "Eric How" turns out to be an impostor which is very unlikely. When the offensive remarks were first posted on the YPAP Facebook on 1 January 2010, no PAP member stepped forward to condemn "Eric How". In fact, they even rallied to his side. Neither Teo Ser Luck or Zaqy Mohamad bothered to denounce them and they only did so three weeks later after the negative publicity has snowballed into a PR disaster for the PAP. Are they implying that they were in full agreement with the remarks for three weeks from 1 January to 22 January? If Mr Tan is familiar with Singapore's blogosphere, he would realize that such "ugly Singaporeans" form the majority of the netizens in Singapore. He can take a tour of SPH-owned STOMP and Hardwarezone forums as well as 3in1kopitiam and Sgforums to feel the pulse of Singaporeans there. Unfortunately, Mr Tan's unhelpful letter is only going to antagonize netizens further thereby heightening hostilities between them and the establishment. The real "ugly Singaporeans" are not those who speak the truth behind the anonymity of the internet, but people like Mr Tan who choose to defend the indefensible and go against the tide of public opinion. No matter what the YPAP tries to say or do now, they are not going to win back lost support from the online community who are ready to show them what they are capable of with the votes in their hands in the next general election.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Despite widespread frustration, resentment and anger among Singaporeans at the ruling party's liberal immigration policies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong continues to insist that it is "necessary" to "top up" Singapore's declining population via immigration. Speaking at a conference examining challenges facing Singapore organised by the Institute of Policy Studies, PM Lee warned that "Singapore will be grappling with the issue of immigration for some time because it has no alternative to topping up the population." The number of newborns here continues to stay below the replacement level of 2.1 in spite of the Government's efforts to boost birth rates. "But as immigration has become a sensitive issue among Singaporeans, this would be done in a 'measured and calibrated manner", he added. PM Lee did not elaborate more on how his administration is going to "moderate" the inflow of foreigners. Since the floodgates were opened a few years ago, foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore's population, up from 14 per cent in 1990. In 2008 alone, there were more than 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens. Two out of every three PR applicants are successful, an astonishingly high rate for a developed country. Among the newcomers are cleaners, construction workers, masseurs and even prostitutes who can hardly be considered as "talents" as well. Though Singapore has been desperately courting foreign talents to relocate to Singapore, it seems that many of them prefer other destinations like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A Gallup poll done among mainland Chinese college students in July 2009 revealed that their top three emigration destinations are the United States, France and South Korea. Singapore's falling birth rates coincide with the rise in prices of HDB flats within the same period of time. The ruling party should spend more time examining the real reasons behind Singaporeans not having more children instead of mass-importing foreigners from elsewhere who bring along their own set of problems. A key reason why young Singaporeans are reluctant to start a family of their own is due to sky-rocketing HDB prices. How can they contemplate having children when they can't even afford a roof over their heads? Furthermore, while the cost of living has increased tremendously over the last few years, the median wages of ordinary Singaporeans remain stagnant at around $2,600 monthly. The income gap between the rich and the poor has also widened considerably. Singapore's falling birth rate is largely due to the ruling party's mismanagement of the economy. Instead of investing in its own citizens and helping them own their homes, they allow foreigners to come in indiscriminately which has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing and led to an overall decline in the standard of living. When Singaporeans are busy slogging like dogs day in and out outside just to make ends meet, they will have little time to rest let alone relax and make babies. Perhaps PM Lee is not aware of the fact making babies is an art and not a mere mechanical exercise. A couple needs to be in the right environment and ambiance to share intimate moments with each other and such conditions hardly exist in this stressful society of ours. It seems improbable that the ruling party will make any radical changes to its pro-foreign policies to make them more citizen-friendly. At the rate it is mass-importing foreigners to replace native Singaporeans, it is only a matter of time before we find ourselves in the minority. Singaporeans have only one last chance left in the next election to vote out the PAP and to redeem their rights as citizens of Singapore after which they may find themselves being marginalized and condemned to a life-long existence of being "sheep" being chased around by a pack of hungry jackals.  Read More →