TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent The Australian government has taken a series of measures to shield Australian workers from competition with cheap foreign workers from overseas. The 457 Temporary work visa program has been reviewed to force employers to grant the same pay to skilled overseas workers as their Australian counterparts. The change will come into effect starting from January 2010. According to Australia's Minister for Immigration and Chris Evans, the changes serve two purposes: "It ensures overseas workers are not brought in more cheaply to undercut Australian workers and their conditions". Secondly it ensures that Australian workers aren't disadvantaged because overseas workers will now be more expensive and preference will go to Australian workers." (Read Mr Evans' speech here) He also reiterated the Australian government's committment to ensure that Australian workers are not disadvantaged in the labor market: "The objective of the subclass 457 visa is to ensure that skilled workers are able to come to Australia quickly to meet industry, economic and labour market needs without impacting on the employment and training opportunities of Australians or undermining their terms and conditions. Consistent with that objective the Rudd Government has made it clear that overseas workers are not to be employed ahead of Australians." As of 2008, 25 per cent of Australia's 21.6 million population are born overseas. Australia remains the top emigration destinations in the world despite its stringent immigration criteria. Unlike Singapore which accepts any Tom, Dick or Harry without any proper screening, Australia only accepts foreigners who pass a basic English Proficiency Test or the IELTS. Foreigners are only employed in selected sectors lacking manpower and it varies from one state to another. To even qualify to apply for Australian PR, a foreigner must spend three out of the last five years entirely in Australia. In contrast, Singapore gives out its PR and citizenships freely like toilet papers to foreigners some of whom are construction workers, cleaners, masseurs and prostitutes. The celebrated Chinese national and Singapore PR Zhang Yuanyuan who insulted the entire nation by proclaiming her loyalty to China on CCTV7 revealed that she received her Singapore PR within 2 months of application. Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament lately that two out of every three PR applicants are successful, an astonishingly high succcess rate for a developed nation. In 2008, there are more than 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reassured Singaporeans in his New Year Day message that they remain a "priority" for his administration, but has done nothing to show otherwise. Foreigners are allowed to compete directly with Singaporeans in jobs which can be filled easily by them such as administrators, cashiers, accounts executive, clinic assistants etc, yet the ruling party kept insisting that foreigners are only employed in sectors shunned by locals. In a recent letter to The Temasek Review, Courts CEO Mr Terry O' Connor explained that his company has no choice but to put up an advertisement to employ Malaysians in Johor because the take-up rate for the positions on offer among locals is very low. (read letter here) He declined to reveal the terms and conditions including the basic salaries and working hours offered to Singaporeans. As there is no opposition in Parliament to check on the ruling party, there is absolutely no political pressure on it to fine-tune its policies to serve the interests of Singaporeans. Foreign workers help to reduce labor costs and in turn contributes to economic growth. A certain proportion of the annual salaries of Singapore's millionaire ministers is pegged to GDP growth figures - the higher it is, the more money they will get from Singapore taxpayers. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial wrote that the relentless influx of foreigners had depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, lowered labor productivity, increased the cost of living and led to an overall decrease in the standards of living. (read article here) During a walk-about session at Hong Kah GRC, Law Minister Shanmugam told the media that many companies are recruiting Singaporeans as cleaners, but there are few takers for the job as Singaporeans, especially the young, do not like long working hours or shift work. “Most Singaporeans prefer office job and choose to give up jobs such as cleaners,” he added. In a frank interview with journalist Mark Jacobson from the National Geographic magazine, Singapore's octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew defended the ruling party’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies. Though he said he was aware of the fact that “many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants”, he continued to insist that it is for “good” of the nation: “Over time, Singaporeans have become less hard-driving and hard-striving. This is why it is a good thing that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants.” Lee was quoted saying. Lee described the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” “If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the spurs are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem,” he quipped. [Source: The Singapore Solution] Compare the speeches made by Singapore leaders to that made by Australian leaders and it is not hard to understand why that despite its ultra-liberal immigration policies, many foreigners prefer to emigrate to Australia than Singapore.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Filipinos continue to flock to Singapore to work especially with the opening of the Resort World Sentosa (RWS) IR despite Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's earlier promise to Singaporeans to "slow" the intake of foreigners. In his New Year Day's message, PM Lee said that Singaporeans will remain a "priority" for his administration. He also defended his pro-foreigner policy on the grounds that foreigners are needed to fill jobs which Singaporeans "shun". The Resorts World Sentosa IR was officially opened yesterday and it is expected to employ about 10,000 workers when it is fully operational. The exact percentage of Singapore citizens (not PRs) on the payroll of Resort World Sentosa is not revealed. Philipines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in April last year that RWS will open about 5,000 new jobs for Filipinos. She had sent a delegation to Singapore to explore possible job opportunities for migrant Filipino and they went to discuss available slots for Filipino workers such as workers for hotels, casinos and performers with Tan Hee Teck, CEO of RWS. (read report here) Coincidentally, HDB had allocated two entire blocks of rental flats in Toa Payoh to house foreign workers of RWS while some homeless Singaporeans have to sleep in make-shift tents in parks. The nationality of these workers is not known. Filipinos are highly sought after in Singapore due to their English proficiency and relatively lower cost compared to Singaporeans. Though they were employed initially in industries shunned by locals such as nursing, an increasing number are coming on S-passes to compete directly with Singaporeans for jobs such as administrative executives, account executives and mid-level managerial positions. Even state-linked companies such as Singpost and POSB are employing Filipinos as their front-line staff. (If you don't believe, please check out the Singpost and POSB branches at Toa Payoh Central to see for yourself) Filipino job portals and forums continue to put up job advertisements for positions in Singapore. One of them, sugarpinoy.com even listed 10 reasons why Singapore is the "best" place for Filipinos to work. (read article here) The top three reasons are the high pay (relative to Phillipines), availability of jobs and ease of getting Permanent Resident status: 1. Getting a PR means you get almost the same benefits as Singapore citizen without necessarily giving up your Filipino citizenship. That way, you can reap the full benefits of both. 2. Singapore is creating more and more jobs because of its booming economy. Good news is local population cannot sustain all the demand so they turn to foreigners to provide the necessary talent and skill set. 3. The pay can make you rich: Use the money you earn to put up business in the Philippines, buy a property or simply support your family and send your kids to school. As we can see from the above, Singapore is a paradise for Filipino migrant workers. Not only can they earn much more here than in the Philipines, their savings will probably able them to retire comfortably back home for the rest of their lives. However, it appears that the "honeymoon" the Filipinos are enjoying right now may be ending pretty soon. Stung by rising resentment, frustration and anger on the ground against its liberal immigration and labor policies, the ruling party is making it more difficult for foreign workers to obtain and renew their PRs. A reader tipped us off that the Filipino PRs in his company are given an ultimatum: either take up Singapore citizenship or return to the Philipines when their PRs expire. If you were a Filipino and had earned enough money in Singapore, will you stay in Singapore or return to the Philipines to stay with your family and friends with all the money you have? The answer is pretty obvious.    Read More →

OPINION The recent ugly fiasco of a PRC family who "hijacked" a SBS bus for 6 hours just because the bus does not have wheelchair accessibility and the bus driver refused to drive due to safety reasons may be appalling for most Singaporeans, but such incidents are common occurrences in mainland China. Though China's economy has grown by leaps and bounds since the 1980s, much of the country is still stuck in medieval times where power comes from the barrel of a gun together with money and connections instead of rules, regulations and laws which Singaporeans are so used to. There are four "Chinas" within China itself today: 1. The political elites who governed China from the capital Beijing as the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties have done so for the last 700 years, but in reality, they are not in full control of China. There is a Chinese saying which goes - "The mountains are high and the Emperor is far away". The central government in Beijing has very little say on many matters happening at the provincial and county levels. 2. The provincial barons who run Chinese provinces, cities and counties like their personal fiefdoms. These are the local thugs who ruled the people under their purview according to their whims and fancies - their words alone is the law. 3. The business class who needs the patronage of the local Communist cadres in order to survive and vice versa. The "collusion" of the political and business classes at the local government level with some of them be involved in organized crime like a former senior judge of Chongqing who committed suicide in the detention center last year is a ticking time bomb waiting to be exploded right in the face of the Chinese Communist Party. 4. The common folks with no power, connections or money, be it city dwellers or rural peasants who form the majority of China's diverse population. While many Singaporeans have an unfavorable impression of mainland Chinese, the fact remains that they do have some highly educated, sophisticated and qualified talents who will contribute to our nation - the problem is: they are not coming to Singapore. According to a Gallup poll done in July 2009, the number one emigration destination for college students in China is the United States of America, followed by France and South Korea. Singapore is not even featured among the top five destinations in spite of its open door policies to mainland Chinese. You can do a simple experiment by asking any ten Chinese new citizen in the streets where their hometowns in China are and chances are, they are more likely to come from places like Changsha, Zhanghua and Shenyang instead of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In reality, Singapore is getting many mainland Chinese from the poorer inland provinces who does not have any understanding of what the rule of law means. To them, "law" means having the right money and connections to get things done and sometimes taking it into one's own hands when all else fails. This is not to say that lawlessness prevails in China. There is a general set of written laws and some resemblance of a judiciary system in place, but whether the law is enforced strictly is a different matter altogether. For example, prostitution is illegal in China, but there are countless of KTVs, massage parlors and saunas where women provide sexual services legally under the law so long the operators pay a monthly "protection fee" to the local police who are often their clients. There were 58,000 “mass incidents”, the Chinese state's euphemism for strikes, street protests, roadblocks and other forms of mass protests, in China in the first three months of 2009 alone compared to 120,000 in 2008 and 90,000 in 2006. Such antics by the PRC family is quite mild compared to the countless cases of civil unrest which gripped China yearly at the provincial and county levels. Unlike Singaporeans, the mainland Chinese are generally more "hard-driving" and "hard-striving" as rightly pointed out by MM Lee and they seldom back off quietly when their interests are threatened. Parents are known to have protested outside university school campuses for days to pressurize the authorities to accept their children who cannot make the grade. When property prices took a dive last year, disgruntled buyers who suffered a paper loss from earlier purchases stormed the offices of the property developer demanding a refund. Angry villagers had no qualms burning down the office of a City Council in Henan province whose officials tried to evict a household from occupying land belonging to the government. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said in a recent speech that "an army of sheep led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a sheep". The mainland Chinese are definitely not sheep - they are hungry wolves which will even devour the lions if they are not careful enough. Even under the repressive rule of Communist China, they are not afraid of breaking the laws to gather and protest against the government and more than often not, the local officials dare not take action against them out of fear of making matters worst. If Singapore is considered a man-made artificial garden, then China is a jungle. We are now "transplanting" the inhabitants of a jungle to this lush serene tropical island of ours, how can we ever expect them to integrate into our society? It is quite obvious that the policy planners who allow such a huge influx of mainland Chinese have no idea what kind of people they are bringing into Singapore. The mainland Chinese are highly united, organized, nationalistic and protective of their own kind. They prefer to mingle around themselves in their own clique rather than to reach out to others. With so many of them already present in Singapore, they have even fewer incentives to socialize with other Singaporeans which is already made difficult by the language barrier, thereby leading to a widening rift between the two communities and the emergence of ethnic enclaves in the HDB heartlands. During China's long 5,000 year history, it is always the Chinese who assimilated other races into its own fold and not the other way round. The ethnic Manchus who ruled China from 1644 to 1912 A.D. were absorbed into the Han Chinese in less than 100 years now that there are hardly any of them left saved for a few autonomous counties in the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. We are now seeing the sinicization of Xinjiang where Han Chinese now make up more than 50 per cent of the province's population due to mass migration, reducing its original Uighur inhabitants to a minority. Do we see the Han Chinese integrating into Xinjiang or the other way round? Though the forefathers of Singapore's ethnic Chinese hail from China, most of them now consider themselves as Singaporeans rather than Han Chinese. A Singapore Chinese has more in common with a Singapore Malay or Indian than an ethnic Chinese from China. We are from two different planets altogether. As China is so vast a country with so many different races, cultures and languages, the racial term "Chinese" has little meaning. A southern "Chinese" in Shenzhen will feel more at home in Singapore than with a fellow "Chinese" living in the border town of Dandong along the Yalu river where many are of mixed Han/Korean stock. A Hui Muslim Chinese from the inner Gansu province looks essentially "Chinese", but has more in common with Tibetans than let's say a Muslim or Chinese in Singapore. So when MM Lee said in a recent interview with the National Geographic magazine that "it is a good thing that the island has welcomed many Chinese", which "Chinese" is he referring to? The "Chinese" from Shenzhen, Dandong or Gansu? Based on demographics alone, we should be focusing on getting the Chinese from the two southern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong since the majority of the ethnic Chinese in Singapore are Hokkiens (Fujian), Teochew (Guangdong), Cantonese (Guangdong) and Hakka (Guangdong) who should encounter fewer obstacles integrating into our society due to similarities in language and culture. Then again, Guangdong is the richest province in China with a GDP comparable to Spain and its city dwellers have few incentives relocating to Singapore. With the Pearl Delta region catching up with Singapore in terms of standard of living, the flow of immigrants may reverse in the next few years. There are already a sizable number of Singaporeans working and living in the cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, and Guangzhou. The myopic and flawed immigration policies of the ruling party pertaining to immigrants from mainland China will have disastrous consequences for Singapore in the long run. Now that they have allowed so many mainland Chinese into the country, we will have no choice but to live with them and knowing the near impossible task of integrating them, tensions between the two communities will inevitably rise and threaten the social fabric of the nation eventually.      Read More →