SpotlightOnSingapore

Fault lines between new citizens, native Singaporeans: whose fault?

In warning Singaporeans about social friction between new citizens and native Singaporeans, the quiet PM Lee has forgotten one thing: who is to blame for this unprecedented scenario?

The ruling party, the PAP, had been stingy in tax breaks in helping young parents cope with raising their families. In contrast, they had been generous paying themselves princely salaries, a phenomenon which could merit an entry in The Guinness Book of Records. The result of the government tight-fisted approach is the shortfall in the native population.

A over reliance on cheap imported labour has meant a massive influx of foreigners to our shores. Our total population now stands at 5.18 million.

With such a huge population, not only our infrastructure but our government ministries and agencies had been unable to cope. Employers concocted phantom workers. Vice operated with impunity in Geylang and even spread to the heartland. HDB rules on sub-letting were flouted. The trains and buses were packed to the rafters. Train breakdowns became regular headlines in the media.

Our seniors, who helped build up this nation, were marginalized and many are still forced to toil in menial jobs as cleaners in their supposedly golden years, a disgrace for a wealthy first world country and an indictment on the ruling party. Having traveled quite a bit, I’ve yet to come across any other country with an army of elderly cleaners.

New citizens enjoy the fruits of their (our elderly) labour. These new citizens bring with them their social norms which conflict with those of the locals. One nationality are the world champion in spitting, and many of us find this habit disgusting. New citizens are also reluctant to integrate.

The result of all this is resentment against new citizens. Conspiracy theories even suggest a sinister motive for this massive imports of foreigners and the haste in awarding them citizenship: to prop up the regime.

The current societal tension and its attendant problems could have been averted if the regime had been more generous in social spending.

Sadly for Singapore, the regime was only generous with itself.

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Can’t cope: not only the infrastructure but this bin too can’t cope with the over population.

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No golden years for her

5 Responses to “Fault lines between new citizens, native Singaporeans: whose fault?”

  1. all bloggers write about the “population” of singapore as 5.18 million. but the Actual number of people on this island at any point of time now is actually MORE THAN SIX MILLION.

    what is forgotten are the tourists. we had about 1.2 million of them a month, according to the figs for the first four months of this year.

    that means there are about 6.4 million people here — in our malls, eating places, on the streets, trains and buses, hospitals (don’t forget medical tourism)…. that means HALF the people in town now are foreigners.

    if we increase the number of foreigners at last year’s 0.8%, and the number of tourists at this year’s 20%,
    we will be hitting SEVEN MILLION PLUS in town by 2015.

    will our transport system and medical facilities, which can’t cope now, be able to handle that many then? is anyone even preparing for this?

    so if you think there’s too much rubbish around now, if you think you’re being squeezed on the trains now, you ain’t seen nuffin yet, dude.

    kaffir lime  -  July 23, 2012 at 2:07 am

    • that figure of 6.4 million is also a misconception… 1.2 million tourists a month does not equate to an additional 1.2 million at any one time. Assuming each tourist only stays for 3 days in Singapore, the correct figure should be 3 days x (1.2 million / 30 days) = 120 thousand. I’m not disputing the overcrowdedness, but rather the mis-information of Singapore having 6.4 million ppl at any one day. The figure should be closer to 5.3 million

      Wilson  -  July 23, 2012 at 1:19 pm

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    Daily SG: 23 July 2012 | The Singapore Daily  -  July 23, 2012 at 12:11 pm

  3. So apart from our transport, roads, hospitals, schools and workplaces, even our Trash Bins are not spared. So which Minister is in charge of NEA sleeping on the job? Why are they not building more to cope with the demand? Perhaps the public can start taking pictures of mounting trash in heartland areas…it’s getting dirtier by the days.

    SW  -  July 23, 2012 at 12:48 pm

  4. Bear in mind, even worse, the massive increase in population by foreigners/PR mean that Singaporeans themselves have to pay more to handle massive operational cost and infrastructure to cater for them at our expense. Did we get millions like our MIWs ? Did we get $8 heart operation like our MIWs ?

    Baba  -  July 23, 2012 at 3:02 pm


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