Friday, April 22, 2011

You know you are second-class citizens when...

...my Prime Minister gives credit to foreign workers instead of locals. I was peeved by this sentence when I read his speech during the opening ceremony of IMFlash, a high-tech electronic plant (read here).

"For every one foreign worker, we have created 1.5 local jobs in this project" Should it not be "For every 1.5 locals, one foreigner has a job"?

You, sir, have put the cart before the horse. And that shows a lot about your respect for our citizens. You have no respect and bonding kinship with us. No wonder people lamented that PAP is totally 'disconnected' from the ground.

I have noted that you failed to distinguish how many Singaporeans are actually employed.

"Six in 10 of the employees are 'Singaporeans and permanent residents'. Singapore residents also take up two-thirds of the managerial and professional positions," PM Lee mentioned.

Actual Singaporean employees
Out of the six in 10 employees, can we know how many are Singapore citizens? Let me do a minor analysis and hypothetical worst-case scenario:

- Out of 10 employees, 4 are foreigners who holds work permits. That leaves 6 Singaporeans and PRs.
- Out of 6 employees, 1 is a Singaporean while the other 5 are PRs.

But why did I take the worst-case scenario? Because PAP has often hidden the numbers and twist it around to paint a different picture. Just like the media braying that the casinos created 25,000 jobs. How many were given to locals, that is the question.

If 5 out of the 6 employees in IMFlash are Singaporeans or within the company half of the employees (5 out of 10) are citizens, you can bet your bottom dollar that PAP would not want you to miss it even if you close your eyes and cover your ears. They would have crowed and glaringly highlighted it to the tune of "Investment helps create jobs for locals - five out of 10 jobs clinched by Singaporeans".

Singapore residents
Again the second part of his sentence "Singapore residents take up two-thirds of the managerial and professional positions" throws us a curved-ball.

Who are the 'Singapore residents'? Anyone who is a local, PR and one holding a work visa or 'S' pass. And I can assuredly say that most are filled in by foreigners consisting of PRs and temporary residents.

I have no qualms if foreigners come into my country when locals cannot fill the job or special expertise and skills are required.

But when my PM has to hide the details, you know you have been 'second-classed'.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"For every one foreign worker, we have created 1.5 local jobs in this project"

I would like to ask the PM a very fundamental question :

Does the investor come to Singapore because of well educated and trained Singaporeans or are they coming here because of skilled foreigners or availability of cheap foreigners ?

If they are here because of our skilled workforce, why are you crediting the foreigners for creating jobs for Singaporeans ? Isn't it the other way round ?

If the investors are here because of foreigners, then the PAP has failed on at least 2 counts :

1. The govt is attracting wrong kind of investments where the jobs created are filled by foreigners.

2. Our education system is not producing the people that are required to fulfil the needs of new employers.

Anonymous said...

its the same when last time the ST reported 80% residents working as researchers for Astar.

from what i know. SGeans consists less than 10% for sure.

Anonymous said...

Local jobs may not mean a local (Singaporean) have a job. Since Singaporeans and PRs are group together. We should read as

"for every 1 foreign worker, we have created 1.5 jobs (for Singaporeans AND PRs) in this project."

Go figure.

ed said...

Well, the SG chinese didn't have a problem with the SG non-chinese occupying '2nd class' status all these years, so why just notice this phenomena only when the local chinese are now suffering the same fate in the face of new foreigners?....whilst forgetting that effectively puts the non-chinese into 3rd class status.

Self-absorption perhaps? More astute minds would call it poetic justice.

That said, apologies for missing you out in the singazine blog list. Just added. Cheers.

ed