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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - PM Lee’s “out of touch” N Day Speech</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>2:42 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 3) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>38183.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>PM Lee’s “out of touch” National Day Rally speech on immigration issues
August 30th, 2010 |
Author: Your Correspondent
OPINION
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech last night showed how out of touch he and his colleagues are from the reality on the ground, not that Singaporeans expect much from him anyway.
Instead of addressing the genuine concerns of Singaporeans at his pro-foreigner and ultra-liberal immigration policies, he spent much of the time trying to convince Singaporeans to swallow his “bitter medicine” whether they like it or not.
Due to the PAP’s open-door immigration policies, foreigners now make up 40 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 60 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.
A survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) revealed that two thirds of Singaporeans feel that the continued inflow of immigrants will dilute our national identity.
PM Lee appeared living in an ivory tower of his own as he waxed lyrical of how the new arrivals have contributed to Singapore by quoting a few rare examples.
Does PM Lee know how it feels like to take a sardine-packed train to work every morning, to compete with hordes of foreign applicants who are willing to accept lower pay at job interviews and to feel like a stranger amidst your own country of birth?
Not only is he ignorant of the tremendous amount of strain the immigrants have put on our social fabric and cohesion which cannot be resolved by throwing money at the problem, he continues to deny and trivialize the rising disaffection and disgruntlement among Singaporeans.
While Singapore does require immigrants to make up for the shortfall in population, we seriously need to take a step back right now and ponder if the current immigration policy is the way for us to move forward into the future when even large countries like Australia are having second thoughts about immigration.
The ease at which foreigners are given Singapore PRs and citizenships simply makes a mockery out of our nation’s sovereign identity and devalues our pink IC.
It is so much easier for a mainland Chinese to obtain Singapore PR than Hong Kong PR though the latter is part of China proper. The media is full of reports of PRC cleaners, bus drivers, construction workers, factory workers and even freelance prostitutes being given Singapore PRs and citizenships which will never happen in Hong Kong since they can’t even find a job there in the first place.
What Singapore needs are real foreign talents who can complement our present workforce and make us more competitive and not third class “foreign thrash” who cannot even speak proper English.
Singapore is a multi-racial society and we have a sizable minority who cannot speak Mandarin. How is the government going to integrate these newcomers from China who cannot communicate in English? PM Lee said in his speech that the government has been holding free language courses for them. Can we expect these immigrants who are educated in Chinese back home in China to pick up English overnight?
In the very beginning, we should have a stringent screening process in place to exclude foreigners who cannot speak English like Australia, Canada and New Zealand instead of opening the flood-gates indiscriminately to everybody.
It is disheartening to hear that PM Lee is completely deaf to the growing chorus of disapproval from Singaporeans at the way he is running the country. It seems that he is pretty confident of breezing through the next general election with the support of the new citizens who will undoubtably be grateful to the PAP for giving out Singapore citizenships to them.
We urgently need a serious, comprehensive and lengthy discussion and debate on the present immigration policy involving all segments of society across all races and age groups and a moratorium should be imposed on the inflow of foreigners till we are absolutely certain of the direction we are heading.
PM Lee cannot simply force the rest of us who are unsupportive of his immigration policies to move together with him or worst still, to forcefully drag us along in spite of our protests.
Unfortunately, under the present political system dominated by one single party, it is impossible for alternative view points contrarian to the establishment to be aired publicly either in Parliament or the media.
Without a strong opposition, or rather an alternative government-in-waiting to voice out our concerns and fight for our rights as citizens of this country, there is little we can do to reverse the PAP’s immigration policies.
The next general election may be the last window of opportunity for Singaporeans to reclaim the ownership of their country and plot their own destiny before they get overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of immigrants the PAP is mass-importing each year to strengthen its position and perpetuate its political hegemony in Singapore forever.
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Options</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
OPINION
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech last night showed how out of touch he and his colleagues are from the reality on the ground, not that Singaporeans expect much from him anyway.
Instead of addressing the genuine concerns of Singaporeans at his pro-foreigner and ultra-liberal immigration policies, he spent much of the time trying to convince Singaporeans to swallow his “bitter medicine” whether they like it or not.
Due to the PAP’s open-door immigration policies, foreigners now make up 40 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 60 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.
A survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) revealed that two thirds of Singaporeans feel that the continued inflow of immigrants will dilute our national identity.
PM Lee appeared living in an ivory tower of his own as he waxed lyrical of how the new arrivals have contributed to Singapore by quoting a few rare examples.
Does PM Lee know how it feels like to take a sardine-packed train to work every morning, to compete with hordes of foreign applicants who are willing to accept lower pay at job interviews and to feel like a stranger amidst your own country of birth?
Not only is he ignorant of the tremendous amount of strain the immigrants have put on our social fabric and cohesion which cannot be resolved by throwing money at the problem, he continues to deny and trivialize the rising disaffection and disgruntlement among Singaporeans.
While Singapore does require immigrants to make up for the shortfall in population, we seriously need to take a step back right now and ponder if the current immigration policy is the way for us to move forward into the future when even large countries like Australia are having second thoughts about immigration.
The ease at which foreigners are given Singapore PRs and citizenships simply makes a mockery out of our nation’s sovereign identity and devalues our pink IC.
It is so much easier for a mainland Chinese to obtain Singapore PR than Hong Kong PR though the latter is part of China proper. The media is full of reports of PRC cleaners, bus drivers, construction workers, factory workers and even freelance prostitutes being given Singapore PRs and citizenships which will never happen in Hong Kong since they can’t even find a job there in the first place.
What Singapore needs are real foreign talents who can complement our present workforce and make us more competitive and not third class “foreign thrash” who cannot even speak proper English.
Singapore is a multi-racial society and we have a sizable minority who cannot speak Mandarin. How is the government going to integrate these newcomers from China who cannot communicate in English? PM Lee said in his speech that the government has been holding free language courses for them. Can we expect these immigrants who are educated in Chinese back home in China to pick up English overnight?
In the very beginning, we should have a stringent screening process in place to exclude foreigners who cannot speak English like Australia, Canada and New Zealand instead of opening the flood-gates indiscriminately to everybody.
It is disheartening to hear that PM Lee is completely deaf to the growing chorus of disapproval from Singaporeans at the way he is running the country. It seems that he is pretty confident of breezing through the next general election with the support of the new citizens who will undoubtably be grateful to the PAP for giving out Singapore citizenships to them.
We urgently need a serious, comprehensive and lengthy discussion and debate on the present immigration policy involving all segments of society across all races and age groups and a moratorium should be imposed on the inflow of foreigners till we are absolutely certain of the direction we are heading.
PM Lee cannot simply force the rest of us who are unsupportive of his immigration policies to move together with him or worst still, to forcefully drag us along in spite of our protests.
Unfortunately, under the present political system dominated by one single party, it is impossible for alternative view points contrarian to the establishment to be aired publicly either in Parliament or the media.
Without a strong opposition, or rather an alternative government-in-waiting to voice out our concerns and fight for our rights as citizens of this country, there is little we can do to reverse the PAP’s immigration policies.
The next general election may be the last window of opportunity for Singaporeans to reclaim the ownership of their country and plot their own destiny before they get overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of immigrants the PAP is mass-importing each year to strengthen its position and perpetuate its political hegemony in Singapore forever.
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