Written by an RI guy from the same cohort as Shanmugam n Leong WM:
The Govt is conflating FTAs and FDIs with the free flow of foreign talent. There is some relationship but not a strong one.
FTAs and FDIs are mainly structured for the free flow of goods , services and capital.
Japan and Korea have a plethora of FTAs and FDIs but their language and culture forms a natural barrier to the free flow of people.
Australia and New Zealand have a plethora of FTAs and FDIs but they regulate the flow of foreign workers stringently.
Attacking the PSP using FTAs and FDIs is just a cover for their failure or perhaps unwillingness to regulate the
massive influx of foreign workers.
In the early 2000s, Singaporeans were up in arms against many PRC Chinese for competing for low to middle income jobs with the locals.
This round, locals are up in arms against PMEs in the banking and IT sectors from India (plus Indians from the US , Britain etc).
So how is race even relevant?
Xenophobia maybe. Racism? Bollocks. Just a PAP political low blow.
Yet another theory that is less discussed and debated is the “strike while the iron is hot” or “grow the economy at all cost and on steroids” theory.
Under this hypothesis, the government is fully aware about allowing a foreign worker OVERFLOW because it wants to hurriedly create a bigger and bigger economy to justify its bigger and bigger pay check .
Under this hypothesis, the government has decided to sacrifice a significant number of our local and older Singaporean workforce because they are not skilled and educated enough to fit into the new and boosted economy.
They can very well remain as security guards, cleaners , landscapers , grab drivers , food and online delivery riders.
The true beneficiaries of the inflated and somewhat artificial economy on steroids are themselves the ruling elites, their loyal businessmen supporters, Temasek and GIC, the GLC loyalists, the Singaporean elite professionals like lawyers, bankers, accountants etc and another perhaps 20% of locals who ride on the coat tails of the boosted economy such as real estate agents , tuition teachers and clever consultants etc.
The hundreds of thousands of new Singaporeans and PRs who came in over the last two decades in tandem with foreign multinationals can arguably be credited with bringing in new economy businesses to Singapore and making our economy much bigger and more modern than would otherwise be the case ( just look at the Malaysian economy without the benefit of global MNCs and foreign talent flows).
So in conclusion, the real reason for the foreign worker OVERFLOW into Singapore since 2005 maybe deliberate and calculated rather than accidental and due to careless oversight.
There are just too many adult born and bred Singaporeans today who are under educated ( through no fault of theirs because there were too few universities) due to past policy mistakes . The mismatch is already cast in stone and it’s too late to teach an old pony new tricks no matter how much government propaganda suggesting that this can be done.
Up the ante to educate and up-skill the young Singaporeans today so that they will not fall into the similar trap of their under educated parents. That’s an obvious policy strategy.
The past policy mistake of under educating hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans has inadvertently led to the dire consequence of over rewarding a minority of local Singaporeans and severely under compensating a majority of our older and under educated Singaporeans( hence the stagnation of medium wages).
That is the ugly truth.
Work fare and tripartite progressive wage models are just signs of desperate and late in the day attempts to help underpaid older Singaporean employees whose based wages were so ridiculously depressed in the past that escalating the increase would only bring them to $1500/- today and $2350/- by 2028 - compared to ruling elites who are paid millions.
So my final point is that the economic fruits of an artificially charged economy on steroids have created enormous wealth to the nation BUT an equally high cost or externality.
The ruling elites, their loyal supporters and a few fortunate Singaporeans reap most of the benefits leaving the majority of Singaporeans to scramble over the crumbs.
So it may ultimately just boil down to how an artificially inflated cake should be divided in order to meet the norm of societal justice.
The tall poppies should be trimmed while the short ones lifted by redistribution.
As Hazel correctly puts it , if the ruling elites were made to peg their salaries to the stagnating growth of median income of local Singaporeans, this debate would not be relevant today.
But the saddest part of the Singapore model of success is that the ruling elites/ policy makers are not on the same boat as the commoners who toil and labour with their hands.
Like George Orwell wrote in the Animal Farm, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
