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[h=2]PAP’s immigration policy led to skill degradation in SGs[/h]
July 2nd, 2014 |
Author: Contributions
[Editor's note: This is an excellent article submitted
by a TRE reader. Highly recommended to read!]
IT personnel from India
Tan Chuan Jin said:
“50 firms that have a disproportionately low share of Singaporean
professionals, managers and executives compared to others in their industry”
“In some cases, the issue may not be a problem with their HR practices per
se, but rather, a gap in the skills that are available in the local
workforce”.
(Source: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/govt-identifies-more-50-firms-too-few-sporean-professionals)
There were complaints about nationality-based discrimination in hiring,
especially in the banking, services and IT sectors.
As usual, Tan Chuan Jin had conveniently pushed the blame to Singaporeans for
the lack of skill in the IT, Service and Banking sectors.
However, he did not mention the reason for the lack of skill in these
sectors. Before the ‘Great Foreigner Influx’ policy starting somewhere in the
early 2000s and got worse after Lee Hsien Loong took up the Premiership, there
were hardly any reports regarding a great mismatch of skill in these sectors in
the 80s and 90s.
The influx of foreigners in these sectors was due to PAP’s open door ‘Foreign
Talent’ policy which led to many skilled Singaporeans losing their jobs. Most
was unable to find jobs in these sectors and many changed their ‘careers’. While
the some lucky ones were able to get employment outside Singapore in developed
countries, many were force to ‘downgrade’ to jobs like driving taxis which is
irrelevant to the skill that they had acquired through sheer hard work for many
years!
It takes many years to train an IT specialist but you will lose the skill
easily after ‘hands-off’ for a couple of years.
Young Singaporeans were unwilling studying courses in IT, Banking and
engineering for the fear of not able to get a job in these sectors and
eventually, these sectors were hollow out by foreigners. It is even more
difficult to get a job in IT, Banking and Engineering now, because by now most
hiring managers were foreigners who discriminate against Singaporeans. Singapore
had also developed a HR culture that discriminate Singaporeans with the blessing
of PAP which they coined as ‘Foreign Talents’ and Lee Hsien Loong had once
claimed that Singaporeans need to thank foreigners for keeping their jobs!
Even if a Singaporean is able to get a job in these sectors, they were
overwhelmed by the huge number of foreign colleagues in their department. Most
foreigners will never train Singaporeans and they will group together and force
the ‘foreigner’ (The Singaporean in this case) out of the company.
It is therefore not surprising that there is a lack of skill among
Singaporeans in the IT, Banking and Engineering sectors due to PAP’s liberal
immigration policy.
Security and other risk due to PAP’s immigration policy
Singapore had experienced several IT security and network issue lately. The
security issue was so bad that even the Prime Minister’s own website and 1,560
SingPass user accounts were breached. There were also several network issues
which causes island wide banking system failures.
Like the 44 years once Little India Riot and every 50 years ‘Ponding’ issue,
the Singapore System is breaking down. We have security breach, network issue,
transport system breaking down and many other problems for the last few years.
In fact there so much bad news since GE2011 that even Goh Chok Tong had claimed
2012 as a bad year!
Why and what is happening?
There is a report from Bloomberg that Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Poses
Threat in Singapore. (Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...ortage-looms-in-singapore-southeast-asia.html)
Why is there a Cybersecurity skill shortage?
As there is a lacking of skilled IT Singaporeans in the job market due to PAP
liberal immigration policy, the IT sector had been dependent heavily on
foreigners and this is the reason for the security breaches!
Firstly, most foreigners who work in Singapore used Singapore as a
springboard to go to other countries which they bring their skills that they
acquire in Singapore with them to other countries and compete with
Singapore.
Elzerie Alcaide, a Filipina moved to Wellington from Singapore in January.
(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...me=rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews&rpc=401)
Most foreigners in Singapore will never think of Singapore as ‘home’ which
PAP tried to sell to Singaporeans. In the article above, Elzerie had mentioned
that living in Singapore or Manila can be stressful.
Yes, Singapore had become a pressure-pot with long working hours and most
workers felt stressful which PAP had repeatedly denied. Most foreigners from
third world countries will leave Singapore in a few years after acquiring the
skill that they need. This had caused a constant shortage of skill workers and
newly arrived foreigners also need time to adjust to the work environment in
Singapore.
As Singapore goes for the cheap alternatives, most IT foreign workers may not
be as skillful as promoted by PAP. This may therefore be the reason for the
several security breaches for the last few years. Many companies had refused to
invest in Human Resource especially in IT security and depended on cheap
alternatives which may not work.
There is also other security risks with a mostly foreigner dominated IT
sector. As most IT administrators had high level security access, this means
that they have access to confidential data of most companies. Any System
Administrator will understand what I trying to say because they usually have the
Domain Administrator’s password!
As most company had only one or two top level system administrators, they
virtually have access to all data in the company. However, if they decided to
play Edward Snowden, I don’t think the management is even aware of the breach!
Even if the management discovered the breach, it is not easy to take legal
action against the rogue employee if that person had left Singapore. Even if the
company managed to take a rogue employee to task, the data may have already been
leaked and the damage done may not be recoverable!
I used to work in an IT firm which provides IT support to companies without
in-house IT administrators. One of my foreign colleague from India (FYI, I am
the only Singaporean in my company) decided to return to India without
fulfilling his two years contract. He just returned to India without informing
my ex-company. My ex-company had decided not to take legal action against him
for the breach of employment contract as suing a foreigner who had left
Singapore can be extremely tedious and expensive.
However, after he had left Singapore, he had attempted to breach our system.
My ex-company make a police report but nothing had been done so far and locating
him in India is almost impossible. Cross country criminal proceeding can be very
complicating and the police in India were highly corrupted and incompetent. We
doubt they will ever bother to look into this case and we knew there will be no
outcome on this.
However, the worst discovery was that he had copied some confidential files
from one of our customer’s server to his computer. He had probably forgotten to
remove these files from his computer. How much or how long had he stolen data
from our customer is unknown. How many of our customers that he could have
stolen data is also unknown because he had been accessing customers’ severs for
one year! There were simply too many logs to check and my ex-company does not
want to alert their customers of the situation! My ex-company also did not even
dare to make a police report on this for fear that our customer will know about
the breach.
My ex-company suspected that my rogue foreign colleague had stolen our
customer’s data to sell them to third party and till now, I think my
ex-company’s customer is still not aware of the risk.
I have already witnessed a case of security breach of my ex-company and can
our IT and banking sector afford such a breach? Maybe I am wrong because our
system may have already been breach judging from the Singpass account
breach!
As Singapore had no natural resources and we only have to depend on human
resources, but why are we losing skills that need to keep the economy going or
progressing? PAP’s myopic immigration policy had caused the IT, Banking and
Engineering sector to be hollowed out by foreigners, how many more sectors that
PAP wants to repeat this hollowing out effect?
NMP Eugene Tan had commented that immigration is the “Mother of all issues”
in Singapore, but I am doubtful that PAP will agree.
Dico
* Submitted by TRE reader
I dare you Stinkees to vote me out in 2016! Only know how to kao peh kao bu! *chey*
[Editor's note: This is an excellent article submitted
by a TRE reader. Highly recommended to read!]
IT personnel from India
Tan Chuan Jin said:
“50 firms that have a disproportionately low share of Singaporean
professionals, managers and executives compared to others in their industry”
“In some cases, the issue may not be a problem with their HR practices per
se, but rather, a gap in the skills that are available in the local
workforce”.
(Source: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/govt-identifies-more-50-firms-too-few-sporean-professionals)
especially in the banking, services and IT sectors.
As usual, Tan Chuan Jin had conveniently pushed the blame to Singaporeans for
the lack of skill in the IT, Service and Banking sectors.
However, he did not mention the reason for the lack of skill in these
sectors. Before the ‘Great Foreigner Influx’ policy starting somewhere in the
early 2000s and got worse after Lee Hsien Loong took up the Premiership, there
were hardly any reports regarding a great mismatch of skill in these sectors in
the 80s and 90s.
The influx of foreigners in these sectors was due to PAP’s open door ‘Foreign
Talent’ policy which led to many skilled Singaporeans losing their jobs. Most
was unable to find jobs in these sectors and many changed their ‘careers’. While
the some lucky ones were able to get employment outside Singapore in developed
countries, many were force to ‘downgrade’ to jobs like driving taxis which is
irrelevant to the skill that they had acquired through sheer hard work for many
years!
It takes many years to train an IT specialist but you will lose the skill
easily after ‘hands-off’ for a couple of years.
Young Singaporeans were unwilling studying courses in IT, Banking and
engineering for the fear of not able to get a job in these sectors and
eventually, these sectors were hollow out by foreigners. It is even more
difficult to get a job in IT, Banking and Engineering now, because by now most
hiring managers were foreigners who discriminate against Singaporeans. Singapore
had also developed a HR culture that discriminate Singaporeans with the blessing
of PAP which they coined as ‘Foreign Talents’ and Lee Hsien Loong had once
claimed that Singaporeans need to thank foreigners for keeping their jobs!
Even if a Singaporean is able to get a job in these sectors, they were
overwhelmed by the huge number of foreign colleagues in their department. Most
foreigners will never train Singaporeans and they will group together and force
the ‘foreigner’ (The Singaporean in this case) out of the company.
It is therefore not surprising that there is a lack of skill among
Singaporeans in the IT, Banking and Engineering sectors due to PAP’s liberal
immigration policy.
Security and other risk due to PAP’s immigration policy
Singapore had experienced several IT security and network issue lately. The
security issue was so bad that even the Prime Minister’s own website and 1,560
SingPass user accounts were breached. There were also several network issues
which causes island wide banking system failures.
Like the 44 years once Little India Riot and every 50 years ‘Ponding’ issue,
the Singapore System is breaking down. We have security breach, network issue,
transport system breaking down and many other problems for the last few years.
In fact there so much bad news since GE2011 that even Goh Chok Tong had claimed
2012 as a bad year!
Why and what is happening?
There is a report from Bloomberg that Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Poses
Threat in Singapore. (Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...ortage-looms-in-singapore-southeast-asia.html)
Why is there a Cybersecurity skill shortage?
As there is a lacking of skilled IT Singaporeans in the job market due to PAP
liberal immigration policy, the IT sector had been dependent heavily on
foreigners and this is the reason for the security breaches!
Firstly, most foreigners who work in Singapore used Singapore as a
springboard to go to other countries which they bring their skills that they
acquire in Singapore with them to other countries and compete with
Singapore.
Elzerie Alcaide, a Filipina moved to Wellington from Singapore in January.
(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...me=rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews&rpc=401)
Most foreigners in Singapore will never think of Singapore as ‘home’ which
PAP tried to sell to Singaporeans. In the article above, Elzerie had mentioned
that living in Singapore or Manila can be stressful.
Yes, Singapore had become a pressure-pot with long working hours and most
workers felt stressful which PAP had repeatedly denied. Most foreigners from
third world countries will leave Singapore in a few years after acquiring the
skill that they need. This had caused a constant shortage of skill workers and
newly arrived foreigners also need time to adjust to the work environment in
Singapore.
As Singapore goes for the cheap alternatives, most IT foreign workers may not
be as skillful as promoted by PAP. This may therefore be the reason for the
several security breaches for the last few years. Many companies had refused to
invest in Human Resource especially in IT security and depended on cheap
alternatives which may not work.
There is also other security risks with a mostly foreigner dominated IT
sector. As most IT administrators had high level security access, this means
that they have access to confidential data of most companies. Any System
Administrator will understand what I trying to say because they usually have the
Domain Administrator’s password!
As most company had only one or two top level system administrators, they
virtually have access to all data in the company. However, if they decided to
play Edward Snowden, I don’t think the management is even aware of the breach!
Even if the management discovered the breach, it is not easy to take legal
action against the rogue employee if that person had left Singapore. Even if the
company managed to take a rogue employee to task, the data may have already been
leaked and the damage done may not be recoverable!
I used to work in an IT firm which provides IT support to companies without
in-house IT administrators. One of my foreign colleague from India (FYI, I am
the only Singaporean in my company) decided to return to India without
fulfilling his two years contract. He just returned to India without informing
my ex-company. My ex-company had decided not to take legal action against him
for the breach of employment contract as suing a foreigner who had left
Singapore can be extremely tedious and expensive.
However, after he had left Singapore, he had attempted to breach our system.
My ex-company make a police report but nothing had been done so far and locating
him in India is almost impossible. Cross country criminal proceeding can be very
complicating and the police in India were highly corrupted and incompetent. We
doubt they will ever bother to look into this case and we knew there will be no
outcome on this.
However, the worst discovery was that he had copied some confidential files
from one of our customer’s server to his computer. He had probably forgotten to
remove these files from his computer. How much or how long had he stolen data
from our customer is unknown. How many of our customers that he could have
stolen data is also unknown because he had been accessing customers’ severs for
one year! There were simply too many logs to check and my ex-company does not
want to alert their customers of the situation! My ex-company also did not even
dare to make a police report on this for fear that our customer will know about
the breach.
My ex-company suspected that my rogue foreign colleague had stolen our
customer’s data to sell them to third party and till now, I think my
ex-company’s customer is still not aware of the risk.
I have already witnessed a case of security breach of my ex-company and can
our IT and banking sector afford such a breach? Maybe I am wrong because our
system may have already been breach judging from the Singpass account
breach!
As Singapore had no natural resources and we only have to depend on human
resources, but why are we losing skills that need to keep the economy going or
progressing? PAP’s myopic immigration policy had caused the IT, Banking and
Engineering sector to be hollowed out by foreigners, how many more sectors that
PAP wants to repeat this hollowing out effect?
NMP Eugene Tan had commented that immigration is the “Mother of all issues”
in Singapore, but I am doubtful that PAP will agree.
Dico
* Submitted by TRE reader
I dare you Stinkees to vote me out in 2016! Only know how to kao peh kao bu! *chey*
