Foreigner served national service but still rejected as citizen
Transitioning.sg
While I have no qualms about what you do, I do think you should go about doing it differently.
I understand that helping Singaporeans get a better job is a noble cause but you have to understand the gravity of the situation now.
Instead of focusing on things that will actually help (retraining of skills, upgrading skills) your website is currently mongering hate towards foreigners whether you INTEND to or not.
The results of your actions – no matter how noble the intentions they may be – are still quite unsavory.
I am a foreigner. My father is a citizen and I have served NS just like your local boys.
But I still haven’t been allowed to be a citizen even though my whole family are already Singaporeans.
We’ve been here since 1994 by the way so my father has gone through everything you yourself have gone through.
I have also gone through everything your own local boys have gone through, albeit with less advantages.
It used to be the case that once you complete NS as a PR you would be given citizenship.
But now its changed. There are 2 possible reasons that I can think of at the moment – with what I know.
1) The citizenship offer is valid to those who are serving NS as PRs and three months before ORD, the individual has to approach his camp’s S1 dept to facilitate this application. For my case, I did that but apparently my application was not even SENT OUT due to negligience on the part of the S1 personnel. What I was told was that he did not hand over the application to his understudy before the ORD so the guy taking over didn’t send it out. Hence, the application was delayed till after my ORD. And now ICA says that I can only apply through SAF if I have not ORDed yet. So that venue is closed to me.
2) Another possible reason is that many of your friends and fans are complaining too much about FTs and PRs so this could be a new measure by ICA to stem the flow of PRs getting citizenship. This is why I asked you to be careful of what you are spreading. Your complaints and grumblings can affect people like us who have done everything that you locals have done but are now left in this situation. Tell me if I have the right to be angry about this or not?
Before they became citizens, my family has never had any advantages that many people are claiming we have access to.
Many Singaporeans are also under the false impression that we have the same subisdies, savings plans etc that you locals have.
Let me make it clear to you that this is not the case.
My family paid every cent for my education here since Primary school while the local children have an almost free education.
They have Edusave to subsidize outside of school activities like camps and excursions while we don’t.
But we still worked hard to get ourselves to the top of the game while many of the local children (not all by the way) played around and took things easy – thus affecting their grades in school.
Now that these young adults are coming of age and start to look for jobs, THEY blame US for the fact that they can’t get a job when its obvious that if they have work harder like us in school – they wouldn’t have any problem finding employment.
And from what I can see, you are also jumping on the band wagon and claiming if we aren’t here, there would be jobs for the locals?
Let me tell you Gilbert, if these locals don’t work hard, either way they will not be able to get jobs whether we are here or not.
Perhaps instead of doing drastic things like making a petition to oust the foreigners why not start a campaign targeted towards making Singaporeans work harder at achieving their goals?
To put things into perspective, I’ll tell you a real life encounter I recently had.
Currently, before I continue with my further studies, I have some free time.
So what I did in order to keep myself occupied and earn some money to use during my uni is to teach private tuition to primary students. Its an honest and fulfilling way to make money.
A friend of mine from NS who ORDed a few days apart from me is also going for further studies the same time next year.
When asked if he was doing anything during the interim - this is what he replied and I quote the exact words he used:-
“Aiya! work for what??after get my degree from NUS conform got job la..u think they hire me, or some ah tiong or pinoy meh? what they know about business in singarpore?so now free must enjoy enjoy a bit ma”
As you can see, he tends to look down on foreigners’ ability to do the same job as him.
He is under the impression that as a local with a degree, he is practically guaranteed a job once he graduates.
And he would rather “enjoy enjoy” than earn something while there is some free time in between.
I’m not implying all locals are like him – only those who cannot get a job now.
Those who work on par with us foreigners have no problem getting a job.
Of course local employers would rather hire their own people than outsiders but when it comes to employee performance, mindset and eventually profits, they can’t afford to be sentimental or patriotic right?
However, if you yourself are of the opinion that you are higher then others simply because you are a local, then my friend Gilbert, its safe to declare that you’re a lost cause.
Simon
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=53593#1
Transitioning.sg
While I have no qualms about what you do, I do think you should go about doing it differently.
I understand that helping Singaporeans get a better job is a noble cause but you have to understand the gravity of the situation now.
Instead of focusing on things that will actually help (retraining of skills, upgrading skills) your website is currently mongering hate towards foreigners whether you INTEND to or not.
The results of your actions – no matter how noble the intentions they may be – are still quite unsavory.
I am a foreigner. My father is a citizen and I have served NS just like your local boys.
But I still haven’t been allowed to be a citizen even though my whole family are already Singaporeans.
We’ve been here since 1994 by the way so my father has gone through everything you yourself have gone through.
I have also gone through everything your own local boys have gone through, albeit with less advantages.
It used to be the case that once you complete NS as a PR you would be given citizenship.
But now its changed. There are 2 possible reasons that I can think of at the moment – with what I know.
1) The citizenship offer is valid to those who are serving NS as PRs and three months before ORD, the individual has to approach his camp’s S1 dept to facilitate this application. For my case, I did that but apparently my application was not even SENT OUT due to negligience on the part of the S1 personnel. What I was told was that he did not hand over the application to his understudy before the ORD so the guy taking over didn’t send it out. Hence, the application was delayed till after my ORD. And now ICA says that I can only apply through SAF if I have not ORDed yet. So that venue is closed to me.
2) Another possible reason is that many of your friends and fans are complaining too much about FTs and PRs so this could be a new measure by ICA to stem the flow of PRs getting citizenship. This is why I asked you to be careful of what you are spreading. Your complaints and grumblings can affect people like us who have done everything that you locals have done but are now left in this situation. Tell me if I have the right to be angry about this or not?
Before they became citizens, my family has never had any advantages that many people are claiming we have access to.
Many Singaporeans are also under the false impression that we have the same subisdies, savings plans etc that you locals have.
Let me make it clear to you that this is not the case.
My family paid every cent for my education here since Primary school while the local children have an almost free education.
They have Edusave to subsidize outside of school activities like camps and excursions while we don’t.
But we still worked hard to get ourselves to the top of the game while many of the local children (not all by the way) played around and took things easy – thus affecting their grades in school.
Now that these young adults are coming of age and start to look for jobs, THEY blame US for the fact that they can’t get a job when its obvious that if they have work harder like us in school – they wouldn’t have any problem finding employment.
And from what I can see, you are also jumping on the band wagon and claiming if we aren’t here, there would be jobs for the locals?
Let me tell you Gilbert, if these locals don’t work hard, either way they will not be able to get jobs whether we are here or not.
Perhaps instead of doing drastic things like making a petition to oust the foreigners why not start a campaign targeted towards making Singaporeans work harder at achieving their goals?
To put things into perspective, I’ll tell you a real life encounter I recently had.
Currently, before I continue with my further studies, I have some free time.
So what I did in order to keep myself occupied and earn some money to use during my uni is to teach private tuition to primary students. Its an honest and fulfilling way to make money.
A friend of mine from NS who ORDed a few days apart from me is also going for further studies the same time next year.
When asked if he was doing anything during the interim - this is what he replied and I quote the exact words he used:-
“Aiya! work for what??after get my degree from NUS conform got job la..u think they hire me, or some ah tiong or pinoy meh? what they know about business in singarpore?so now free must enjoy enjoy a bit ma”
As you can see, he tends to look down on foreigners’ ability to do the same job as him.
He is under the impression that as a local with a degree, he is practically guaranteed a job once he graduates.
And he would rather “enjoy enjoy” than earn something while there is some free time in between.
I’m not implying all locals are like him – only those who cannot get a job now.
Those who work on par with us foreigners have no problem getting a job.
Of course local employers would rather hire their own people than outsiders but when it comes to employee performance, mindset and eventually profits, they can’t afford to be sentimental or patriotic right?
However, if you yourself are of the opinion that you are higher then others simply because you are a local, then my friend Gilbert, its safe to declare that you’re a lost cause.
Simon
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=53593#1
