PM Lee acknowledges work pass holders bringing in social practices and class distinctions that cause frictions
Former Cabinet Minister Dhanabalan pointed to professionals from India years ago
by Correspondent30/08/2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
At the National Day Rally last night (29 Aug), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged the existence of social frictions arise between Singaporeans and foreign work pass holders in Singapore.
He noted that most work pass holders do not stay long enough to integrate fully into Singapore’s society. “Social frictions arise because culturally, work pass holders are different from us,” he said. “They look like us, yet they don’t act like us.”
He added that there is a need to ease such social frictions. “Both sides need to make the effort. Singaporeans must be open to living with and accepting others who are not exactly like us. Non-Singaporeans here must accept the ethos and norms of our society, and make the effort to fit in,” he said.
Continuing, PM Lee said that Singapore is generally an egalitarian society.
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“But some work pass holders and their families bring with them social practices and class distinctions from their own countries. These run counter to the informal and equal way Singaporeans interact with one another, and that causes frictions,” he acknowledged. “Non-Singaporeans must understand how Singapore is, so that they can fit in better.”
He said he decided to acknowledge the problem so as to “address Singaporeans’ legitimate concerns” and “defuse resentments over foreigners”.
Bringing in caste culture from India
PM Lee did not name which countries these work pass holders that he referred to as bringing with them “social practices and class distinctions from their own countries”.
But interestingly, in an interview with SPH in 2015, former Cabinet Minister S. Dhanabalan has already given some clues.
He noted that the new Indians from India, who are mostly professionals, bring “bad habits” with them, which most of the Indians in Singapore have forgotten or got rid off. “They have a very strong sense of caste,” he said.
“In fact I’ve heard of instances where, in major American banks, an Indian was put up for promotion by a non-Indian. The non-Indian boss was told that you better not promote him because he’s in the wealth management part of the bank and he’s got to talk to other professional Indians to persuade them to put the money with you, and he’s not of the caste that they will respect.”
“So can you imagine these are people who studied overseas, outside India, who have done well and now work in an American bank and are still holding on to such caste prejudices,” Mr Dhanabalan said of these professional work pass holders from India. It’s something Singapore should reject completely, he added.
“But they do bring it with them. They may have lived many years outside of India but they remain very strongly caste-conscious. They will deny it. So this particular Indian was not promoted, but was given another job of a higher level which did not involve trying to sell the bank’s services to professional Indians. That’s something that is very disturbing,” Mr Dhanabalan lamented.
“It may even go into languages – division by languages. Whether someone speaks Marathi as against Gujarati. A Gujarati against Indians who are Tamil speakers. Tamils against Telugus and Telugus against Kannadas. This feeling is very strong in India. That’s why states are getting divided… So we must ensure that they do not bring this, what I call ‘primitive ideas’ here.”
Mr Dhanabalan said such practices that come from India are not relevant to Singapore. “So if they want to be a part of Singapore and be integrated, they have to get rid of this kind of thinking. They may be upset by what I’m saying, but I think it needs to be said,” he spoke candidly.
Presently, as revealed by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng in Parliament in Jul this year after questioning by oppositions, about 25 percent of the 177,100 employment pass (EP) holders in Singapore came from a single country – India. Dr Tan did not disclose the proportion for S Pass holders.
Ministry of Manpower announced last year that 47 companies with suspected discriminatory hiring practices have been placed on its Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) watchlist.
Of the 47 companies, 30 (64 per cent) are in the financial and professional services sectors. They include banks, fund management firms, management consulting companies, as well as firms that provide project management and engineering services.
MOM said that all 30 of the financial and professional services employers have a “high concentration of PMETs from single nationalities”.
In one financial institution in the fund management industry, almost three-quarters of their PMETs are of the same nationality and in another bank, almost two-thirds of the PMETs are also of the same nationality, MOM revealed. The Ministry, however, did not name the nationality in this financial institution.
Mr Dhanabalan also opined that caste is probably much less among the Indian Singaporeans. “I mean I’m completely unconscious of people’s caste,” he said of himself.
Mr Dhanabalan left the Cabinet and the government in 1992. Year later, he revealed that his leaving had been due to differences of opinion with the other Cabinet members over the arrests of 22 people under the Internal Security Act in 1987. The group, many of whom were linked to the Catholic Church, was accused to be involved in a Marxist conspiracy to overthrow the Singapore government
