New Nation

Because locals cannot cause xenophobia.

The primary cause of xenophobia is foreigners.

Some Singaporeans from some walks of life are blaming foreigners.

This after Singaporean-foreigner relations got a bit more testy these past few weeks as both sides engaged in territorial disputes over who has access to a place in Orchard Road, ironically named, Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza.

One Singaporean, Ben Di Ren, said: “If there were no foreigners in Singapore, Singaporeans wouldn’t even be xenophobic in the first place.”

Other locals backed up this logic.

Hui Jia Xiang, another local, said: “If foreigners leave Singapore now, there will be no xenophobia left.”

Some other locals also jumped to the defence of this logic

Wai Guo Ren, another Singaporean, said: “Singaporeans are very peace-loving people. It is the foreigners who are the cause of xenophobia. So you must blame foreigners for causing animosity instead.”

Banking analysts urge government to remove citizens from the island

Two average local people enjoying an afternoon swim at the infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands. Everyone in Singapore lives like that. For sure. Pic stolen from relax.com.sg

Singapore’s citizens are the biggest threat to national growth, said analysts at Goldman Sachs at an annual wealth conference yesterday, held in Marina Bay Sands.

Speaking at a panel discussion about emerging markets in Asia, the analysts agreed that the increasingly vocal citizenry in the once-orderly island has disrupted economic growth for 2013 and will continue to be a drag on the economy for years to come.

“Let’s be honest here. Does Singapore need Singaporeans? No. The children are taken care off by foreign domestic helpers, the hawkers are Malaysian, the buildings are constructed by Bangladeshis. All Singaporeans are good for are populating the army, which has never gone to war!” said emerging markets specialist, Thomas Money.

Money pointed out that Singapore’s only comparative advantages against its competitors were location, and immigrants. He proposed slowly phasing out Singaporeans so they would be unable to interfere with pro-growth government policies.

“I love the country, but I really can’t stand the people and their disgraceful sense of entitlement. The weather’s great, the gastronomy scene is livening up in Marina Bay Sands, and the women are gorgeous. But the xenophobia on the island is extremely troubling. Without foreigners like myself who bring in capital without paying taxes, Singapore would not be where it is today. And no Singaporean ever thanks us for gracing their backwater island with our presence and cash.”

“If things don’t improve, I might just pack up and leave.”

Other analysts on the panel also noted that as Singapore grew at an astronomical pace under a soft-authoritarian regime, the only way to preserve the country’s economy, is to regress democratically.

“I’m quite ashamed of Singaporeans too,” said commodities specialist Chao Hee Lang who is a local and a weekend volunteer at a migrant workers NGO. “All this xenophobia and hatred… No wonder Lee Kuan Yew once said that only educated people should be able to vote. People like myself, who can see that freedom is not always a good thing.”

“God bless the foreign workers. Without them working at ridiculously low wages, we would never get anything done. And yet, no one is grateful to them for doing us a favour!”

The panel discussion was chaired by Acting Ministry for Economic Affairs, Mr Jin Jue Lui who reassured the audience that the government was already working on a plan to reduce the proportion of native citizens in the population to about 50% by 2030.

The rest just don’t fancy the circumstances forced down their throats.

By Belmont Lay

There are many things that I don’t understand as a normal citizen.

For example, why is Singapore’s population composition the way it is today? How does the authorities even decide which country’s citizens are ripe for the picking?

I know I cannot call the ICA and demand an answer. Neither can I rely on The Straits Times to tell me anything timely.

I mean, on what basis are people granted Singaporean citizenship or permanent residency?

Their ability to speak Mandarin? They have opposable thumbs? Their reproductive organs are functioning?

I can bet you that 99.9 percent of us locals haven’t got a clue.

From a purely humanist perspective, I do know intellectually it is wrong to deny anyone the chance to cross borders to gain access to a better life.

Come on, our forefathers were immigrants. Our forefathers’ forefathers surely did do a bit of uprooting themselves.

And if we go back far enough along the tree of life, basically our ancestors at one point in time crawled out of the African plains.

If they didn’t, we’ll still be there, inside trees, nibbling on branches and termites with our bums exposed to the savannah elements.

Hence, foreigners can come to Singapore to strike out a better living. And they can do it for the betterment of our economy and themselves.

However, I just don’t want to look like an ass telling each and every Singaporean to give foreigners some love and kindness after locals left, right and centre have either just lost their jobs to them or became displaced in some way or another.

Because the reality is this: There exists numerous instances where foreigners have negatively impacted the lives of Singaporeans. Go talk to a retrenched PMET.

Look, the inherent fear of foreigners has been something that has been going on for the longest time in countries such as Australia. Some politicians there feed off the xenophobic mob to try to get elected into parliament.

Here in Singapore, things haven’t gone that way. Or at least, not yet. And that is kind of like the silver lining for now.

But it surely doesn’t help if we infuse the foreigner discussion with platitudes, such as: “We must make foreigners feel welcome” or “Without foreigners, Singapore will cease to function.”

The current leaders who are doing this, please stop.

These statements are grating, meaningless and annoying.

What Singaporeans simply want is:
a) to be kept abreast of our country’s direction and vision and
b) whether there is indeed a policy to skew the current population composition in a certain direction.

Let’s just put it in simpler terms: Why can’t the present government say for certain if there is a preference to boost our population with people from China?

If so, doesn’t this amount to some kind of positive discrimination at work here?

Or, can anyone with any knowledge of our immigration policy confirm if it is just me or is the upper class Chinese expatriate community really getting larger?

And who are the ones making those decisions behind our backs on our behalf?

If Singapore prides itself as being a city-state that cherishes diversity and globalisation and multiculturalism and all the things that make a First World Country, then why not be more transparent about things?

Where can I go to find an honest answer?

From my Punggol PAP MP Janil Puthucheary?

I guess I could, because Janil sure can tell me a lot about getting a citizenship here, you lucky ex-Malaysian, you.

You see, a lot of these details relating to Singapore’s treatment of foreigners are completely fuzzy. And honestly, with my level of intelligence and my honours degree from NUS, I should have been able to figure all this out given some time and vodka.

But alas, no.

Therefore, I can’t help but feel that whatever situation we’re in now is a result of having circumstances shoved down our throats.

And the the people with the real answers aren’t very forthcoming.

You can also just feel it in the air that if certain backroom policies and unofficial stance were made official in black-and-white, the fallout resulting from public rebuke will be biblical.

So here’s the point of today’s missive: A minority of Singaporeans are chronically allergic to foreigners. The vast majority, though, are trying to remain as indifferent as they can towards them. But with increasing difficulty.

We are, after all, already up to here with people on this island.

And I don’t remember ever voting for this.