Education to get a job, so that one could pay off his debt for living, to keep this monetary system afloat.

well its my little opinion.. and sorry if i have damaged anyone’s reputation i dont mean it! xD and did i mention im writing an essay on what makes Singaporeans “Singaporeans”? =)

Firstly, PRs do NOT have it easy in this country. A lot of people come here because yes, the prospects here are better than in their home country but quite a number are people whose jobs have required them to transfer here for a long time or permanently. They work here and are required to contribute just as much to the country as every Singaporean citizen and yet they do not get the same benefits as Singaporeans. Education is still more expensive, healthcare is more expensive, they are denied many scholarships all because they are not Singaporeans. Yet they do not complain not because they are happy of just leading a better life, but because they understand that there is a price to pay to enjoy the benefits of a country when you are not a citizen of that country. Not every PR here has a rosy job or earns millions. There are a significant number who are just normal middle-class people. Not all of them here come here to just reap the benefits of the country and leave in the old age. Even if they do, it actually helps the Singaporean economy to have a greater working population but a smaller ageing population.

Secondly, Singaporeans seem to have a very stereotypical view on why foreigners or PRs are here. For heavens sakes open your eyes and think for more than a minute. For all its flaws the Singaporean gov DOES take care of its people and its people are usually the main beneficiaries of any policy they come about. If there are more foreigners or PRs taking jobs here, it simply means that the Singaporeans are not taking up those jobs. Why would any gov encourage foreigners to come and settle and work in a country if they have their own people to do the job and make the country prosper?? So obviously the case is that Singaporeans are not able to meet the market demand that the country needs to prosper and thus you need others to come in and help you do the job. If you think because of this the education and the employment prospects of being in Singapore are more difficult for a Singaporean then just think. Singapore works on a meritocratic basis. One of its major strengths is that it treats people equally regardless of what your background is. So if foreigners do well in getting jobs and in school, it just means that Singaporeans are not working hard enough. Singaporeans do NOT have the drive and passion to succeed and excel like the foreigners do. DO NOT blam the foreigners or the gov just because you cant be bothered to work hard enough to get what you want. This is not a welfare state where the gov will take care of you even if you dont help yourself. Work for it and there is no reason why you should be able to reap the benefits. I can vouch for this personally being in a university and having both foreigners and Singaporeans as my very good friends. Singaporeans just DO NOT have the drive to achieve something like the foreigners have. So stop complaining that the presence of foreigners excelling everywhere and making it difficult for Singaporeans is not your fault. Simply put, it is.

Thirdly, Singaporeans should change their perception of PRs here. They are not ignorant about Singapore, they are not indifferent towards Singapore and they are not money minded blood suckers just out here to make some money and go back. Coz like you mentioned, if they really are that good and they just cared about money they would have gone to US. The fact that they are here and working in this country for this country means that they do have some form of vested interest here. Stop having such a bad opinion about them. They are no different from your other Singaporean friends who settle in other countries.

Fourthly, its funny how an article on increasing the population of Singapore turns into a foreigner bashing session. The other major factor in the matter is that Singaporeans dont even know the true cause of the problem their country is facing the reason why the policies exist. People complain about overpopulation and lack of space in Singapore to do anything. But they dont seem to understand that if Singaporeans don’t give birth to more children, this country is going to become an immigrant country. If you dont have enough locals to sustain your economy and prosperity then obviously you WILL have to start depending on other people for that. If the fertility does not rise, the size of the Singaporean working population is going to drastically decrease while the ageing population will be large.

Singaporeans should stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for the prosperity of their country. If you dont want foreigners to be here then make sure there is NO NEED for foreigners to sustain and prosper your economy. Make sure you have enough people and passion to do it yourself.

My friends and I felt that Singapore is already too crowded yet our government is targeting a population to a heaven figure of 500m or 650m whichever it was in such tiny island! No wonder there are so many talks held nowadys about mental stress and stress management in our nation and even in companies. Coz, unlike NZ, Australia and European countries, we have had no wide personal space for us to enjoy during off-days with places crowded everywhere except our own house. . And that is another reason why many Singaporeans had chose to leave here for wider personal space and freedom.

Ironically, the birth rate has dropped but the country is still or even crowded than it should be. The reason is many of the est. 400m population are foreigners (including PRs as they are not the citizens). The recent report had stated that about 100m is foreigners( w/o PRs status) and the rest are PRs and citizens. Just look at this figure, you can simply figure out the size of citizens out of this 400m. It is very little coz there are many PRs out of this figure after the 100m foreigners. PR’s identity can be achieve easily here. Take as an example, I was shocked to learn that a foreign student graduated from Polytechnic already can apply for PRs without any year of working experience. And the application is cheap. Unlike Australia, NZ and many other developed nations. Where application for PR status is very strict.

And these foreign students who attained the PRs, get a job easy earning less or even more than a home- breed student doesnt really care much coz as long as they get a job, pay their rental and daily expenses here, they save their so-called little left over. Years gone by, their little left over becomes big and then they exchange these huge ‘little’ left over to their own countries’ currencies will be umpteen big at that time. So these group of PRs enjoy the benefits like a citizen during their stay here but eventually give up their PR status and return home later with great retirements. (although there were some changes in benefits made between a PR and citizen this year- I dont think that’s a big difference)

A fact that there are many PRs at the age of around 40 or more who have been here more than 20 years ago did not tranfer to citizenships. For instance, I have lecturers whom I have known are all like this ( they are considered foreign talents). Apparently, they treat here as a temporary home to get what they want when they are still young and fit. Even if their off-springs were born here and are Singaporeans, will they contribute to the increase of birth rate? The answer is no either coz they have seen Singapore from the first day they were born here.

Some PRs are even brilliant. They took PRs here just to gain qualifications to go over to the developed nations like U.S and eventually become the citizenship of that developed country they go.

Eventually, the strategy that the government takes to attract more foreign talents here to attain PRs first, then Citizenships to contribute to our population growth is a mistake. These foreign talents are not stupid afterall.

I find the low birth rate to be an indication of the failure of the current economic and social policies in Singapore. It could be due to the education system, the economic priorities, or other factors.

If the Government accepts this assessment, then they will have to realise that the Baby Bonus and other incentives have failed. They should be prepared to look at other options.

Otherwise, we have to say goodbye to the Singapore that we know of in the past.

As a 17 years old student, what i can say that the educational system in Singapore is indeed prevent many to marry later. Yup with rising GDP so what? The cost of living in Singapore isnt low either.

As you know that, the education mill stated earlier.. if we finished our “normal” education path. By the time .. we already reach the age of 20 for female and probably more than 25 for men.

Nonetheless.. age 20-26 is indeed an ideal age for marriage. But think again, how many of us can reach financial independent at this moment. I can say not much maybe 10% . As adult who just started working might eventually get financial independent at age 30 to 40 or even 50.

Just my 2 cents of thought

“i bet my parent’s will blow up if they knew im writing in a forum. and yes daniel, i think your point is better off from a singaporean.”

This shows very much the culture of fear that exists in this so-called first world country ! Indeed, it is because of this culture of fear that Singaporean has been marginalized by the government in term of ridiculous rising cost. The foreigner look nothing more than a pawn.

This is exactly another concern that one day will happen. The gov will want to jack up the population to 6.5 millions, and no doubt these foreigner will get to vote as well (Who to study them from voting anyway ? Singaporean ? You must be kidding !). And sure enough, the foreigner will vote the establish due to fear as you have now expressed. In this aspect, you can say FT strategy is double-edge sword as well as it could be seen as political-motivated.

Why we Singaporean want the foreigner to know is the stand of been a citizen and why the citizen is continuously bearing the cost of foreigner infusion that part of government excessive-FT strategy that seem short-sighted. What is the cost of foreigner coming here and moving to greener pasture elsewhere later when the singaporean has to bear the cost of lower wages to put off high price of their house and survival ? Remember, our gov here is money-faced to help themselves than help the local. As long as it makes money for them, everything goes, and that’s why we are adamant about the government.

Why are we serving the same liability to compete in the same field level as foreigner ? Why are there a real discrimation in those serving NS and yet the government pretend nothing happen and assume that employer will be understand ? The government here has become overwhelmingly disconnected with the society as long as pursue their own personal gain as we have seen, and we afraid that excessive-FT strategy is part of their follies that detrimental to future of Singapore as well.

As far, the government made a lot of honest mistake. Remember, when we ask why the government give medicial subsidary to the foreigner, the government then cancel the medical cost where the government should have give citizen better subsidary instead. From here, you can see it is all about profit and money.

So foreigner, please do not blame us but blame it on our government. The government create a society that is survival of fitness except on themselves. I’m sure one day when you start growing up and treat nothing more like digit, you feel likewise.

How much do you know political thing that affect the livelihood of the citizen ?

How much do you know about the national service that we serve ?

How much do you know about the GRC, gov body and how they work ?

I don’t blame you for not knowing anything about Singapore deeply because like many foreigners I interact with, they are so impressed with the images of Singapore that they overlook everything else and rather be ignorant. What Singaporean need is substance not image alone. And sure, the foreigner need image to tell them it is the right place to invest in and that is why gov is making everything beautiful and good at the expense of local.

Do not perceive Singaporean as whiner or complainer but rather ask yourself why Singaporean will want to complain if the gov able to resolve issue that demonstrate competency for their obscene pay ? If they are incompetent, I rather they stop showing how smart they are so that they can give themselve another rise of salary.

I suggest you look beyond the image to see thing as they really are rather than what the media and propaganda want you to believe.

If you really want to know what happening to Singapore, good blogs that worth reading:
http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/
http://aaron-ng.info/blog/its-not-just-the-jobs.html
http://mollymeek.livejournal.com/

Singaporean do not complain for the sake of complaining, we have much better thing to do.