The following is a letter by Mr Cheong Wing Lee, a Canadian, in response to Mr Eric Brooks’s letter in the Straits Times titled, “Be grateful, Singapore”.
Dear Editor,
As a fellow Canadian I am embarrassed by Mr Eric Brooks’ remarks to Singaporeans. Mr. Brooks is a visitor with a superficial knowledge of Singapore history. He should refrain from making such ridiculous sweeping statements.
I was born shortly after the Second World War and raised in Singapore before immigrating to Canada. I have worked and lived in more countries than Mr Brooks. There is no doubt that most Singaporeans deeply appreciate the outstanding work done by the Singapore leaders in bringing the country from third world status to the present world class status. However, gratitude evolves with time and social changes. Singaporeans are now better educated. They travel, see, learn, compare and adapt. Singaporeans are not stupid or naive.
Singaporeans now have a higher level of thinking and are more demanding. This demonstrates progress. Higher aspirations, greater expectations come with evolving progressive social changes. A society that remains complacent and stagnant deteriorates and eventually collapses. No country can excel with a mindless society of puppets. The Singapore government should be grateful that its citizens are matured and not treat anyone with opposing views as public enemy. Most of them are as passionate as the government in making Singapore a better society.
Singaporeans are smart enough to see through spins and propaganda and evaluate the truths for themselves. It is difficult for most Singaporeans to remain silent whilst government leaders lecture them to be thrifty, not to be materialistic and not to demand for higher pay. On the other hand, the leaders reward themselves with pay packages that exceed the leaders’ of the eight richest countries in the world combined.
The Singapore ministers’ argument that their pay package is only a small fraction of the country’s GDP is weak and debatable. The Canadian prime minister draws less than 10 per cent that of the Singapore prime minister’s but he governs a country 15,000 times the size of Singapore, with a population that is eight times larger and with a GDP that is ten times more. Vancouver in Canada is constantly voted the best place to live in the world. This example put the Singapore government’s argument out of context.
The government gives S$360 a month as financial support for the poor and needy. If such an amount is computed by the government as enough to survive, why then do they need to pay themselves by millions?
I cordially invite any member of parliament and/or news media reporter to come and stay with me for a period of time and I will show them that it takes only a small tiny fraction of their salaries to live happily and healthily in a beautiful environment with a good standard of living.
Is it a surprise that Singaporeans are discontented? It is just human nature. Confucius was quoted as telling the emperor on good government:
“How can the emperor be happy when the people have nothing? How can the emperor not be happy when the people have everything?”
Does Mr. Brooks know that 79% of Singapore students after studying overseas do not return to Singapore? Are they not grateful too?
So Mr. Brooks, before you further make a fool of yourself in Singapore, be grateful to Canada and not complain because of a temporary disruption in garbage collection in Toronto. Be thankful of the good healthcare system and the generous old age pension. If you truly like Singapore you should be a citizen. There are lots of Singaporeans who are willing to trade your citizenship if it is possible.
Yours truly,
Wing Lee Cheong
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The Dear Leader’s term “quitters and losers” is ironic. If the logic is to be followed, that is, if one leaves one’s country to settle somewhere else are all “losers and quitters”, then the Leader’s ancestors must all be “losers and quitters”, right? Afterall didn’t they betray their country and left China? Therefore it is not right to say then, following the Dear Leader’s logic, that almost ALL of Singapore’s population (except the indigenous people) were descendants of “quitters and losers”.
You cannot decide where you were born, BUT you can decide where you want to live. Nationalism is chavinism. The earth is my home, the universe, my country. We are all earthlings therefore, we should be able to wander about freely without borders. Even if the real world does not allow that to happen, we, as individuals, can lead that kind of lifestyle. Just globe-trotting around the world. We must shut out minds to national borders and auto-suggest to ourselves that it DOES NOT exist. Then we are truly FREE!!!
Hi Will4 #50,
79% is only an estimation and it is based on this survey of Singaporeans studying abroad who don’t want to return.
55) Oxford Dude
////According to the survey of 153 Singaporean undergraduates at 15 top US universities, as many as 79 per cent prefer to work in US after they graduate. Only 18.1 per cent want to return to Singapore immediately after they complete their studies.//////
If you go to a roti prata shop and ask the customers how many of them like roti prat, guess what will be the answer?
I like roti prata, but not every day
I’m not sure whether such reasoning has any basis. I may be wrong as this seems a bit far stretched.
Sg gov policies in favoring foreign talents/workers, but caused much unhappiness among citizens.
Decreased in fixed deposits interest rate, lower than inflation, caused people to seek avenues to grow their wealth, like recent stock market rally.
Recent changes to cpf, annuity no longer guarantees amount paid in future, people are afraid, better to use it to invest in something, cpf can be used to buy houses, and real estate is a good hedge against inflation but provided the price is not too high.
Wtih GLCs/TLCs owning stakes in the three main local banks should have the means to increase/decrease SIBOR. You may wonder why SIBOR is low now.
Given that Singapore citizens stood at 3 million with birth rate at 1.29 and decreasing, without favorable foreign talents/workers policies, the three main factors – jobs, incomes and population that determine whether real estate will worth more than now 10 years or more later, will be undesirable for those owning rental properties.
At the end of the day, even though there are many reasons to dislike current gov, some people may have no choice but to vote them in due to investments in properties at too high a price and need the tenants from “grow GDP at all costs.”
Other opposition parties and Singaporeans in general know that certain foreign talents/workers policies are detrimental to their futures and jobs but once again like the estate upgrading, smart for one but dumb for all.
Dear noname:
////At the end of the day, even though there are many reasons to dislike current gov, some people may have no choice but to vote them in due to investments in properties at too high a price and need the tenants from “grow GDP at all costs.”///
Here is your answer. When someone ask Buddha, when will be the end of Buddhism and will human witness that? HE said: “when a leaf can be used as a tool for killing, man evil will be very much deeply rooted and therefore spell end of the Buddhism. But no one will witness that before man destroy the world together with him”.
You said it yourself, ” jobs, incomes and population that determine whether real estate will worth more than now 10 years or more later, will be undesirable for those owning rental properties”.
When the country population and wealth shrinked, who is left to buy the over priced properties? The economy system will collaspe even before reaching that stage. I do believe, PAP will be either long packed their bags along with the wealth and left the country to another or long driven down from their ivory seats by the people.
We all know foreigners are here to make money and leave the country eventually, at some point of the time, they will want to sell their properties off. But we know that real buyer will come from Singaporean, because they have no choice but to stay in our own country. However, due to ill control of properties and living standard, many rich Singaporean would have also left the country. Suddenily there is a over supply of properties, I am afraid many of their value will fall to worthless level.
The only way to sustain Singapore growth is to ensure our property is control within a health level. Artificial demands such as allowing foreigners come in to speculate our properties is a building block of making a country economy collaspe.
Don’t believe? Look at our HDB price, it was jacked up from the resale by selling to the hong kongers and later they sold it back to other foreigners and Singaporean that create the scene today. When other Singaporean realised that they can make
a lot of money doing that, they themselves joined in the crowd and speculate thinking that they can do that better because they will eventually able to buy a new flat being a Singaporean.