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We apologise for not updating this website the last couple of days. TOC is taking a few days’ break. We’ll be back soon.
Leong Sze Hian was invited by BlogTV to pen an article for them. We publish it below.
Before we talk about whether Singaporeans deserve to have more privileges than PRs and foreigners, perhaps we could first ask whether there may be any areas whereby foreigners or PRs have “more privileges” than Singaporeans?
Employers which employ foreigners, do not have to contribute CPF. So, the employer saves up to 14.5 per cent of the salary.
Employ a female on the S-Pass or work permit, you don’t have to worry about the four months maternity leave if you employ a Singaporean lady. As I understand it, the conditions of the S-Pass and work permit forbids them from becoming pregnant.
If you employ a Singaporean male, he has up to 40 days of reservist liability in a year. In contrast, employing a foreign or PR male, eliminates this problem.
Since those on say work permits are stuck with the same employer for up to three years, the employer may not have a turnover problem – Singaporean employees can resign anytime.
So, is the playing field level in employment, for Singaporeans, vis-à-vis foreigners?
In this regard, I think Singaporeans may not even be asking for “more privileges”, but just a more level playing field.
Moreover, since foreigners do not have to make their own employee’s CPF contribution of up to 20 per cent, their disposable income may be more than a Singaporean worker.
This may be one of the reasons why the wages of lower-income, lower-skilled jobs may have been declining over the years.
For example, cleaners that used to earn about $800 a month a few years ago, now only earn about $650.
As Singaporeans typically have families to feed, mortgages to service, relative to foreigners or PRs who may generally be here alone, Singaporeans may find it more difficult to accept lower paying jobs, for the simple fact that it may not be enough for their basic needs relative to foreigners and PRs.
The manpower regulations require employers to insure all foreign workers for at least $5,000 of medical insurance cover.
However, there is no such requirement for Singaporean workers.
So, in some companies, we have the abnormality of foreign workers being insured, whereas Singaporeans are not.
This is another example of “less privileges” rather than “more privileges”.
PR siblings (below age 35) qualify to buy resale HDB flats. However, Singaporean PR siblings (below age 35) do not. Why is it that in this aspect, even PRs may have “more privileges” than Singaporeans?
I think what may really irk Singaporeans, may not be so much about how much more or less privileges there are, but rather how many Singaporeans these “privileges” policies may be affecting.
In order to answer this question, we need for example, the break-down of the unemployment statistics into Singaporeans and PRs, instead of lumping them together as residents; HDB flats purchased by PRs relative to citizens, etc.
PRs who have no jobs may be able to more easily return to their home country, sell their HDB flats, etc, but Singaporeans generally have no choice but to find work and stay in Singapore.
We may also need to be more discerning in examining the statistics when we ask for more privileges, as sometimes, when say PRs and foreigners have to pay more for medical fees relative to Singaporeans, it may be Singaporean employers, Singaporean households, who may be bearing the brunt of the fees increase, as they are the ones paying for their foreign/PR employees, domestic maids, non-Singaporean spouses and relatives.
For example, when fees increase for foreigners and PRs, but remain the same for Singaporeans, it may not be “more privileges”.
Instead, it may be a greater financial burden for some Singaporeans, unless increase in fees for foreigners and PRs, means lower fees for Singaporeans.
An alumnus of Harvard University, Leong Sze Hian has authored 4 books, been quoted over 1000 times in the media , host of a radio show on money matters and a daily newspaper column, has been a Wharton Fellow and invited to speak more than 100 times in more than 20 countries on 5 continents. He has served as Honorary Consul of Jamaica, Chairman of the Institute of Administrative Management, and founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of Indonesia and Brunei.
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240) mice is nice
1. hotel need to pay rent?
No need. But the biz cost is mainly staffs’ wages, that is my point.
2. do employing cleaners cost alot? are they not the always & still is among the lowest wage workers?
But the biz cost is mainly all workers’ wages, that is my point.
KopitiamApek,
“No need. But the biz cost is mainly staffs’ wages, that is my point.”
i am sceptical about that kind of statement. its your point but how true is it in reality?
strange how our world class work force are often coaxed to accept 3rd world salaries in a world class nation. does it make sense? what more S’pore is often ranked highly when it comes to cost of living.
as for wages costing more than rentals, i will leave it to other posters to contribute their knowledge. i do not have to figures.
“But the biz cost is mainly all workers’ wages, that is my point.”
mops, brooms & pails cost less for sure. even the cost of pressurised jetsprays can be had for $1200, which maybe 2 months salary of the staff.
do cleaners earn enough to sustain themselves (start a family, take care of their parents & have enough for retirement) even if some ponder about joining this industry? that is my point.
254) mice is nice
we got to split the 2 issues here
1. biz sustainabilty
2. workers wages
they are conflicting interests
1.
in order to succesfully get the cleaning contracts, if the cleaning contractors pay $2000 (say) per cleaner, they will never ever get a cleaning contract, not with the Town Councils not with pte condos.
It is a race to the bottom, if I may borrow a fellow poster’s words.
So they get cheap workers to stay in biz.
If the bidding system is changed to allow quality bids that cost more, or if the cleaning contractors collude to raise the tender amount, the end result will be hifgher conservancy charges.
Do we put the money where our mouth is and pay the higher charges?
(please do not answer with the billions lost by you-know-who)
2
////do cleaners earn enough to sustain themselves (start a family, take care of their parents & have enough for retirement) even if some ponder about joining this industry? that is my point./////
the answer is no.
You cannot improve working conditions for such work no matter how hard you try.
that is why there will hardly any be singaporean cleaners no matter how hard we try.
the way forward for the garbage collection is automation.
Centralsied rubbsuh chutes (implemented), mechanised sweepers for road cleaning (implemented) and on the long term automatic below ground pneumatic pipe waste disposal system.
It will reduce dependency on, but will not eliminate the need for manpower.
KopitiamApek,
that is the problem, you see them as isolated issues to be looked into, while i se them as part of a web of issues that are interconnected.
for point 1:
using Town Council is a very poor example, they have been hoarding money that depressed wages of cleaners. lost a fraction of the amount leading todepressed wages for those contracted cleaners.
for point 2:
////You cannot improve working conditions for such work no matter how hard you try.
that is why there will hardly any be singaporean cleaners no matter how hard we try.////
hmmm, can i refresh your memory on positive thinking in,
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/08/foreigners-we-have-been-calibrating-the-inflows-says-nps/comment-page-2/#comment-101453
post #91 on August 30th, 2009 8.23 pm
256) mice is nice on August 30th, 2009 11.29 pm
KopitiamApek,
that is the problem, you see them as isolated issues to be looked into, while i se them as part of a web of issues that are interconnected.
point 1:
using Town Council is a very poor example, they have been hoarding money that depressed wages of cleaners. lost a fraction of the amount leading todepressed wages for those contracted cleaners.
point 2:
////You cannot improve working conditions for such work no matter how hard you try.
that is why there will hardly any be singaporean cleaners no matter how hard we try.////
hmmm, can i refresh your memory on positive thinking in,
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/08/foreigners-we-have-been-calibrating-the-inflows-says-nps/comment-page-2/#comment-101453
post #91 on August 30th, 2009 8.23 pm
250) very concerned mom
“my family is feeling the heat in all fronts..education, job prospects, rising costs of basic necessities (these days, fifty dollars don’t buy much..i used to be able to feed my family of four on fifty dollars)”
Same here. I worry about money and my family’s future the 1st thing I wake up every morning…sighs.
Wow! So many comments over the weekend. Seems like war already.
“Why cant the Goverment give tax rebate to the corporation and company for hiring Singaporeans.” : Kezu.
Yup! Why can’t they indeed.
@ 205) Agent008 on August 28th, 2009 5.48 pm:
Well said – kudos!
@230) budamax1952 on August 29th, 2009 4.19 pm,
I agree that it is good to be noble but let me explain why we should not even contemplate being compassionate, in this instance. To do this, we need to see the difference between FT and FW.
The government has been proclaiming the importance of FT but silently opening the doors to FW. FTs is what Singapore need (if going by the government’s reasoning is anything to go by) but it is FWs that it is bringing in.
Why? Because the FTs are in those positions that make decisions on who to hire – and obviously, being the talent that they are, coupled with the need to show results the Singapore way – which is all about profits – it is inevitable that these FTs hire workers from their own home countries.
The fault nay lie with the government’s open-door policy, but it is the manner in which businesses are run that is the problem. FTs employing FWs are creating mayhem to our economic and social instability.
Actually it goes 2 ways :
(a) FTs in hiring positions bring in workers from their countries.
(b) FT’s not in hiring positions recommend workers from their home countries to their non-FT bosses. Sometimes, for 1 available position, we get 4-5 workers from their countries recommended, in addition to the fact these employees gave good testimonies on them.
in my course of work now, i do feel the heat of like ‘ at the mercy of FTs and FWs as they seem to take control of work places and creating little village of their own.
most of the time, i keep wondering ‘what the hell is this country of ours doing with their own brotherhood fellows?’
i also hate FT. i was once betrayed by a FT manager in a bank here.
but at the end of it all, i think :” fark man, if i keep on whining here, they will keep screwing me.” so i shut up and move on and keep upgrading myself.
the FT is a threat but it keeps me wanting to do better.
one day i will go back and fark the ah-nei manager big time.
pui!
In reality the issue of FT are global issue.
Singaporean that are FT in other countries ie China, India and so on are look upon the same way we see FT here.
There are no reason why their locals cant do the same job, but the supposed prestige that comes with hiring FT is usually the main reason for the influx of FT in their country. So they have the same sentiments as we do.
Are we localizing a global issue?
Esp in China, they are constantly upgrading themselves without having any prompting from Govn. That mentality that we should emulate while leave the negative sentiment aside.
Thank you for the insightful blogpost. The Singapore Democrats have featured your post in our blogs of the week section – http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/blogs-of-the-week
“…they seem to take control of work places and creating little village of their own…” : Mike.
You sure know what you are talking about. Let me relate the situation in my office to lend support to your words.
My department has 70 plus workers. Fortunately, the managers and executives are all Singaporeans. In fact, my manager was formerly a director of one of the CDCs. He very much agrees with me that the PAP has lost some of its direction and that the influx of foreign workers is getting out of hand.
The most unfortunate part was that when he took over, there were already so many foreign workers in the department – all employed by the former manager – whose main consideration was to cut cost then. Cheap labour was the preferred choice.
The result of having so many foreign workers is that they tend to gather among themselves. During the course of their daily work, they would consult among themselves, in their own language and support each other when arguing a point.
During break times, they also mingle among themselves and whenever a Singaporean colleague comes within their circle, they will give the impression that he is not welcomed. They are oblivious to their surroundings, bringing food that smell like dead rats when micro-waved. Talk at the top of their voice and laughing as if they own the whole damn place.
Who are these foreigners you may ask. Well, they come from the Philippines, Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia.
Kezu,
post #263 on August 31st, 2009 2.29 pm
////In reality the issue of FT are global issue.
Are we localizing a global issue?////
the reality that despite it being a global issue, there are rather specific issues unique to each country.
how many country so small opens it’s doors so wide to immigrants?
Japanese have leveled the playing field by voting out the ruling party.
Now , as with almost all countries that held election recently since 2008, have seen their ruling parties REPLACED by their Loyal Opposition.
Except ….
ya, i remember
France had Sarkozi replaced their ruling party,
Malaysian Opposition have been winning and winning more and more .
USA Opposition won the election recently,
Japan LDP lost to DPJ – their citizens Terminated LDP’s service after 50 long years!!
Singapore ……. sigh…
our party got so much $$ retire early, buy home in another country, every day is happy go lucky!!
I saw on the ST dated 25 august a job agency hiring tens of contract staff to provide service to companies . job is priced at about $900. it asks for singaporeans and pr.
I hope TOC readers can advice me , do empolyers get to receive JCS if they hire residents who are contract staff?
When is JCS ending?
some even offer contract for 3months. That is 1 quarter.
#268,
I wish to inform you that you missed out at least 1 other example of Opposition DEFEATING Ruling parties : THAILAND, land of smiles.
Since 2007 to 2009 the world is all about Oppositions Defeating the Ruling parties.
People, feel free to add to the list.
If you cannot give better lives to the People , Sack You!
256) mice is nice ,
//////that is the problem, you see them as isolated issues to be looked into, while i se them as part of a web of issues that are interconnected. ///////
A problem cannot be solved at the same level of thinking as when it was created. : Einstein
“Do or do not, there is no try” I see no connection of this quote to #2
KopitiamApek
post #272 on August 31st, 2009 10.28 pm
“A problem cannot be solved at the same level of thinking as when it was created. : Einstein”
the thing is are you even looking at the problem without tinted eyes? there is such a thing as failure to see things as they are….
“I see no connection of this quote to #2″
then you are doomed to repeat your mistakes till you do. ;)
To all new citizens, do not think that the present government who treated you first class by giving scholarship, job opportunities and $40,000 to purchase HDB flat in the open market, hence you should vote for them. If the present government can treat us like a discartable toy, so can you be treated the same. A leopard will not change it’s spot. Have you heard of the taxi driver with PhD. You owe them nothing except Singapore whom are the people. Think about your future and those of your children and get rid of such people who are forcing our children to consider migration oversea. Vote the people who put Singapore first – loyalty to their people and not loyalty to the party.
It might seem unrelated but it forms the foundation of what the ruling party or should I say our great MM believed in. Whether we have reached this ideal or aspiration , I would let the people make their own judgement. People cannot expect the future to be secured just because we have glowing testimonies, history books, wonderful videos and fear inducing speeches. We need to ask ourselves, what will happen when we become old, what will happen when we lose our jobs, what will happen if i get sick, what will happen to my children in the future. Is the sacrifices we have made over the 50 years being rewarded or are only a few enjoying. Hope TOC puts these words somewhere permanently so that all can remember.
” I’m told repression is like making love- it’s always easier the second
time. The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt.But once
embarked on this course, with constant repetition, you get more and more brazen int the attack and in the scope of the attack. All you have to do
is dissolve organisations and societies and banish or detain the key
political workers in the societies. Then, miraculously, everything is tranquil on
the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio
together can regularly sing your praise, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done. Or if these things are referred to again the’re conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity because there will be no oppositiion to contradict.”
People are we forgeting the evil things….
Jobs and bond-free scholarships for foreigners–NS from 18-50 for citizens.
What a wonderful govt.
Only priority citizens get is 18-50 NS.
How is the CEO search at TH coming along?
Has WKS got back MAS SELA?
268) to #267 on August 31st, 2009 4.35 pm ,
bro, dont sigh and give up hope. as long as you are eyeing for what you want, it will happened. cheers, man!
265) gemami on August 31st, 2009 4.07 pm ,
i am pissed and sad and no feeling for this government. i welcome foreigners but not over doing it in this stage. this bunch of idiot elites in the govenment just dont bother how the general public and less mortal feel. what they care is money and ranking..
272) KopitiamApek on August 31st, 2009 10.28 pm
256) mice is nice ,
hey guy, you missed Taiwan too. so likely next is who yea…….:)
Dear Singaporean, please do not get angry but use the energy to better yourself. I am speaking from personal experience. I bought a one way ticket to UK after enrolling myself on a degree course. Just enough money to pay the fee and air ticket. Then I set about applying for educational grant, scholarship and part time employment. Life was tough but I felt I was doing something worth well. I had noe completed my degree and MSc. Even today, Germany is providing free Uni education and if you think “I can’t read German” don’t worry, they also provide one year German courses free for those who wished to pursue further education. Personally, I had known several Malaysian who had gone through this route. Many do part time job in restaurant to get by. Apply to the university or colledges in English and if you could get someone to translate them into German, so much the better.
For what its worth, i believe the ‘privileges’ of being singaporean are getting more insignificant these 5-10 years past, in comparison to PR.
The government are trying so hard to import these FT, (let just say they are as good as the government hope for).
But what would entice them to stay on and convert to citizenship?
There has to be significant difference between Singaporean and PR, to further entice them. If not they are just like Temp Staff in a company. (Come today gone tomorrow)
Sigh, should have retained the PR, instead of converting. Sigh
281) Kezu on September 1st, 2009 4.30 pm ,
you sound like u have converted from PR to citizenship. oh, goodness!
lots of my malaysian friends staying in singapore for more than 20 years and remained as PR, they knew too well about this governement. next PRC is doing the same. smart move!
so Kezu, you move was a genuine mistake. can’t be help. face it like us and but at least you have a A-Card which is your right to Vote. so use it wisely, man. good luck!
Kezu,
maybe you should sound the bell of caution to your former countrymen, where you were from…
#282) Mike, i know. Sigh.
#283) mice is nice. ; i wont do a such thing. They should come and suffers along. Misery should be shared. :-)
#125,
“I used to work in a place where i am the only singaporean. ”
oh, let me guess, IT right?
kekekekeke.
SAD.
#125,
“I used to work in a place where i am the only singaporean. ”
I am not the only Singaporean in my place, but we ARE becoming an endangered species soon to extinct
What can we expect? Foreigners have been flooding in masses over the past decade.
Vote out the clown in the next coming GE
Foreigners coming is not a problem.
If they dont want to convert to citizenship, then we are no more than just providing ‘Hotel Singapura’.
Waste of time.
We need minimum wages !
Without foreigners, Singapore will be a dead city!
No one to build the houses.
No one to work in the manufacturing, service and construction sectors.
No one to tour the island.
No one to study in the universities.
No one to shop in the malls.
No one to pay taxes.
Think about it!
> Without foreigners, Singapore will be a dead city!
I don’t think most Singaporeans are against foreigners per se. However, as in all things, there is a limit to everything. Currently, we are importing too many foreigners working here.
> No one to build the houses.
> No one to work in the manufacturing, service and construction sectors.
Again, we are not saying stopping foriegn workers altogether. Sure, we do need them but care has to be given to Singaporeans first. Have you ever wonder why there are whites willing to work as construction workers in the west? Do you know that they are paid as much as a fresh grad over there? Ask yourself why we can’t pay a Singaporean blue collar worker as much as a fresh grad here in Singapore. Do we aspire to be a 1st world country or 3rd?
> No one to tour the island.
> No one to study in the universities.
> No one to shop in the malls.
I don’t think Singaporeans are against tourists and foreign students. For students, just make sure they don’t secretly work here. Also, give more priorities to Singaporeans to study in our own universities. As it is, I feel that 20% quota (not counting PRs) for foreign students in our public universities is too high. Typical value is about 10% for public univsersities in the US. In the west, they take care of their own citizens first. The PAP Govt seems to be doing the reverse.
> No one to pay taxes.
The bulk of FTs who are work permit holders hardly pay any taxes. In fact, they remit most of the money out of Singapore.
> Think about it!
Yes, you should think about it too….
@291) My Views on December 11th, 2009 4.03 am
Surprised this trend is still active. But unfortunately only by people employing usual bogeyman tactics. I hope commenters can compile a list of counter-bogeyman items for such stock answers, e.g.
Without a core of true-blue Singaporean mass, Singapore WILL be a dead city:
- No one to defend the foreigners and/or our highly-paid ministers.
- No one to integrate those that need to intergrate.
- No one to study in the universities?? This is talking from the donkey’s ass. Read mistake in teaching Chinese for past 50 years….
- Only tourists touring places crewed by tourists.
- No one to pay taxes?? What have I been doing for past 15+ years? Every car you buy, every litre of petrol, every house, each plate of chicken rice, etc…. is taxed. Stupid is stupid as is stupid.
- No one that will vote for change.
- No one to remind our govt that it is NOT them that brought Singapore from a small fishing village to the status of today but the sweat and blood of our parents & grandparents.
- No one to patronize the neighbourhood kopitiam to keep alive things that are truly uniquely Singaporean.
- No one who can speak Singlish.
- No one contributing here.
@292) kojakbt on December 12th, 2009 6.00 am
An economist some time back mentioned more than 50% of our GDP is actually remit out of the country. This is one effect of relying too much on FWs/FTs — 36% of the population, yet more than 50% outflow of wealth generated.
Indeed, think about it…
Refer to comments in [292] and [293] :
Whatever wages paid to Singaporean workers will be ultimately borne by Singaporeans. I thought you guys have been screaming for decades about the HDB prices charged by the government? Yes, in Western countries, workers are paid much higher than their counterparts in Singapore. But look at the costs of living in their countries!
Foreign students – Singapore needs to attract as much foreign talents as it can. One way of doing this is to get them to study here (sponsor them if the need arises) and hopefully after they graduated, they would stay and work here as long as possible. You see, when the ministers persuade foreign companies to invest here, they have to convince investors with positive factors about Singapore, e.g. political stability, low cost of living, availability of foreign talents and local Singaporean workers. You guys may not be aware that It is not an easy job to tell foreign investors to set up businesses in Singapore.
FT paying taxes – apart from income tax, what about GST? And please do not confuse foreign workers with foreign talents! The latter refers to those working in respectable positions (such as retail executives, bank managers, production superintendent and accountants) earning comparable income (if not more) as Singaporean professionals. They pay all kinds of Singapore tax and fee, but do not enjoy the same subsidies as Singaporeans (e.g. they need to buy HDB in the open market).
Three days ago, I contributed my ” two bits” to this column, Am interested to find out what others think of my effort but cannot locate my “masterpiece”. Anyway, I hate those bloody Äng Mohs who were useless Rejects from the Parent Company backhome but came here to deprive us of promotion.
He, like many, foreigner talent came here to block the higher post for local but with no expatriate allowances.. ‘He was a Canadian Graphic Arts Sales Executive in Argentina who got the ” reward to live in Singapore”for delivering the US$One Million Cash
Ransom to some TerroristKidnappers who hijacked the General Manager there and he got the GM release. He begged to be moved to HongKong to escape from trouble but LANDED a job in Singapore which is as good country to enjoy Expatriate Life as HK.
The bloke was not announced what his designation and job job description were to the local staff but spent time going around with Sales Staff and attending Meetings but he offered no contribution of talent for the Benefits of the Company nor increase Sales. He was more interested in zeroing in to mix in Singapore High Society. I had to sign Bar Bills which were continuation of after Dealers Meeting but definitely not approved officially.
Another American who majored in Mandarin and married a Taiwanese who went back to live for a year in the US where the couple became popular with hard up Americans who slivered at Chinese woman. The wife made a lot of money posing for company products in ads. When the pair came to live here that money making opportunity was gone. In work, that Mandarin Speaking Foreign Talenthusband was useless as everyone speaks English and write better than him. Hence his wife became nonproductive and could not get photographic model job because we have better and more beautiful China “dolls”in Singapore.
I was approached to use his wife for company product advertising but actually she is ugly by our standard, after sometime, the woman divorced the husband who was trying to peddle the wife.to make more money…haha !! Yak …that’s Foreign Talent peddling wife !
Osamaobama
He came and worked with us but the local Management did say why that chap wasnow with us. Instead of assigning a Graphic Art job, that chap was a spare tyre in Marketing Amateur Products
Do they have family to feed or not?In my opinion,FT take an easy step of earning more money by working here.PLS think man!!We sacrifice our freedom(NS and bonded scholarship) to take them in man.WE DESERVED BETTER!!!
The playing field is indeed not level and our shameless and conscienceless policymakers knew the full-inside story because they make these policies. And yet these filthy-high pay policymakers with nuclear-bomb protected job from all foreign competition have the audacity to tell Singaporeans to compete with foreigners.
And when it comes to accountability and performance for their failures, these policymakers, after much delay, will come up with their trademark response – “Lets move on”, it-is-worse-in-other-country comparison, “Singaporeans should not take this for granted”. And they demand out-of-this-universe salary for their shameful performance.
To laugh or to cry. Neither. Change, we need change. Yes! We can.
No place to login on the site anymore?
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?