The recent retrenchment exercise of more than 500 staff from HGST suggests that there may be more problems with the way the PAP government has engineered our economy than previously thought. There have been social problems with this “growth-at-all-costs” model but we have since seen an increasing number of problems with our social structure as well. HGST has cited increasing labour costs as the core reason for the decision and will move its plant’s operations to Thailand. By looking at this decision, one can only wonder how much more pressure other businesses and SMEs face.
Poor-quality foreign labour eroding economic dynamism?
The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) signed between Singapore and India in 2005 has many clauses which disadvantage Singaporeans and our economy. Even though Singapore has a more advanced economy than India, it is quite sad that the PAP dogs have agreed to clause 3 which prohibits “labour market testing... as a condition for temporary entry”. It is interesting to note that a similar agreement between Malaysia and India lacks such a clause, which compromises on the dynamism of our economy.
While there is no concrete evidence to suggest so, it is unlikely the immigrants from other third-world countries like China or Vietnam are any better than these Indian imports. With so many foreigners of dubious quality, it is little surprise that our national productivity dropped by 2.6% in 2012.
More social problems?
While the cases of Ma Chi and Aditya Bhatia have been well publicised as to how foreigners creating trouble in Singapore, it is the subtle undertones which have created a more worrying scenario. In a survey of more than 5,000 Singaporeans, it seems that more and more locals are wary of immigrations whether as neighbours or as colleagues. In recent times, we have also seen more cases where there are murders as well as fights from poorly educated immigrants. Given more immigrants, it is likely that such nonsense will continue in the near future.
Negative impact of too many foreigners and an incompetent PAP?
Going by the CECA, the PAP dogs have also allowed the spouses of such workers seemingly automatic rights to work subject to conditions. As a result, there have been too much immigration inflows within the past 8 years. In 2008, the PAP government let in 145,000 people while building only 3050 units of HDB flats, resulting in a shortfall of 30,000 housing units. This saw the HDB resale index rising by 10 to 12% year-on-year not including COV premiums. If such negative effects are not bad enough, the PAP then decided to implement cooling measures which are not well thought out as the money went into industrial properties instead, causing business costs to increase.
Inadequate remedy resulting in high business costs?
In a Straits Times article dated 4th Oct 2013, the government recognises that there are speculative measures within the industrial property sector. This is likely to arise from the cooling measures that were implemented on the residential property sector as described above. The impacts to businesses are even more terrifying. According to URA, the median rental for category 2 (i.e. mass market) rental was S$5.69 a square foot in Q3 2013 marking an increase of 21.3% in less than 4 years. Similarly, there was a 10.4% quarterly increase in multiple-user warehouse prices in Q3 2013. All these costs will be eventually passed on to consumers.
Inflation passed on to consumers?
Prior to the influx of immigration in 2005, our inflation rate has never exceeded 2% by much. With the influx of foreigners and business costs, our inflation shot to a high of 7% in 2009 and remains at 2.6% today. The significance of this 2% number is that our CPF pays 2.5% per annum for our locked-up funds, making worker’s effective savings grow prior to 2005. However, workers today are helpless in seeing their savings being eaten up by inflation. Yet, the social problems only look set to grow worse with the passing of the population white paper.
Concluding remarks?
The influx of too many foreign workers who do not add value is a problem which is central to the PAP’s flawed policies. Given the substantial negative impact on the lives of your average Singaporean, it is only right that the PAP dogs be voted out and banished to hell by 2016, like the old man who first ruled the party. Given that the WP has also proposed an increase in population to 6 million by 2030, it is only right that we vote them out as well and vote for more effective opposition such as the SDP and NSP.
Joseph Kheng-Liang Tan
*The author is an extremely homophobic 21 year-old polytechnic graduate who is currently pursuing his law degree in Australia. A believer of the free press, he has contributed extensively in his personal capacity to popular socio-political sites such as TRS and TRE.