While the message has got through somehow, the drug for more foreigners is difficult to wean from the businesses and the Govt’s mentality. And let’s not confuse ourselves again and again. The foreign workers are needed. It is the middle and top management that are flooding the market at the expense of our PMETs that is the real problem, the pain facing our highly qualified and trained workforce. We shall not trade our PMETs for cheap FTs and making them drive taxis for a living, ferrying cheap FTs that took over their jobs. Thinking of this I boiling already.
As Hsien Loong put it in his May Day message,
‘We have spent many, many decades nurturing this reputation for reliability, for openness. We have made a name for ourselves; not necessarily the cheapest place but a competitive and dynamic city that’s worth paying the premium for. And we must keep that reputation because otherwise we’re dead.’
So, do we believe that we don’t have to compete to be the cheapest? We have so many advantages, tangible and intangible, that all the foreign businesses will be salivating to be here. Think SPGs aplenty. What a life! Let those who want to leave, let them go. Be selective, shrink a little to relief the pen up appetite for more FTs. We can start by getting rid of those businesses that are here and employing mainly FTs. The Govt can start by getting all GLCs to employ Singaporeans first.
Why be threatened by a few businesses and buckled under their threats of not investing here? What would Goh Keng Swee and his colleagues do when faced with such rubbish threats? Do we believe in ourselves? Do we have confidence in our system and infrastructure that the businesses need to pay a premium and not getting a Singapore discount? We have world best universities with Angmoh professors that would turn out graduates as good as Angmohs, if not, would still be better than third world universities right? With so many high quality third world FTs replacing our local graduates, I think I may be wrong on this count.
We have world famous man made gardens that cost us a fortune, F1s, casinos, safe and secure streets to party till the wee hours. These don’t come free. There is value for money. The more expensive the better right? This one surely right. We keep on raising university fees to raise the quality of our education, and also medical fees for better medical services and professionalism. We have all these good stuff within 15 mins of driving, in a world class city. Want cheap cheap, go to operate in third world countries lah.
See, I also can sell koyok for my country. It is time to seriously relook and restructure and take in only those that are beneficial to our bigger game plan that compliment and not sabotage our social and economic development of our people. We want to continue to be in the First World and not downgrade to cheap cheap Third World. Swee boh?
I can also sing a song of being cheaper and cheaper and cheaper or else all the foreign businesses will run away. Singaporeans must tighten belt, compete with all the hungry workers. It is market forces at work. The song I sing depends on my mood and the weather.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean
* Article first appeared on http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/