A sucker is a gullible or easily deceived person.
Based on the default rate of foreign scholars who do not serve their bond after receiving free tertiary education and living allowance, one can safely conclude that 20% of foreign scholarship holders think the Singapore Government (and by extension, taxpayers) is a sucker.
Read this article: Heng admits that only 8/10 foreign scholars are on track to serve bond
Allow this writer to explain why foreign scholarship is not only unnecessary, it is also detrimental to the country we call home.
To the powers that be, there is already a type of work pass called the Employment Pass which allows employers to hire foreign talent (and foreign trash) in massive and unlimited numbers. Any HR executive can testify to the long list of applicants, both local and foreign, once a PME position is made known.If one of the stated intentions of the widely unpopular foreign scholarship scheme is to attract foreign talent and assure investors of a ready pool of such people, the Employment Pass has already fulfilled this role.
Create goodwill between Singaporeans and foreign scholars who may climb up the corporate and government sectors in their home countries in future? 22 years ago, I had a frustrated colleague who told me on my first day of work that she had to serve her bond in Singapore as she was a foreign scholar who had studied law in our university. She went on to describe the lower cost of living in her own hometown, Penang, and aired her resentment over the high cost of owning a car in Singapore. Imagine 22 years ago, such attitude already prevailed. However, it become worse in recent years when anecdotal evidence suggests that recent foreign scholars 'stick with their own kind' while studying and 'hire their own kind' once they have reached at least junior management level.
Foreign scholarship has turned undeserving foreign students into the new bumiputeras of Singapore. Singaporeans who have to stretch their parents' finances or take up study loans to finance their tertiary education are now the non-bumiputeras of Singapore. This writer was hurt to see a photo, in the ST last year, of a Singaporean undergrad sleeping on the floor of his dormitory as there is a shortage of rooms in the universities currently. Presumably, the foreign scholars are all sleeping on beds while some post-NS Singaporean undergrads have to negotiate to pay for a little floor space in a dorm room with 2 beds.
The anger over foreign scholarships has been allowed to fester for far too long. It refuses to go away because this scheme is rightly seen as an injustice and insult to Singaporeans. It creates an unequal society and Singaporeans wonder, in increasing numbers, who we are actually defending. The high default rate among foreign scholars also reveals that they see the scholarship cum living allowance as their basic human right and view with contempt that the Singapore Government has the audacity to ask them to serve their bond.
In an alternative government, all foreign scholarship will be stopped. Period.
David Ching
TRS Contributor
This writer has tried to petition PAP ministers and MPs last year on curbing the foreign influx and containing rising anti-foreign sentiment unsuccessfully. The following articles are issues close to the heart of this writer:
http://therealsingapore.com/content/only-opposition-win-2016-can-save-my-beloved-country
http://therealsingapore.com/content/singapore-social-transformation-went-horribly-wrong
http://therealsingapore.com/content/stop-increase-foreign-population-now
http://therealsingapore.com/content/singapore-brink-are-you-willing-listen
http://therealsingapore.com/content/population-emergency-must-be-declared-right-now
http://therealsingapore.com/content/100-000-foreigners-can-be-sent-home-now
http://therealsingapore.com/content/impose-higher-levy-e-pass-and-s-pass-holders-reduce-gst
http://therealsingapore.com/content/raise-1-billion-ep-and-s-pass-holders-reduce-our-gst
http://therealsingapore.com/content/when-should-foreigner-leave-singapore-good
http://therealsingapore.com/content/mr-shanmugam-please-revoke-anton-caseys-pr-and-deport-him
http://therealsingapore.com/content/time-set-old-pap