The war cry of Malaysia is ‘Malaysia Boleh’. This is how Malaysia wants its people to feel, to psyche themselves up to build a prosperous nation. In 1965, we became independent. We were cast adrift like a flotsam in the ocean. We either swim or sink. We did not shout Singapore Boleh. We just do it. We did not sink, we turnaround an entrepot trading country into a prosperous city with manufacturing and financial services as the main driving sectors of our economy.
When we became independent, we were more or less in the same state of social and economic development as our neighbours. Some were better off than us. In a way we were the most risky state because of our physical limitations. Our people were not up to it to turn the country into an industrial and manufacturing state. We were ill prepared for that role. We were ill prepared for all aspects of building a nation. Our talent pool was very small. Our leaders and top civil servants were mostly lowly educated. Many were non graduates, many with only a school certificate or less. The trained and skilled workforce was non existence. We had to start from scratch.
The govt knew our limitations and weaknesses. They asked for outside assistance to train our people to build our nation. We brought in advisors from around the world to teach us how to industrialise. We levelled the hills and forest, we built housing and industrial estates. We built schools to educate our people. There were no foreign talents running here to help us. We relied on our very own people, the govt then had faith in our people to build a prosperous nation together.
It was all about self reliance, about independence, about training and nurturing our people to build our nation. We did not cry Singapore Boleh. We did it. From 3rd World to 1st World, with our own people.
Today, we have a very well educated, trained and skilled workforce. More than 50% of our new workforce is tertiary educated. We have been producing scholars and scholars, thousands of them over the years. Today, our scholars had a sudden awakening. Other than them, the countries are made of daft Sinkies. We need to import foreign talents to replace them or we will sink. As long as they are foreign talents, fakes also can, we will bring them in without questions. Fakes are better than daft Sinkies. We need the help of all the fakes to bring us back to the 3rd world. We have transformed ourselves from a ‘can do’ nation of hardworking and ‘never say die’ people to one when everything is ‘tak boleh’ without the help of foreigners. We are now a hopeless nation without foreign talents.
Everywhere, every industry, every level, we are now dependent on foreigners to run this country. Our people, the best workers in the world, the best educated in the region, are now being bullied and discriminated by the foreigners with dubious qualifications, and at their mercy for jobs.
At the rate it is going, if the Sinkies did not sink, the country will. How could a country be so desperate and dependent on 3rd World fake talents? How could a country, once proud of its highly rated and educated citizens, be rejecting its citizens in favour of unknown and questionable foreigners?
What are our scholars thinking? Are they smoking pots or popping ecstasy pills?
There is a sinking feelings, but some Sinkies do not think so.
Chua Chin Leng AKA RedBean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/