During a Police Workplan Seminar on May 2, the question of recruiting foreigners as police officers was brought up during a dialogue with about 200 junior college and polytechnic students.
Question: If the SPF was serious about engaging Singaporeans, why seek the opinions of an immature audience? A decision appears to have already been made and any future consultation will be all ‘wayang’..
PAP’s policies have already allowed foreigners to steal locals’ lunches and now it expects citizens to be agreeable to foreigners having the authority to control us? This must be a sick joke.
It could be confirmed the PAP is a one trick pony because every solution has been a shortcut – throwing money or importing more foreigners. Solution to cut costs for businesses? Employ foreigners. Increase productivity? Hire more foreigners. We should just hire a cheaper foreigner to take over the PAP if these are what it considers solutions.
The SPF cited manpower crunch as one of the reasons but it has not even attempted to recruit locals! Since when did scholars learn to put the cart before the horse?
Operations director Lau Peet Meng said: “We need….to understand our foreign population..the danger is if it’s (purely Singaporean), you will lose touch with the people you’re policing”. This is precisely the kind of upside-down planning which the PAP engages in – why didn’t it think of this before but only after the foreigner population is close to 2 million? Isn’t the solution then to pause instead of compounding the issue?
The police must not simply ignore the obvious danger of arming a foreigner. What if the foreigne police officer is convinced of injustices perpetrated against his fellow countrymen? Will he open fire on them? Since corruption is a norm in less developed countries, won’t the SPF ultimately have to deal with corruption cases involving foreign officers?
Foreign workers have been involved in strikes, riots, housebreaking, murder, etc. More crimes will be committed with an increased presence of foreigners, not less.
Having a foreigner in such a position of authority makes a mockery of our sovereignty.
I believe the government has not been upfront with Singaporeans. Firstly, if it had, the issue would have been highlighted to a mature audience. Second, the SPF is focused on cost cutting. In time to come, the salaries of our men in blue will be depressed, not unlike local employees’, when more foreigner officers ‘prove themselves’ and are hired.
Singaporeans have been extremely patient with an abusive government but there may come a time when patience run out. The government has not addressed the root causes of our issues and there may come a day when even Singaporeans riot. Citizens who have no jobs may view themselves as having nothing to lose. A local police officer may pause before opening fire on a fellow citizen but a foreigner will not hesitate. What is the real motive of the PAP?
We don’t know the real reason behind hiring foreigners as poIice officers but I dare say anyone not affiliated to the PAP would be disagreeable as the danger is obvious.
Phillip Ang
*The writer blogs at http://likedatosocanmeh.wordpress.com/