Dear Singa,
Thank you for your services as a courtesy ambassador of Singapore for the last 30 years. You have left an impact on our Singapore landscape over the last generation.
You mentioned in your resignation letter that society has been getting increasingly angry and disagreeable, and that people increasingly not think about kindness amidst what you regarded as big problems. But perhaps we also need to analyse these “big problems”. As long as these “big problems” remain unresolved, born and bred Singaporeans would not find it any easy to be kind and gracious.
Should we be kind and gracious to some “foreign talent” coming to grab our PMET jobs and lording over us as though it is their right to? Should we be kind and gracious to some “foreign students” not willing to mix and interact with born and bred Singaporeans and grab all the good grades and scholarships from us? Should we be friendly to PRs who drive up our HDB prices but do not even want to say hello when we greet them at the lift lobbies? We may be kind but we are certainly not saints and definitely do not intend to be martyrs.
We have seen too many examples of ungrateful foreigners over the past few years who have been ungrateful to the benefits this city-state has given them. Singapore used to have a great kampong spirit populated with the four major races living in harmony and everyone was friendly to each other. However right now many people don’t feel like they are in Singapore when they go out to work, to have fun, they feel that they are in a foreign land. Who has been responsible for all this misery of Singaporeans? Working in the civil service, I am sure you know the answer as well as we do.
The increasing number of foreigners, new citizens and PRs jamming our transport services have made Singaporeans unhappy with the current state of affairs. I used to enjoy less crowded rides on trains and now sometimes unable to even get on the train and have to rub bodies with strangers in mornings on the train. Will this policy be changed and hence the big problems solved? Probably not. With our national leaders saying that we should take in 6.9 million people by 2030, there is no incentive for us to be gracious with the current state of matters, since things will only get worse.
A final word before we go. A Gallup poll already said that Singaporeans are the unhappiest and most emotionless people in the world. Singaporeans can choose not give up their seats or even sit on reserved seats on the trains, but risk getting filmed and see themselves on STOMP. If Singaporeans go online and be rude, what about foreigners now that born and bred Singaporeans will soon become a minority in our own country? Does that give them the key to say what they want? Perhaps not until things can be changed? Wait for ubah?
Enjoy your long break.
Your friends,
Born and bred Singaporeans
P.S. Did you give the 1 month notice to your employer before you served your resignation?