I refer to the article: "http://therealsingapore.com/content/goodbye-singapore"
I was fortunate that about 10 years ago I had the chance to move to Australia on a company-sponsored residency visa, and have been living here since. I never intended to migrate or to stay abroad for so long. Like most Singaporeans do at some time or another, I had the occasional fantasy of going abroad, except in my instance it did come true.
Initially it was a scary thought, to uproot and move to a new place where I had no family and very few friends, although on reflection it was also an easy decision: the chance to experience a different lifestyle outweighed the drudgery of being stuck in the Singaporean workaholic culture. At the time I moved I had no idea how long I would stay abroad. Mentally I gave myself two to three years to give it a try, with the “safety net” that I could always return to Singapore if things didn’t work out.
As it turned out, working in the multifaceted culture of Australia was an eye-opener. There was a work-life balance virtually unknown in Singapore, where working overtime was frowned on and unheroic, and managers judged you by the quality of your work rather than the hours you clocked in the office. The people were friendlier. Although things were more expensive (compared to standard of living in Singapore at the time), my pay package was correspondingly higher, so things were quite good.
It took me just a year to get used to the different lifestyle – to go home at 5pm every day as a “normal” thing without feeling guilty, to have all the shops close by 6pm even on weekends (except late-night Thursdays), to be able to buy a car outright for $20k without having to be goughed by ridiculous COE and car loans, to buy a house and actually own it (and not merely a lessee of the HDB.)
As the first year turned into the second year, and the second year into the third and fourth, I realized I was never going to leave. I still returned every year to visit family, catch up with friends and enjoy the local makan. But it didn’t help that Singapore was steadily climbing into the top ten, then top four and eventually number one of the most expensive city to live in the world, whilst at the same time dropping on its GINI coefficient with its widening top-vs-bottom income gap. The jobs market, based on what people told me and in contradiction of what the PAP claimed, was getting from bad to worse with the foreigner tsunami.
On another front, the venues and landmarks which I grew up with were systematically being demolished. It was as if the PAP was out to remove any linkages and roots which I had to growing up in Singapore. One year, I came back and saw that where the National Library once stood was now a massive tunnel going into Fort Canning Hill. I went to the iconic Cathay cinema after its refurbishment, and my first and only thought was “another Hougang Mall in Orchard Rd”.
Even though I’m not here in person, I still follow the news – the Orchard Road pondings, the fight to save Bukit Brown, the repeated train breakdowns, the National Library “gay penguin” fiasco – and seeing, even from a distance, how the PAP is running the country into ruin for their personal gain is very distressing. I didn’t do 2.5 years of NS plus a few more years of reservist (until I deferred because I was out of the country) for things to fall apart in the hands of incompetents. I am registered as an overseas voter, and I have driven 7 hours to and from Canberra (3.5 hours each way) to cast my vote at both general and presidential elections.
Taking up Australian citizenship is a question which I have asked myself many times (and many of my friends here as well), but it is not a decision I am ready to make yet. For now I still consider myself Singaporean because there’s still hope we can change this horrible government and turn things around, and I’m not ready to give up just yet.
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