<Image: Calvin Cheng's comments. Click for a larger version.>
Would like to bring this to the attention of all. Former NMP and ex-YPAP member Calvin Cheng posted the above comments on CNA’s Facebook page (he has since deleted his postings).
This guy is pro-PAP FT policy. Online, he has been touting PAP’s pro-FT policy.
In the recent CNA news report [Link] about the woman who defecated outside Holland Village MRT station, Calvin Cheng got into arguments with netizens on the Facebook page.
In his quest touting the virtues of having more immigrants coming to Singapore, he insulted Singaporeans. He posted”
“When Singapore had nothing it was even harder for the immigrants. There was nothing to take. Now if immigrants come and they don’t speak English well, come from a developing country, did not have the comfort that a Singaporean has growing up and STILL you lose your job to them, then frankly you are a bit sh*t aren’t you? At the end of the day as long as your forefather is an immigrant don’t complain”.
It never crosses his mind that it is because the foreign workers are cheap, working 14 hours a day, 6 days a week and dare not complain, is making them more attractive than Singaporeans for employers to employ!
If PAP allows slavery in Singapore like in the olden times, I’m sure employers will all be ecstatic! How can such a calibre like Calvin Cheng became an NMP in the first place? How does the Govt select our NMPs?
He also said that “the concept of a true-blue Singaporean is nonsensical”. He clearly thinks that native-born Singaporeans do not deserve any benefits of being citizens, never mind the fact that native-born Singaporean males serve the burden of defending the country with their lives, and some have indeed died in training accidents during their National Service.
Incidentally, Calvin Cheng runs a modeling agency. He clearly either doesn’t understand or simply doesn’t care that Singaporeans face several disadvantages compared to foreigners. For one thing, the take home pay of a foreigner is a significant 20% higher than that of a Singaporean because of the employee CPF contribution. Similarly, foreigners are 17% cheaper to an employer because of the employer CPF contribution.
Moreover, most of these foreigners come from Third World nations with a favorable exchange rate, and when they finally return home they can expect to enjoy a better life than most Singaporeans have. In addition, male Singaporeans have an additional burden in their NS reservist liability, something often used as an excuse by many employers to employ foreigners instead. NS also causes these males also lose out 2 years to foreigners in University education and employment opportunities.
Singaporeans already face an unequal playing field competing against the newcomers due to the above reasons. With business owners like Calvin Cheng who openly shows disrespect for his own people and favors foreigners instead, native Singaporeans will face an additional obstacle in employment opportunities.
This is not the first time that a former or current PAP member has openly insulted Singaporeans. Former MM Lee Kuan Yew once labelled Singaporeans as being lazy:
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving.” This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem.
Maybe the PAP itself should get more spurs to stick in their members’ hides so as to teach them humility and to respect the sacrifices of their fellow countrymen and women instead of taking them for granted and badmouthing them openly!
Benjamin
Editor's Note:
It is worrying that someone so stuck up and out of touch can still be selected to be an NMP.
NMPs are not elected. Instead they are selected by a parliamentary commitee made up mostly of PAP MPs.
When this is the calibre of people being let in to be an NMP, it really casts doubt on whether the system is just there to bring in more PAP voices into Parliament.