Here we go again! Million Dollar PAP Ministers scolding Singaporeans again!

Arrogance, ignorance and classlessness

Here we go again! In one fell swoop, the Prime Minister’s faithful man-servant, GCT, has not only jumped to the conclusion that the garbage left behind at the music festival last weekend was a result of only Singaporeans; he also took the opportunity to reiterate the importance of foreign workers.

Well, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon, a rocket scientist or a statistician to work out that at any given time, and at any given event, there’d be a large number of foreigners alongside Singaporeans. As another TRS contributor has shown (with photographic evidence no less), the event was attended by many Caucasians. Now, it’s possible that some of these Caucasians are actually Singaporeans, but at the same time, many of the black-haired Asians could very well be foreigners too. In fact, I’d bet my bottom dollar on that!

So then, why oh why did GCT make that gaffe on Facebook in the first place? Well, I suspect it’s to be the “bad cop” to the LHL’s “good cop”.  I think LHL’s comments were actually rather neutral and unbiased. Unlike the article’s headlines, I don’t think LHL scolded Singaporeans for not picking up their litter; hence, the “good cop”. On a side note, it takes very little effort for LHL to be the “good cop”, doesn’t it?

GCT, on the other hand, took the opportunity to chide Singaporeans for littering at the event, as well as take a dig at Singaporeans’ lack of social graces, when he compared us to Tokyo residents. Why he didn’t perform any due diligence and check to see the percentage of foreigners attending the event before shooting his mouth off, is beyond me. It seems that this type of reactive, blame-a-Singaporean attitude is rife within the party and it doesn’t seem to be improving any time soon; seeing as how we seem to bear the brunt of a wide range of issues.

COE too high? Blame the Singaporeans who desperately want to buy a car. Not enough room in hospitals? Blame the Singaporeans for not staying healthy. Can’t get a job? Blame the Singaporeans for wanting higher wages. I could go on, but for the sake of my mental health, I think I should just stop now.

But GCT didn’t stop there. No. He went on to add that without foreign workers, there’d be garbage everywhere. He may be right on that front though. No Singaporean wants to be a road sweeper, sorry, I mean hygiene engineer. The pay is low, the hours long, and the work is hard. But can you really blame Singaporeans for not wanting to do this job? Remember, years ago, when GCT’s predecessor (what’s his name again?) encouraged everyone to get a degree and strive for a higher standard of living? Well, we listened and now, the majority of Singaporeans are office workers with multiple degrees and diplomas of higher education. Why in the blue hell would we want to be hygiene engineers? What’s more, without a minimum wage, I very much doubt a Singaporean can survive on a meager hygiene engineer’s salary, especially with today’s high cost of living.

Let’s just say it as it is – GCT took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Singaporeans and at the same time, chastised us for not being thankful enough to foreigners.

Well, he may be right. Without them, we won’t have the manpower to clean our streets and build our buildings. But at the same time, these foreigners bring in their habits and customs, many of which are alien to the Singaporean way of life. If a *insert name of third-world country citizen* has spat and littered and taken shits in public all his life in *insert name of third-world country*, then how can we expect them to suddenly change to not spitting, throwing rubbish into the correct bins, and using the toilet all of a sudden when they move to Singapore? It has taken the Singaporean government generations to change the habits of Singaporeans and the sudden importation of a large number of foreigners from third-world countries, plus the lack of any integration initiatives pretty much brings us back to square one.