At least a million foreigners are working in Sin City, and many are in top management positions with some as CEOs. There were one or two cases where the foreign CEOs actually misrepresented their qualifications to look very well qualified. It was something like someone attending a 3 week or a month course in Harvard and claiming to be a Harvard graduate. But his kind of misrepresentation is nothing compared to those that came armed with MBAs or other professional or expert qualifications or experience when they had none.
Recently the MOM announced that 25 foreigners, lauded as foreign talents, were caught and charged in court and sent to jail. While many cynical Sinkies were screaming that this is only the tip of the iceberg, it may be the last time they are hearing foreigners caught faking their qualifications. The rest of the FTs here are genuine and their qualifications are indisputable, checked and confirmed to be true.
The way to get a job in the highly prized and well paid professions is to mark up one’s qualification. To increase the chances of employment, just add in a few more qualifications, maybe with the help of the employment agents, or maybe the employers may assist the applicants to do so to clear the MOM pass hurdles. This seems like fair game for the foreigners and the punishment meted out, a few weeks in jail, is nothing and worth the gamble when the returns and rewards were so handsome.
In the case of Sinkies, the opposite is true. More and more cases of Sinkies downgrading or hiding their qualifications to get a lower paying job are being discovered. I dunno whether to laugh or to cry? And they got sacked for being dishonest, for being self deprecating, or for being excessively modest with their academic achievements. This must be the character trait of the Sinkies. Don’t tell people how good or how qualified you are if you are Sinkies and applying for a job in Sinkie land. Only the foreigners can do that. The foreigners will tell the world that they could even bring down the moon if asked to.
What is the real damage in the employment scene? How many foreigners with fake qualifications or make up qualifications that are employed in high positions to boss over shy and timid Sinkies who had to hide their qualifications and to work under those who are less qualified than them? How many Sinkies with genuine qualifications from two of the world best universities, the NUS and NTU and from foreign universities are working for foreigners who are not qualified or who came from pariah third world unranked universities?
The joke is on the Sinkies for supporting a system that makes them pariahs in their own country. And they are being blamed with funny names like PMETs, meaning pampered, mediocre, expensive and timid by our local elite in the main media. And since no one in the govt came out to dispute this obnoxious humiliation of the local PMETs, what do you think they are thinking up there in the clouds? Do they agree or disagree with this new definition of PMETs?
Chua Chin Leng AKA Redbean
*The writer blogs at mysingaporenews.blogspot.com