Question as posed in the title to our international audience. I know we get readers from all over the world, and I would really like to hear your views. Do read on to understand the Singaporean context and mindsets when it comes to dealing with the subject of emigration.
To my fellow true blue Singaporean readers, I am trying to understand the artificial stigma that our Gahmen has cast on Singaporean emigrants, or those who want to migrate. To any new citizens or PRs who may be reading, if you've ever been labelled as a "quitter" of your own country andsomehow don't know why, this should clear things up a little.
My sensing is that we are Uniquely Singapore, that we are the only country in the world which had its (then) Premier publicly criticise Singapore born-and-bred emigrants, and the act of emigrating.
"Quitters" - that was the infamous term he used. It is a term heavily-loaded with negativity. Just check out the following definitions I have culled from the 'Net.
"One who gives up easily"
"Defeatist, deserter, or shirker"
This has had a trickle-down effect. From the rabid professional PAP Internet Brigaders who go forth and spam blogs - including ours - Facebook and forums with criticism of quitters, to the average Singaporean who has been poisoned by indoctrination from our highly-esteemed mainstream media. We have heard the whole gamut of tirades against quitters, and to a lesser-but-no-less-amusing extent, tirades against married couples who refuse to have kids.
On a slightly unrelated note, the influence of the MSM is so pervasive that just about everyone I've spoken to who hasn't lived in Australia, thinks that food is very expensive there, and that everyone is racist. Even people who plan to migrate there harbour such beliefs. Such as A and I. Of course, such beliefs have been partially dispelled by reading The Wrong Things, and hearing from people who have actually lived in both Australia and Singapore for reasonable amounts of time. But we really need to live it for ourselves before we can discard our hang ups completely. It's really not easy to undo a lifetime of propaganda, even when you know that The Right Things which the MSM have been feeding us are largely biased B.S.
In the short time I spent researching for this post, I didn't manage to find any other country which puts down its own people thus, merely for leaving the country in search of a better life. Which brings us back to my opening question.
Of course, immigrants face opposition in Singapore and many other countries, even in way less crowded places than Singapore. See the links here, here and here. I may have mentioned this before, but it deserves airing again: Singapore has the World's 3rd Highest Population Density, with a steadily-deteriorating public transport system and rapidly increasing housing prices, as well as theWorld's 2nd Highest GINI coefficient (a measure of income inequality - higher means worse). That immigrants are claimed to have nothing to do with any of these (according to one of them anyway) is a huge stretch on credulity.
So if you have been complaining about the influx, rest assured that in international benchmarking that our dear Gahmen is so obsessed with, you are perfectly normal. In fact, given the ridiculous strain on the infrastructure and the sheer population density, I'd have expected even more complaints and protests from true blue Singaporeans. But I guess everyone here is too busy earning their keep to actually try and make a stand for their future.
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At the end of the day, if you are gonna scold your citizens for Giving Up Easily and being Deserters or Shirkers, you should recognise the sheer irony of importing even more quitters from other countries to take our places.
"For every one person leaving, Singapore takes in eight - most of them equally skilled."- Fight or flight, by Seah Chiang Nee, 26 August 2002
Although I have gone a little off-tangent, let's steer right back to my original question! Is Singapore unique in criticising its citizens who emigrate? Do drop a comment!
Neurotic Ramblings
TRS contributor
*The author blogs at http://neurotic-ramblings-sg.blogspot.sg