IT IS perhaps to be expected that when Mr Gilbert Goh gets up on stage, he would hold forth about foreigners in Singapore. This is the man whose claim to fame is the organisation of the protest against the unpopular White Paper on Population in 2013. Tonight, he was on the stage as a candidate for the Reform Party, contesting in Ang Mo Kio GRC.
“We have foreigners snatching jobs away from Singaporeans,” he said and continued in like vein for some time. He claimed that there were thousands of foreigners with fake degrees and credentials taking up jobs here and that free trade agreements (he didn’t name which) allowed foreigners to enter “obstructed”, with 400,000 now residing here. He warned that Singaporeans will be replaced by new citizens who would “vote PAP”.
His rally speech resounded with some people in the crowd at Yio Chu Kang stadium, who responded with “kick them out” when he mentioned foreigners. He also took a swipe at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, suggesting that he had sold out his country, and how he had difficulty campaigning in Ang Mo Kio GRC because one in two people he spoke to on the ground were foreigners.
The presence of foreigners has been a lightning rod in recent years, and is arguably responsible for the swing against the PAP in GE2011. The publication of the White Paper with its 6.9 million projected population figure for 2030, exacerbated matters. The PAP acknowledged that infrastructural developments had had not kept pace with foreign inflows and plans were rolled out to improve the housing and public transport system. More drastically, the inflow of foreign workers as well as those granted permanent residency status was tightened and rules put in place to require that companies see to hiring Singaporeans first before recruiting foreigners.
But the moves seem to have been lost on segments of the population who insist that their jobs, particularly those in the vulnerable professionals, managers and executives category, were being taken away by foreigners.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has in recent time, including at his National Day rally, talked about finding a balance between having foreigners fill much needed job places while ensuring that Singaporeans were protected in the job market. On Thursday, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say went to great lengths to talk about Singapore’s foreign worker policy, pledging to maintain the Singapore to foreigner ratio at two to one. He noted that the numbers look much better if the foreigners employed in the construction industry were left out. Then it would be one foreigner to three Singaporeans. He also refuted opposition claims that GE2011 and the presence of Opposition MPs in Parliament had been responsible for the shift. The policy change, he said, was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in 2010. He reminded the rally crowd that a freeze on foreign workers would affect the operations of small- and medium-sized businesses which would have to close down if they could not get enough manpower and, in the process, let go of Singaporeans too.
That the foreign worker and immigration issue still rankles with Singaporeans is evident in the manifestos of all the opposition political parties. Some examples:
The Workers’ Party proposes to “limit foreign workforce growth by holding steady the current level of foreign workforce numbers.” “Our approach involves keeping the non-resident population constant at around 1.5-1.6 million as long as we achieve the 1 per cent resident workforce growth target. This allows for a temporary addition of foreign workers to make up for shortfalls if we are not able to achieve the 1 per cent target.” It says its approach will result in a “projected population of 5.8 million in 2030…in contrast to the PAP’s projection of 6.9 million, of which 3.8 million, or just 55 per cent are citizens.”
The Singapore Democratic Party wants a “merit-based system” that assesses “the skills and competencies of foreigners wanting to work here, and allow in only those whose are genuinely qualified”. It wants all Employment Pass and S Pass applicants with university degrees and diplomas earned outside Singapore to be subject to mandatory Educational Credential Assessments.
The National Solidarity Party is vague in its 2015 manifesto on the issue beyond saying that “there must be quotas imposed on foreign PMETs seeking employment in Singapore.” In its paper on population two years ago, it called for a pause in the growth in foreign workforce until productivity grows at more than 1.5 per cent and public infrastructure has been expanded” as well as a uniform quota of 33 per cent for S Pass and Employment Pass holders.
Singaporeans First said it will “restructure the economy by making it much less dependent on cheap low-skilled foreign labour as it depresses our wage levels, lowers overall productivity, sustains low skill industries and adds to over-crowding”. “We will review the need to give very favourable foreign worker quotas to certain industries that are highly dependent on foreign workers.”
The issue of foreigners has been raised in various forms at opposition rallies over the three nights of hustings. WP’s Terence Tan described the White Paper as “just wrong” while fellow member Gurmit Singh wants the G to follow the Australian way of getting employers to justify their need for foreign staff. SingFirst has been leading the charge right from the get-go at its introduction of candidates before Nomination Day. In its party political broadcast, it said “the influx of foreign workers has broken families, taken away jobs and space from Singaporeans.”
Even much smaller parties, like the Singapore People’s Party, have landed on the issue. It wants the minimum qualifying salary of Employment Pass holders to be raised from the current $3,300 a month. “At the current rate, even insurance firms can employ agents on the employment pass”.
But of course, everyone said they were not “anti-foreigner” or “anti-immigration”.
Just anti-G.
Source: http://themiddleground.sg
