Asia Times: Singaporeans' resentment towards foreigners growing



	April 01, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Singaporeans' resentment towards foreigners growing
By Mohan Srilal

SINGAPORE - ''Are foreigners taking away jobs fromthe locals?'' This is a question often asked during periods ofeconomic downturn in Western countries that employ overseasworkers and talent.

Today, Singaporeans are asking the same question, too.

Over the last two decades, this tiny island republic of threemillion people has grown to becomee Southeast Asia's mostadvanced economy. Singapore now has a living standard and a percapita income on a par with many advanced western countries.

It has thus attracted large numbers of expatriateprofessionals to its shores in recent years.

There are an estimated 700,000 foreign workers employed here, alarge segment of whom are unskilled workers such ashousehold helpers and construction workers mainly from Bangladesh,India, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

There is also an increasing number of foreign professionalsboth from Asia and the West working in the financial sector,information technology, mass communications, teaching and biotechnology.

Highly paid, the latter also get perks such as subsidized housing, carsand schooling for the kids - all extremely expensive in this citystate. They are often better paid, and lead more luxurious lives,than their Singaporean counterparts.

The Singapore government has been pushing the concept of a''global city,'' requiring foreign workers on its shores to make itseconomy and industries internationally competitive.

In August 1997, the main theme of Prime Minister Goh ChokTong's national day speech centered on the need to attract foreigntalent to Singapore. But with the recession, which has trimmedwork opportunities and caused layoffs among local professionals,resentment is growing towards this policy.

Earlier this month, government MP Tan Cheng Bock, during aparliamentary debate on the budget, urged the government to tonedown its rhetoric on the value of attracting foreign talent toSingapore. He warned that this policy is not going down well withSingaporeans today.

Opposition MP Chiam See Tong immediately lent support to Tan,agreeing that he was merely voicing the concerns of Singaporeans. He cited a caseof a young Singaporean graduate from an Australian university,who applied at a private school for a teaching job but was rejected,the job given to an expatriate New Zealander.

Since Tan's call, there has been much debate in the media aboutthe issue and the government has taken pains to reassureSingaporean citizens that they will be given preference inemployment against foreigners with similar qualifications.

Responding to Tan, Manpower Minister Lee Boon Yang said itis tempting under current economic conditions to press thegovernment to stop, or at least reduce, the efforts to attractforeign talent to Singapore, ''in order to protect our citizensand give them a better chance."

''We must be prepared to subject ourselves to the discipline ofthe market,'' said Lee. ''For one local job protected on the shortterm, many more will be at risk in the future."

Lee defended the government's foreign talent employment policyby arguing that Singapore is now competing fiercely in the globalmarketplace. ''We are now seeing the removal of geographical andregulatory barriers to the movement of people and capital. Thischanging world will not stop for us to catch our breath,'' heobserved.

Prime Minister Goh reminded Singaporeans that the tiny republiccan sustain its success ''only if it has a critical mass oftalents comparable to the best elsewhere."

While acknowledging the concerns ofSingaporeans under the current economic crisis, he pointed outthat the country has to compete in the global marketplace withcountries whose populations are many times larger thanSingapore's.

''As the number of our able people is unlikely to beproportionately higher than that of other countries, it would bedifficult for us to compete with them for high value-addedindustries and services. So we must try and increase ourproportion of able people by drawing in able people fromoutside,'' Goh argued.

To support his argument he quoted figures from the Departmentof Statistics showing that without an increase in foreignmanpower between 1994 and 1996, Singapore's growth in 1996 wouldhave been 5.3 percent instead of 7.5 percent.

''That means fewer jobs and less wealth would have been createdfor Singaporeans,'' he said.

Over-reliance on foreign talent ''is not a good thing,''argued Yeo Mong Heng in a letter to the Strait Times, adding,''surely, we do not wish to be left high and dry, if theseforeigners decide to walk out on us. . . . It is best that thegovernment nurtures its own core of local talent."

(Inter Press Service)

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