Monday, August 13, 2012

The New Social Ethos

"If we go on like that, this place will fold up, because there’ll be no original citizens left to form the majority," former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew harped on the low fertility rate at the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru National Day celebration dinner on Saturday, "... and we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms." That last bit has to be a red herring.

Let's ignore for a moment that he was the first to penalise Singaporeans for having more kids if they fall short of his graduate mother expectations. He may deny authorship for nipping the procreative drive, but he cannot evade responsibility for the alien invasion. They brought in the foreign elements, temporal sojourners who were supposed to leave town after the infrastructure was built, but chose to stay and started to crowd out the locals. No wonder original citizens are a dying breed.

The Saturday story of the Brit who's "active in grassroots and political work", is not exactly the best of shiny examples about the new citizens and their social ethos. Relocated here at age 18 when his father was hired by Singapore Polytechnic in 1985, he left to join the Royal Marines after 2 years of schooling at ACJC. A kneecap injury washed him out of the elite commando force and his ambition to bear arms for Her Majesty's Service.  He returned to Singapore to try his luck in theatre and television. If he had gone to Hongkong, he would have to bear with the acronym for Failed In London Try Hongkong.

After settling down to married life in 1994, it was another 7 years before he became permanent resident in 2001. He cited his homemaker wife as excuse for not making the commitment as citizen. A move back to Britain or elsewhere was still in the cards. He signed up only in 2011, a long 26 years after landing on our shores.  At age 45, his options must have been drastically reduced, his day job is regional sales for a software company. Most first world countries would have demanded specialist skills or a fat bank account.

By his account, when BG Tan Chuan-Jin asked him point blank where he was from originally ("Where are you from?"), he feint confusion, and said Moulmein-Kallang. Having turned his back on his country of birth, can such be counted to defend his country of adoption?

The official spin has always been that foreign talents bring along special skills and are here to create jobs. Truth is often stranger than fiction.

17 comments:

  1. LKY had a united, capable and loyal citizenry behind him in the early 1970s.
    So he decided to fix that which was not broken.

    It's too late now.
    With an overwhelming majority in parliament.
    Who can you blame but yourself.

    Singaporeans cannot be blamed.
    Unless a bad workman is allowed to blame his tools.

    "You either die a hero. Or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
    Harvey Dent,
    in the Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Somebody needs to spew some filth before he folds. Is it a sign of cashing out? running out of ideas? or simply believing their own crap all these years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No use keep asking us to have babies, if quite a number of us are struggling for a living. I can only say maybe 5-10% of those foreigners are real talents and majority of them are just foreign economic refugees.

    Sad to say, unlike the US, Singapore doesn't attract the best from the world.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
    Albert Einstein

    Our population policy according to Einstein.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If the new citizens are not producing at any rate higher than ours, how will we ever be able to sustain ourselves to take care of the old say 10 or 20 years down the line when the unresolved problems of an ageing population becomes magnified many times over ?

    Has LKY or his PM son deliberately avoided talking about these future ageing problems which our younger generation will eventually face in their future? Does the PAP govt have adequate plans to tackle these future problems what if they can't even solve some now ?

    Jennie Chua was right when she said :

    "You are in the way of people and you are not adding value. One sign that you are overstaying is when you keep repeating".

    I am just wondering whether she was having LKY & his PM son in her mind when she said that ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are looking at the face of political bankruptcy.

      Delete
  6. Singapore will not be folded up,
    Singaporeans WILL BE, whether aliens
    are imported or not.
    It is the Fate our Rulers ordain on us.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Patriot,
      Are you sure that Singapore will not be folded up if we import more aliens? It's a dire warning given by the gods.

      Delete
  7. Haha......
    did i not said
    'import or not'
    and implied the
    Fate is sealed? BUT,
    oni for Singaporeans lah.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  8. The problem is that after the old guard was moved on and out, there was no one to hold LKY in check, and to rein in and pour cold water on his hangups and wild ideas. We have only ourselves to blame for being cowards.

    ReplyDelete
  9. “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” - Oliver Cromwell

    ReplyDelete
  10. A leopard cannot change its spots.
    A geriatric cannot change his ways.
    No amount of National CONversation can change this.

    Save time.
    Save effort.
    Save money.
    Let's not talk anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsci7f4DoNc

    watch this video from the movie detachment. v interesting.

    It talks about double talk and Ubiquitous Assimilation, it talks about how we are bombarded with information to believe in lies and behave in certain acceptable way.

    The way to protect our mind is - READ.

    Thanks tattler for provided us the alternative view point.

    ReplyDelete
  12. correction, it should be doublethink not double talk. sorry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doublethink.
      Possible examples.
      Hmmm ....

      GST helps the poor ?
      $1,000/month can buy HDB flat ?
      $8 heart bypass surgery ?

      For other possible examples, see website below:

      http://classic3.yoursdp.org/index.php/perspective/political-hors-doeuvre?q=%2Findex.php%2Fperspective%2Fpolitical-hors-doeuvre

      Delete
  13. Let nature take its course. Do not try to be smart and say only graduates can produce more babies. See what happened?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nobody will use the word 'fold up' for a country, unless you are running a company. Enough said. Neither I nor my future descendants will be a cog in his wheels. Utterly out of touch.

    ReplyDelete