PHILIPPINES INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION: MINISTER WADES IN BUT SOME QUESTION: IS PROTEST BIGOTRY OR A CONSEQUENCE OF GOVTS POLICIES? Comments on the Facebook page of Acting Minister Tan Chuan Jin: “Is it fair to just bash those Singaporeans who disagree with the manner this event is carried out without looking at the details and disagreements?” Er Ming Hung, for example, referring to such protests, said that “with an open immigrants’ policy that arguably results in fierce competition in jobs, increased costs, stressed infrastructure and general overcrowding in a tiny space of 600km2 of space, is this not even predictable at all?” Given the population composition of locals and foreigners – which he believes is about 55% Singaporeans and 45% foreigners – Mr Er said “it is exceptional that we only encounter the occasional online flares and local/foreigner altercation.” “I believe that such expressions of anti-foreign sentiments are a manifestation of the malignant effects of the open immigrant policy on real people’s lives.” He added: “It’s too easy to dismiss it as ‘bigotry’ and ‘hate’. Too easy. Until we start addressing the gaps of this ultra-open immigrant policy, this kind of anti-foreign sentiment will persist.” “If you choose to dismiss everything as xenophobia, you will find more of such outbursts. The practical majority know that it isn’t the people, it’s the policies put in place that made things as they are now. If you choose to ignore this, you will find the practical majority diminishing in numbers as all their concerns are pushed aside and conveniently labelled as xenophobia.” “The influx of foreigners has been highly impactful in our small country unlike in UK, Australia or US,” Singh said. “It has begun to encroach into our social norms. The consequence is Singaporeans have started to speak up as one voice and this augurs well for nation building.” She added, perhaps referring to Mr Tan, “People who view this debate negatively either do not understand the deep underlying issues or failed to see how Singaporeans have evolved as a stronger country of concerned citizens.” And others took issue with ministers like Mr Tan criticising Singaporeans for speaking up, instead of acknowledging that it is the government’s policies that have given rise to these anti-foreigner sentiments. “Perhaps instead of slamming Singaporeans that we are becoming increasingly xenophobic, the ruling party should come up with practical policies to address the real underlying problem,” Adelene Chia said. “It comes back to the problem of overcrowding and an influx of foreigners into Singapore over the last few years,” Adelene said. “Adding onto rising costs of living, more competition over jobs with foreigners, insufficient infrastructure to cope with increasing population and so on. All these are adding on to the increasing unhappiness among Singaporeans. Insecurity is stirring up a lot of racial dislike (not just [towards] Filipinos). “If the government is successful in making Singaporeans feel secure and proud of their identities, then xenophobic incidents like this would happen less frequently.” Perhaps Darren Tay said it best. “Instead of just condemn [sic] such behaviour, as a government should be keen to know what have caused this.”
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 07:18:16 +0000
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