If my WordPress statistics are accurate, one of my most popular posts is Why are Talented Singaporeans Leaving?
I’m flattered at the constant attention that it’s been getting from people searching in Google (I don’t know why) for keywords related to “Singaporeans leaving”, and that people actually bother to respond to my posts.
Anyway this morning I received a new comment on that post from a foreigner working in Singapore, who professed that he loves Singapore (how many foreign workers earning good money here don’t?) and proceeded to bash Singaporeans as a racist lot, among other negative comments.
I think it’s interesting to have opinions from our foreign friends’ perspectives, so here I am reproducing the comment from gweilo:
i love this country (singapore), i treat it as my own, most may never realize this but this is a case of racism, talented Singaporeans leave not mostly because they’re unappreciated, if they wanna be recognized then why not try harder? they leave coz there are truly greener pastures elsewhere, why settle for this if you can have much more right? one thing i observed is that Singaporeans hate to do manual work (i mean mike rowe’s “worlds rtiest jobs” type), they let other nationalities clean up their streets, and why hire a particular race to clean up your own mess? ain’t that racism? don’t the Singaporeans feel a bit more superior by doing that? oh c’mon lets at least be honest about that. Some Singaporeans can’t put up so they shut up that’s why Foreign talent stand out and take the challenge.
I think Singaporeans jus hate it everytime they see a foreigner working on a better job,having a better life than they do, insecurity. Fact is, foreign talent keeps this country surviving. nuff said.
Here is my response to him:
Gweilo -> as much as you have accused me and Singaporeans of racism, you yourself are being ethnocentric, no?
First of all, foreigners do not equate to talent. Foreigners may or may not be talented. If I may put it this way, they are allowed to work in Singapore purely for economic reasons and not for diversity or whatever other reasons other developed countries choose to allow immigrants for.
As far as I understand it, Singapore is not the only country that allows foreign workers in to do menial work.
Besides, a common fallacy is that Singaporeans are not interested in doing menial work. I wonder how this popular misconception was formed in the first place. Tell me, isn’t picking up drinks cans or working as a cleaner, dishwasher, plumber, garang guni man, etc menial? I see many Singaporeans in these jobs, though not as much as before since there are so many foreign workers competing with them now.
Let’s put it this way. The Government allowed in lots of unskilled foreign workers in a bid to have a more competitive economy with low cost workers (See this morning’s ST for a report on what MPs and Ministers say about how restricting the influx of foreign workers would affect Singapore… though I don’t quite agree with them).
Singaporeans are not unwilling to do those jobs not because of the menial work, but because of the menial pay as a result of having cheap foreign labour directly competing with them in the job market.
Perhaps you would argue that Singaporeans can’t take the hard work and long hours. Well, being a developed country, do you not think that wanting people to work 12 hours or more a day for a salary that is barely enough to support oneself is equivalent to borderline human rights abuse? You are not in the shoes of those low wage workers, you can only assume how they feel and not fully understand how it’s like to be in their shoes. As I reiterated many times before, most foreign workers do not have the pressure of paying loads of bills and housing loans in Singapore Dollars. They can survive on $600 or $800 a month and still have enough left over to remit back to their families back home. Singaporeans can barely save anything after deducting basic costs of living.
If the Government can have initiatives to train low wage workers to upgrade themselves, then why can’t they have initiatives to teach Singaporeans to accept those jobs (if your argument that Singaporeans are not willing to do these jobs hold true), or better still – have initiatives to make working in such jobs more attractive (i.e. by having a pilot trial to stop having foreign workers in for a few categories of jobs and getting Singaporeans hired instead?). It’s not even like these foreign workers make better cleaners. I have seen Singaporeans doing much better job at cleaning than some of those foreign workers anyway.
I have an open appeal to all Singaporeans – do not use the phrase “foreign talent” anymore. It is NOT TRUE that all foreign workers are talents. This phrase only serves to demoralize Singaporeans and over-qualify foreign workers. Singapore’s mass media unfortunately lacks standards in these areas – they are the ones who popularized this phrase, amongst other unnecessary, discriminating terms. Singapore media still has a long way to go before they can truly become world-class, because of the discriminating words that we see them use all the time… well, actually this may be due to the media quoting others… so if Singaporeans stop using these terms, the media will catch up on the trend too, I hope.
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Nicely said, but perhaps these days a lot of us use FT with sarcasm intended more than actually praising them as actual talents.
Biao, your reply is spot on. It may also be good to highlight how the term “racism” is misused by Gweilo. To classify “foreigners” as one race and “Singaporeans” as another is illogical based on the fact that both groups consist of many races. “Race” as biological concept has also been defunked since the new millenia.
[...] in a Strange Land – this lush garden within: Singaporeans – Stop referring to foreign workers as TALENTS – BothSidesOfTheJohorStraits: Yippee!!! Singapore no longer has ‘no resources’! – Military [...]
The media in Spore is controlled by the PAP govt and is simply doing the PAP govt’s bidding, serving the PAP govt’s political and economic agenda.
Please don’t use the word “gweilo”! That term has a loaded meaning, and it doesn’t help counter his argument that Singaporeans are racist. A little consideration, please. Words are powerful.
Wow I post a comment here guess being busy is not a good thing.But here is my view, They(workers in san marine) are not talent per se but a more apt term would be slaves(foreign workers)
but with slightly better pay 
IE the cotton field of Aamerica long time ago LOL(economic growth for the masters aka elites).
In this case township = mordern slavery.
Hi Daniel, gweilo, ironically, was the nickname provided by the person who commented on my earlier article. And he still accuses Singaporeans of racism when he calls himself a gweilo?
[...] perhaps not – The boy who knew too much: The message and the messenger – this lush garden within: Singaporeans – Stop referring to foreign workers as TALENTS – BothSidesOfTheJohorStraits: Yippee!!! Singapore no longer has ‘no resources’! – Military [...]
Wah. Don’t refer to foreign workers as talents.
Very aggressive…
I feel that the message should be “don’t refer to ALL foreign workers as talents”.
This sentence is a little too much… Just because of some foreign workers, all foreign workers should be classified as without talent?
“I have an open appeal to all Singaporeans – do not use the phrase “foreign talent” anymore. It is NOT TRUE that all foreign workers are talents.”
Linqi -> Read properly. I said, “It is not true that ALL foreign workers are talents”. Implicit in this statement is that there may be some foreign workers who are talents but not all of them are.
I wonder with nowadays recessions, massive retrenchments and some pay cuts here and there, how government would reacts on the importation of Foreign “TALENTS”.
everyday hundreds of foreign workers, squatters, illegal workers and overstayers come to klang lane and belilios road.
Blocks 671 and 672 provide free housing to indians, banglas, pakistanis etc. Although its a hdb residential area and there are prominent sign boards stating no illegal gathering, no loitering in hdb void decks and lift lobbies/staircases.
Something has to be done. there is no crowd control and no police patrol or regular visits/spotchecks by hdb or town council or any authorities. Fellow singaporeans pay hdb with their hardearned hdb cpf and borrow money to build their homes but we see foreign workers lying on the floor of the void decks and letter box area. There are no police who check their ID or charge them with loitering or illegal gathering.
on weekends, the roads surround klang lane and belilios ,chander road, race course and serangoon road are completely swamped and blocked. cars are unable to pass . residents are sruck in their homes and unable to pass.
when residents try to make calls to 999, their mobile lines are blocked due to overuse of mobile lines in the area. do we need to wait for this to affect ang mos and mps before we act on this ? HELP