I refer to Han Fook Kwang’s article “The politics of dominance: Don’t take it to the limit” (Sunday Times, Oct 1). It states that “An overly dominant ruling party faces dangers such as resistance to change and complacency”. As I read the above excellent commentary by my Raffles Institution classmate who was the former editor of the Straits Times – my thoughts drifted to another article “Singapore Inc destroying value?” (Straits Times, Jul 18, 2016), which I read about a year ago.
I agree with the remarks “An overly dominant ruling party faces dangers such as resistance to change and complacency”. In this connection, our nation’s greatest asset – our people – may be in the process of being destroyed – by the Government’s “resistance to change and complacency”. The widespread feeling of Singaporeans that their value in their own country is being diminished is perhaps manifested in the record numbers of Singaporeans living abroad.
An estimated one in 10 Singaporeans are already living overseas and practically every survey has found that the majority of Singaporeans are open to or want to live overseas. Many Singaporeans are also ashamed whenever their friends from overseas ask why so many of the people who come to clean your tables, etc are so elderly and frail. And when they find out that their median basic salary is only $1,000 a month – it is even more embarrassing.
Another example of destroying the people’s value may be that it is estimated that hardly any of the local jobs growth in the last two and a half years, may have gone to true-blue Singaporeans, after factoring in the number of new PRs and new citizens granted in the same period. Also, last year’s new PRs and new citizens granted were both at, at least 10-year highs.
Leong Sze Hian
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