Who to Vote For?

7 May 2011 2.30 a.m.

First, I'm not gay and I don't want to have a gay MP or any gay person involved in the running of Singapore. Gay people have issues within themselves that they need to solve first and can't solve, let alone be able to run (or help run) a country. I've talked to enough gay people to know what is their problem. And it has nothing to do with sexual orientation.

Now... today is the day of voting and for the first time, I don't know who to vote for. Or rather, I know who I Have to vote for (but prefer not to), but there is no better alternative except an unconvincing Opposition Party.

Not that I don't want to vote for the PAP, I have always voted for them by default since everything has been running fine. I'm sure everyone has done the same thing, which is what this has led us to: foreigner flood, public transport overcrowding, etc...

I only have 1 thing to say offhand: I will vote for anyone who can get rid of all the foreigners in Singapore.

So far, I've browsed the online Opposition parties and seen 2 rallies for a few hours tonight, and none has mentioned removing foreigners. The Opposition party contesting my area says they will "integrate" the foreigners into the community.

I don't want integration. I want them to get out.

The Opposition parties are not saying anything much different from what the PAP is doing currently or has been doing.

The same foreigner problem now will still continue even if I vote for the Opposition.

So, it's not much incentive to vote in a different party (despite a few interesting-sounding benefits they put in their Manifestos).

Some years ago, I remember reading in the papers when the government wanted to open the doors to foreigners, that we would only be importing foreign "talent". And that such talent would be academic/skilled labor, a.k.a. educated types.

I accepted the reason that we needed such talent, as did everyone at that time.

However, the influx was very fast. Within just 1 or 2 years, more and more foreigners entered. When previously, our HDB flats were just for locals, now we have all kinds of people living next to us.

Then I started realising that these "talent" were all sorts of people from different countries. Students, China women working in massage parlors, cleaners, hawker centers etc...Banglas...

Educated talent meh?

Recently, I took an SBS bus and asked the China driver whether he went to a particular road. I spoke the English name for the road. He said, "Huh?". I repeated slower and he still couldn't understand. I repeated another time and it was simply impossible.

My question is: If the China driver doesn't know English, why the heck is he driving our bus?

On another occasion, there was an old woman who spoke local Hokkien to an SBS driver asking if he went to a place. The China driver didn't understand and just brushed her off by telling her to speak in Mandarin. The old woman was of course unable to speak Mandarin and had to get off.

I felt totally upset by this. Our poor old woman getting brushed off rudely by this China driver who insisted she speak Mandarin.

If it had been a local Chinese Singaporean bus captain, there would have been no problem. Local Hokkien is almost our national language for Singaporean Chinese.

Why hire China people to drive our buses? How can we hire someone who can't even speak our language to drive our main public transport line?

Don't know English and don't know local dialects.

Do you see Japan hiring someone who doesn't know Japanese to work in their companies?

It seems every country gives priority to their own people, except Singapore. WHY??

Why must we cram with foreigners in our buses, our trains, our malls?

When I take a crowded bus, I think how many in this bus are foreigners? If they were to get out, there would be enough seats for our own people.

Do you even know that these days, even the top decks of double-decker buses have people standing?

In the past, such a thing was not even allowed. There were signs to tell people "no standing" on the top decks. Now there is no such sign and the flood of people below deck forces people to come up and stand.

Who in the PAP knows this?

I was actually surprised to read that Singaporeans are angry with the government. Didn't think the problems were that big enough.

Their resentment has far surpassed mine. What I have noticed over the recent years, many Singaporeans already noticed. What they say is what I feel.

It is a fact that there are too many foreigners in Singapore. And reading the comment by the PM last year, strikes fear: "Let us welcome them with an open heart, help them to fit in and encourage those who will become citizens to strike roots here. If we do this well, by the next generation, their children will be native Singaporeans.".

The last sentence is the worst nightmare. It is what I hope will not happen and fear is happening.

Singapore is not worth serving NS for anymore, currently, or if this foreign influx continues. What are we giving up our young men for? What are they sacrificing their time and trouble for? To defend a country of foreigners?

I love Singapore: everytime I get fed up with Singapore, I just need to fly to Taiwan, Hong Kong or Japan and my love for Singapore will automatically be renewed. I will get homesick and need to go home before I go crazy.

But this is getting too much. I am really fed up of seeing foreigners everywhere I go, fed up of hearing gibberish in unpleasant accents, fed up of their actions that are different from Singaporeans, fed up with their attitude as if this is their house.

In the past, how do we board public buses? We go up from the front and get down the back, right?

Guess what foreigners do? They conveniently hop up from the back when the door is open and try to scan their EZlink card there. Of course, the machine beeps and the foreigners either get off to go in front or walk their way to the front of the bus inside (working their way through people coming up the front).

I understand that foreigners in some sectors are needed. Cleaning industry, construction and nursing. But China sales staff? China SBS bus drivers, China Singpost part-timers, China cashiers?

Frankly, I'm tired of hearing their irritating China accent. They have even taken lodging in our HDB flats, living here as if the place is theirs, even having or bringing their kids here.

I value some aspects of foreigner workers but... it's just too many of them and it's causing social problems. It is past the point of "integration", cramming so many millions into an existing Singaporean population.

I believe it is possible to remove most of them based on certain criteria, rather than a blanket swipe which would remove those that are necessary in certain sectors.

Offhand, I say remove all of them. Mediated by reality, I'd say remove just the China people. Further mediated, I say remove at least half the foreigner population.

What are foreigners doing in our Heartlands anyway? At first, in the past, it seemed cute that Angmohs were living in the Heartlands. We welcomed them, let them integrate.

But what is happening these 1-2 years is just too much, too many of them, stretching tolerance level. It is no wonder Singaporeans are angry.

I was telling someone that the way this goes, it is only a matter of time before we start seeing foreigners in Parliament running our country. By then, I think Singapore probably won't be worth much anymore. We may have fabulous economic growth etc... but it won't mean anything to us anymore. It has become a whore (sorry to say that).