Saddest Voting Day

This was the first time that voting was so difficult. Usually, there isn't need to think and just cast the vote to--as usual--back to the ruling party. Who else? I'm not usually into politics and whatever works, works.

This time was different. I was very unhappy and troubled to have to vote for people I didn't like (anymore) and yet logically have to vote for because the Opposition was so weak and unconvincing. I wish I didn't have to vote but then I would be fined.

This time, I found many things troubling many Singaporeans. I wasn't the only one feeling it. Everyone had felt it much earlier than me and expressed it sooner.

The problems of foreign "talent" flooding our island all to meet a population quota that I doubt can be supported for short or long term. Friction between the alien outsiders and our own Singaporean people.

I thought nobody realized, but it seems it is so common that it's a fact that everyone already knows: China people don't even need to know English or local dialects to work in our most local "pillars" such as SBS buses and Singpost.

And foreigners are arrogant, behaving as if they own the place. Now I know why. It is because our government "begged" them to come with all expenses paid and an almost guaranteed PR-ship waiting.

I really didn't know. Had I known...

I feel very saddened and troubled by what Singapore has become. As Singaporeans, we have no rights as citizens. To live and work in Japan, a person needs to know at least a certain level of Japanese before entry is granted. Do we see just anybody becoming Japanese citizens? Or US citizens? Or Australian citizens? And do these countries easily give jobs to foreigners or priority given first to their own people?

If it were so easy to be a US citizen and be accepted, people won't be leaving the US to go back to their own countries to live and work.

Just read what people say online and it hurts. Here are 2 that I happened to read and I feel such tears coming up:

Ironically, this is in the car forum. As one reader said, this should be in a bigger, main online website where more people can read. I didn't know that this was going on. I really didn't know... http://www.mycarforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2663008I

This one by a man named "Lee" is very sad. I'm very sorry for him. It's hard to believe that even $2500 is not enough anymore. I thought $2500 for 1 person was plenty. Suddenly, I am reminded that hey, yeah, the government did make that promise some years ago, that every Singaporean would have a home/house to stay and do not worry. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/pm-lee-didn-t-m-sorry-152850327.html#mwpphu-container

I copy and paste these 2 here for posterity in case their threads get deleted or lost for some reason:

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By "Ah_tee": "YOU are only worth this much" in My Car Forum.

though i am very against the influx of FTs, i still treat them like a fellow being and have never look at them with a different perspective.


i was having lunch with a PRC colleague. shes a 24yr old gal who just graduated from NTU and now working in a MNC while waiting for PR approval.


just started a casual topic like, wad do u like about this country and how are u coping

so we get the standard reply. wad stuns me, was the answer to my next question.



me: " so wad makes u decide to come here"

PRC: " i didnt"

me: " wa, ur parents force u here or ur bf is here"

PRC: "neither, ur SG gahment invited us here"


me: " huh, wad do u mean"

PRC: " ur MOE went to our school in our village and told us they URGENTLY need students here, infact they were hardselling the whole scheme and many of us signed up"


me: " huh, wad did they offer"


PRC: " they offer us, ALL Expenses paid for our fees in NTU, including lodging and we even get pocket money"


me: *mouth open


PRC: "on top of that, they have send me the INVITATION letter to apply for PR after we grad"






i seriously begin to wonder the magitude of the FT problem has many more sides that many of us do not know,

i lose my pride as a sgporean after hearing this and i really wonder do they really care ?



if u give a PR who starts a business here and bring jobs to sgporeans, by all means.


BUT if u choose to so-call groom a FT and seemingly used up tax payers money to fund it, i totally do not understand the reason why.


my guess is, they bring in more FTs, give them the candy and they bring in more FTs, which i belive is working because she told her friends about this scheme and many of her friends are here now, at the expenses of home-grown sgporeans.

i myself was deprived the chance of studying in a local U.


but yet a villager from a faraway land with no visible society contributions gets the chance of studying here, all expenses PAID.



are we really worth this much to the gahment ?

is it really we got not enough pple here to study in NTU ? then why are they rejecting sgporeans who meet the pre-requisites ?

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By "Lee" Last page as of now. Comments 1841 - 1855 of 1855

Yahoo News Fit to Post.

I work so hard and 12 hrs a day drawing a basic salary of $2,500 monthly .
After Deduction of 20% CPF , House Rent ( 1 Room ) $259 Monthly .PUB Bill $60 Monthly and
my monthly expenses per month $ 1000 ( about 30+ Daily ) for works like bus fare and food .
I don't even have enough money to spend then to save for raining days .
Due to HDB , They want me to pay 30% for the first 2 years , 70% for the second two years , 100 % for the 3 third 2 years . After i have pay the 100% for the 3rd 2 years and i have to renew the fourth 2 years contract , HDB Officers told me that the the contract for 2011 to 2012 is the last . After this contract expire on 2012 , I am not allowed to rent from HDB .

Sir , Let me ask you some question . I am a single singaporean and has contribute CPF and pay the income tax for so many years . I work so hard , 12 hours aday just to survive and pay all the bills . I served the army in 1977 to 1979 . I am a good citizen and due to my parents who left me
when i was born , My grandmother brought me up and look after me but she is poor and can't afford to provide my education .

After the contract expire on 2012 , HDB Officer told me i can't rent the premises .
Then where am i going to stay . This one room flat is for me to rest and take my shower when i come back from works . Is just a one room flat.

HDB want me to buy from the agent but i don't have money to pay for the down payment to the house owner , Then how to buy house and where am i going to stay .
As a singaporean , I am a good citizen and also one of your party supporters . In the end i will be homeless and going to stay at the road site or under the bridge.

I believed , PM LEE , SM GOH , MM LEE promise every Singaporean will have a home in Singapore . Did they keep their promises.

Sir , I am your party supporter and in the end i am homeless .
Until today i still hope your will help and pity those poor singaporean and do your best to help them.

I wish my dream will come true when i am still alive because i has heart attack and high blood.
I am 52 years old and always worry about the house . I don't think the goverment that i respect and have so much confident in them can help me .

PM Lee , Please pity the poor Singaporean and do yours best to help them and allowed them to have a home to stay happily .

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Here's a very good comment by " Jacob" who rightly said: why do we need taxi drivers from china when they dont even know where to go? (page 2) http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/pm-lee-didn-t-m-sorry-152850327.html#mwpphu-container

Precisely what I say: Why is a China man driving our SBS bus when he don't even know English or our local Hokkien?  

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Check out the quote of stylomonk by "Acemundo" and Acemundo's own comment on page 15: http://www.mycarforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2663008&st=280

Copy and pasted here:

Stylomonk:

well to take some tension off, i would like to share an experience i had with one of these so-called middle class FTs

2 years back, i was making an order at the fruit juice stall at PS food court. i wanted to order mixed fruit juice so i said "Pear starfruit 一杯“ to the chinese lady at the counter. she gave me a puzzled look. (if it were a local uncle/auntie, they would usually understand rite)

i realised she was PRC so without really thinking much, i just directly translated it in my head and repeated "梨 杨桃 一杯“

i dug into my purse for coins and when i looked up, there were 2 cups in front of me. 1 pear 1 starfruit. =.= i told her i wanted mixed de but she gave me a black face and claimed that's wat i ordered. (you all know the way they talk very LL one la hor) nvm i counted myself as suay and paid for both.

As i was going off, the malay guy who was next in line order apple juice. the china woman gave him an irritated look and replied "可以讲华语吗？！“ 

sigh... come on lah... mass import also QC abit rite... don't suka suka. i hope by now that woman has at least learnt a list of fruits in english.

anyway i feel quite sian of eating at food court/hawker nowadays... f&b like taken over by these prcs... somehow the ones we have here all very attitude problem one

Acemundo:

haha, the first PRC i encounterd at coffeeshop, didn't even know COKE is what when I ordered it in English.
 

(zine ed: China people should already know English or learn it before they come here. Which country allows foreigners to demand that the country's citizens speak in Their language?? Where is the logic? Ridiculous! We don't demand that they speak English is already being very super kind to them. We are too good, too nice. That's why get pushed around.)

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An amazing video that  wakes me up to things I never knew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMxTcRs3KDU&feature=related  

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).