1819 revisited

Doreen Everitt: "I'm not on holiday, I live and work here. And like most overseas people we are here at your request to make sure your country makes money from our expertise."

She also says:

"Your government brings us in to work here because you don't have the skills. Don't knock us because believe it or not there is more foreign money in Singapore than anything else. If we all pulled out you would be a very poor and lonely country. Be grateful that there are people like us willing to give up our country, our ways to actually come and work for you and your government. Singaporeans are not the most friendly of people to be around."

When the British came in 1819, they saw a fishing village. They were so friendly and helpful. They took over the island from the native and turned it into their colonial outpost. They also honoured the native and made them richer by making them subjects of the British Empire. The native were so happy with the recognition and new status, and more jobs to work as cooks and maids and suppliers to the British soldiers. Some were given the title chief clerks. Hell of a big deal then.

Then came 1969, the British were bankrupt and could not help the poor native anymore as they too did not have the money to live the lifestyle of the colonial masters they used to be. So they left, leaving the native in the lurch. And everyone will think the native will become poor and lonely and ended up like any third world country.

But the native did not become poorer and lonelier. The native turned the little trading post into one of the world’s financial centres and its native one of the richest people in the world. But for some reasons, someone told the world that the native were daft and needed the help of foreign talents to help them to build a better life and to give them jobs.

So the millionaire and half millionaire native are now being helped by half baked talents who believed that they are the saviours of the millionaire native. The truth is that many of the half baked foreign talents are poor church mice and average workers in their home countries, could not get a better paying job. Still they really believe that without them the native will be poorer and lonely.

Who created this silly myth? And with the half baked foreign talents and half baked minds, it is expected that they believed so. And sadly, the daft Sinkies also believe that they are daft and willingly give up their professional jobs to drive taxis and become part time agents here and there while the half baked talents look down on them.

It is like a new phase of colonialism. The foreigners came, they saw and they conquered. In this phase, they were invited to do exactly what the native feared and even built up a citizen army to protect such an eventually. What is happening?