Only 6 interviews for jobless PMET, 53, since Dec 2011

This is the title of a very depressing post in the TRE that I recommend Hsien Loong and all his ministers to read. And I would recommend that Hsien Loong throw away the National Day Speech he is working on at the moment and write something with the issues raised in this post. The comments following the article by a lkh are cries of despair and hopelessness, and very resentful of the PAP and the govt. And if more and more people are feeling this way, the PAP is a goner comes 2016.

The issue is about the plight of Sinkie PMETs above 45 years old, very qualified, very experienced, used to earn 5 figure salaries, but cannot find employment. To make matter worse, many have growing up children to feed and some may also have mortgages to service. Many were jobless for years and have to downgrade to cheaper homes.

What makes them angrier is that the country has jobs for more than a million foreigners, many of which are less qualified and with a big number with fake qualifications. A govt that cannot provide jobs for qualified professionals who are citizens, who are willing to work, who are able, will not last long, not longer than the next election. The call to ‘Vote Them Out’ is getting louder.

The problem of the PMETs is a very serious one, a clear and present crisis, as every PMET has a family and extended family to get to know of his plight. If the Govt still continues to be yah yah papaya and tiada apa, and refuses to acknowledge and deal with this problem immediately, the end of its rule will come much faster than they think.

With a life expectancy of 80 or 90 years, and with good medical care and good quality of life, many are healthy and can continue to work till their 70s. And many must continue to work as not many have enough savings to retire when their nest eggs are eaten up by high inflation. 50 or 60 is the prime of their lives and they should not be cut off from the job market just like that and be replaced with foreigners.

Is the govt listening? Is Hsien Loong listening? Or would they bother? Do they really think that the people will vote for them again in the next GE while they keep ignoring the people’s jobless problem? Do they think it is ok to send these PMETs to be cleaners and security guards or taxi drivers or whatever part time agents? Is it just a matter of mismatch that their skills and experience could find no takers and they need to be retrained to be cleaners and security guards while the questionable skills and experience of foreigners could find a few hundred thousand jobs here?

Hsien Loong better makes his National Day Speech counts and addresses the unemployment of PMETs now while there is still time to make amends, how to get them decent jobs that befit their qualifications. An easy task is to freeze all ministries, stats boards and GLC hirings of foreigners right away and take in all the Sinkie PMETs immediately. No Sinkie can afford to be unemployed living in this very expensive city.

I urge Hsien Loong and his ministers to read this post in the TRE and the comments again and again personally. Or is it that they are so used to such matters that they are no longer sensitive to them, just treat them like all the patients waiting outside the Emergency units of the hospitals, all equally ill, desperate and needing immediate medical attention. Just let them be. There are better things to do, like bringing in more foreigners to replace the older Sinkies.

The two most important and urgent matter for the govt to deal with are jobs for jobless PMETs and a home for every Singaporean without all the silly disqualification rules. Every Singaporean deserves and is entitled to buy his first flat direct from the govt. This is a social contract the govt owes to the citizens. With the unbearable high cost of private housing, not allowing Sinkies to buy from HDB is as good as telling them to move out, unwanted, Singapore has no place for them.

There is no need to waste the people’s time with a 2 or 3 hour speech that makes the listeners feel good for a moment but not solving the dire problems of the people. A short half an hour speech with concrete measures to make the lives of Sinkies better, get them the jobs and the homes, is more important, useful and welcome than a long and grandiose speech of nothingness.