Tharman talks about intervention in social policy

Tharman went to Brookings Institution in Washington to talk about why it is good for the govt to intervene in social policy like social engineering. Has Singapore been doing social engineering in the city state? Of course we have and it is a very serious decision to take to ensure social security and stability. We have four major ethnic groups here and it is a natural tendency for the different ethnic groups to gravitate and live together.  ‘It’s not a natural tendency of society, it’s not part of the natural workings of society that  you get people wanting more and more to live with people who are different from them. So we need the visible hand of public policy to mitigate the invisible hand of markets, both the economic market as well as the invisible hand of social forces,’ he said.

So we have the HDB housing policies and quotas to spread the people to avoid having ghettos and ethnic enclaves. So far so good. We have not only avoided ghettos, we also have avoided racial problems and tensions.

Then again, with more than 2 million foreigners here, did the govt engage in intervention social policies? Don’t think so. We are seeing some ghetto like housing appearing. We are also seeing enclaves of foreigners in certain parts of the islands. If ethnic gatherings are not healthy to a multi racial society, what about the enclaves and segregations of foreign nationals in the city state? Would they pose a problem to the social cohesion and social fabric of our fragile multi racial and multi religious society? Somehow no one seems to bother about the millions of foreigners here, no social intervention, not even a care about the possible consequences on security of the nation. And many foreigners are employed to provide security services, to check on the Singaporeans, many of whom are NS men or ex NS men, with the responsibility to defend this city state. And now they are subject to checks and scrutiny by foreigners whose backgrounds are unknown, whose loyalties and political or religious affiliations are unknown.

How crazy or irresponsible has things become? What do you think? We control our people to the minute details but foreigners can do as they please, can run wild all over the island, living in their own enclaves and even business parks.

What is happening? Oh, Singaporeans committed more crimes than foreigners. Foreigners are all good and law abiding, model residents.