The Silly Logic Of Singapore's Employment Strategy
Let it be very clear in our head:
1. No sovereign and sensible country in the world would allow foreigners to invade its territory in any form, any way, any how.
2. No intelligent and wise government worth its salt would allow foreign job hunters to come into the country to dominate and overwhelm its tiny job market.
3. No caring and patriotic leader would allow foreign scavengers to steal and rob in broad daylight the rice-bowls (their only means of livelihood) of his own countrymen.
4. No decent brain would think of providing an avenue for the influx of alien 'talents' from a third world country (that has more than one billion mouths to feed) to infiltrate, invade, infest and imbalance the employment equilibrium within its beloved country and jeopardise the livelihood and survival of its own citizens.
Now, take a closer and deeper look into the employment strategy of Singapore. What do you think it is? It is at the very least, silly.
Recently, the Chief of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ravi Menon openly stated, and therefore confirmed that 57% of senior management from the banking sector are foreign employees.
The 57% is a good indication that the banking industry clearly prefers foreigners than Singaporeans. How has the employment situation in this lucrative sector stealthily crept up to this unhealthy state? Someone must be sleeping.
Are Singaporeans really less educated, less well-trained, less qualified, less intelligent and therefore less competitive? Are our universities producing misfit and unfit graduates that can't even compete with third world village pumpkins with nicely printed papers from Degree Mills?
In the past 15 years, since CECA was signed to secure a steady supply of very hungry food hunters from India, the government had openly, earnestly and relentlessly discouraged Singaporeans from pursuing a degree. Many Junior Colleges have been deliberately closed down.
Recently retired Minister Khaw Boon Wan proudly and crudely said,
“You own a degree, but so what? You can’t eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless. Can you have a whole country where 100 percent are graduates? I am not so sure ... What you do not want is to create huge graduate unemployment.” (Straits Times; 18 May 2013).
Yes, no smart government would want a 100% graduate population. It would be very difficult for the government to cater jobs for all of them. Moreover, there would be too many smart thinking and analytical people to scrutinise the competency and quality of the leadership in government. This is understandable.
We have always thought that too many graduates in Singapore is not a good thing. But now we learn that 57% of senior bankers are foreign 'talents‘. The question is: How many of this 57% are graduates?
Can we take it that EP holders are mostly graduates? If so, then why does the government keep discouraging us from pursuing a degree and yet allow jobs that require degree holders to go to foreigners with degrees?
I simply can't imagine that a self-proclaimed "caring and outstanding" government can purposely weaken its own workforce by discouraging the citizens from attaining higher education (a basic degree) which would definitely enable them to compete on equal footing in a global economy.
"Go for mastery of skills, said Tharman (Business Times, 18 Sep 2014). And what else did the other Ministers, such as the Trade and Industry Minister and the NTUC Chief (who has been kicked out by the voters in the last GE), said? They said similar things.
Our Universities have been boasting to the world how good they are, even claiming to be Top 10 in Asia, yet these very same Universities cannot even produce top-notch PMETs, such as IT professionals and Bankers? Shameful? Of course!
Think:
Is there any other silly government in the world that purposely weakens it’s own workforce and then bring in foreigners to occupy the lucrative top jobs?
Queen of HeartPS. Posted on behalf of Queen of Heart