About 80 per cent of the 500 respondents were in favour of the test, following a suggestion in Parliament last month that has sparked spirited public discussions. CNA
80% of 500 respondents wanted English test for citizenship application. Who are these 500? Are they representative of the Singapore population? Presumably, since the poll was conducted by CNA and in English, the respondents are all English educated.
I asked 100 ah peks and ah sohs in the kopitiams and markets and 100% said no to English as a requirement. So how? Are the ah peks and ah sohs representatives of the Singapore population?
Can the Chinese media conduct a similar poll and see what kind of result would it get?
Just less than 40 years ago, China was still a very poor and underdeveloped country and many Asean countries looked down on China and the Chinese language was even banned in some Asean countries. Today, Asean countries are still developing countries, but China is already a super power, the number two economic power and going to be number one. The Chinese language is going to be one of the most important language. Some Asean developing mentality and mindset still cannot see how far they have been left behind by China and still think so highly of themselves and still thinking China and Chinese are below them. What simpleton!
The China Space Station is using Chinese and foreign astronauts would have to learn Chinese. And here we have simpletons still living in the 20th Century and thinking the world has not changed, and wanting English as a must language to be a citizen? Some even have the same mindset as those in Hong Kong, wanting Singapore to be like a British colony, speak English, the language of the colonial masters and be very proud of it. By the way, the colonial masters are now heading to oblivion. They are being wiped out from the continent of Africa.
It is ok for India to stick to English as they did not have a common language to communicate with each other. Singapore chose to be a multi lingua society to capitalise on our ability to speak more languages. In the region, Malay is equally important to communicate with our neighbours. English is convenient but must not be raised to a status to determine citizenship.
PS. Italy banning the use of English in their country while Singapore is so proud to make a non native language a must to be a citizen. What is the meaning of pride of one's own language and culture?
EU country’s ruling party fights ‘anglomania’
The Italian government is considering a ban on the use of foreign words in official communication.
A group of legislators from the ruling Brothers of Italy party has proposed banning the use of foreign words and terms in Italian public administration, schools, and universities.
Ever ponder how many ministers in current Singapore govt cabinet don't understand Mandarin?
ReplyDeleteLKY started political life without knowing Hokien. But when he knew Hokien was important, he took the effort to learn and mastered it.
ReplyDeleteLanguage is a tool to communicate, not a tool to be used as a barrier. And the stupidity has no cure type would learn a language but refuse to use it when needed to communicate.
It just reflects on the shallowness of the individual. Like they said, empty vessels make the most noise.
Just 500 respondents is all they get out of a population of 5.6 million and taking this as a representation? That is just 0.0089% of the population and I believe they are all English speakers? And they claim this is a large majority according to the CNA poll? I do not call Channel News America a comedy channel for nothing.
ReplyDeleteWho are those respondents? Must be many Singhs or all Singhs and Indians? Any Ah Peks and Ah Sohs that responded? Surely not, or else those doing the survey will get curses and 'terima kasut' or 'response by shoe'.
I think they are trying to brainwash us that this is now Ang Moh country, or 'Kay' Ang Moh gaining control, like in Little Britain now. After years of admitting whole families, most of which I believe cannot speak English, the agenda seems to be now trying to influence the Government to close the stable doors after the horses have bolted. I think the agenda suggest that Red Dot is preparing the ground for an Indian PM to take office, if I may be bold enough to say so.
This move of using English to determine citizenship application, in a multi racial and multi lingual country, is as bad as the USA telling the Chinese that those inside the Tiangong Space Station must understand and speak English by demanding that the manuals be in English and signs must also be in English. Astronauts from other countries joining the space research on Tiangong Space Station are gladly learning Chinese.The Chinese were right to just threw the only troublemaker out. The USA thinks it can dicate on any subject that crosses their mind.
It Red Dot goes along with the narrative being propagated, next they will demand that signs at MRT stations, announcements on MRT trains, signs at hospitals, shopping malls must all be in English, since every newly minted citizen must now understand English.
What then is the purpose of asking our kids to struggle with a second language in our schools, particularly Chinese, putting our children under intense pressure to score points in that subject in order to compete for entry into Secondary Schools and Junior Colleges? What are they thinking? This must be a move designed to eventually destroy Chinese culture and influence prevalent in Red Dot, like Little Britain closing down Confucious Institute citing security issues as always.
What do you people think?
Wonder what will be the response if Singh were to be an MP in Malaysia and suggesting that citizenship applicants must be able to speak English. I think he will end up as satay meat.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a red line in any Muslim country. But not a red line in Red Dot. Ironic!
Many sgporeans would like to see him address the crowd at some rally in Hougang and other Wayang Party's area of interest promoting the command of english as criteria for citizenship.
DeleteHas he become just as big headed as the pap stooges in parliament after being designated as leader of the opposition by the fool lording over Red dot?
It really a pity that locals still got
ReplyDeletethe mindset the west is superior
and Chinese is not important
refuse to learn Chinese and feel
very proud that they don’t known
Chinese
"Can the Chinese media conduct a similar poll and see what kind of result would it get?"
ReplyDeleteIt won't get 80% agreeing, maybe 60% or more. Question comes to mind, "since when CNA - ComedyNewsAmerica can be trusted? And how to trust Chinese media that is managed by Media Corpse?"
- I am inclined to think the silly buggers lording over Red dot is obsessed with 'angmoh Tua Kee' because it propagates the hype they can punch above their weight... But in reality are the recipients being shafted.
Proof of why the silly buggers lording over Red Dot are being shafted :
DeleteSchmidt ( Lt Gen ) acknowledged last week that on any given day in February, an average of just 29% of the US F-35 fleet was “fully mission capable.” Just last month, the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office ordered a global recall for the aircraft to fix an engine problem linked to at least one crash. US lawmakers have estimated that it will cost $1.3 trillion to sustain the nation’s F-35 fleet, partly because of poor reliability.
- rt news 4april23
500 respondents .. no forget out of the population of 5.6 million, only 3.4 million are Singaporeans which included the naturalized citizens; and 2.2 million foreigners . . . Not hard to guess who're the ones gunning for English
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of intelligence or stupidity is that to claim 80% support using a sample size of 500?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the agenda?
If the poll is taken in a homogenous society, it may make some sense. Singapore is a multi racial and multicultural society with a Chinese majority. How can such a poll make sense?
ReplyDeleteWould Low Thia Khiang support such a proposal? Would his supporters support such a proposal?
ReplyDeleteHi, anyone know of the Talks by LKY besides that one posted by Mr RB which is quite similar except that there is one segment that he said bluntly as thus:-
ReplyDeleteWhen Singapore was separated from Malaysia.
"I summoned all the Leaders in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to a meeting secretly and exhorted them NOT to have Mandarin as the First Language as this would create uneasiness and unhappiness amongst all the Racial Groups"
The Chinese understand this very vididly as they would NOT have this demand.
Know what's this means?
If the Chinese POP as the Majority were to be like the Others.i.e. the Other Races which many are very Extremists and demanded that Mandarin to be the First Language that there might be chaos etc.
So you see. The Chinese are a very tolerant and acccomdating Race and they don't demand certain rights just for the sake of Harmony.
By right if we are the Extreme Type like those unthinking ones, Mandarin should first take precedence on all other languages.
But took English as a Tool in our lives to communicate and do businesses with the World.
But now it seems that they the extremists are pushing the barriers just to have one up and benefits their own.
How many you wanted to influx into Singapore? Your fellow villages?
CNA aka Channel News America and Shits Times are propaganda medias to brainwash the masses and slowly will pushed harder and harder for all to accept and keep silent.
Now only tests ballons.
Need to be shoot down by a 500K missle.
Ah Low said to Ah Singh:
ReplyDeleteTee ah, aga aga chiok hoh ah. Nia peh kai supporters, long chong si tar teochew way, eh heow buay?
If English is the criteria to be a citizen, it would violate the Constitution that enshrined that other 3 languages, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil as the official languages of the nation.
ReplyDeleteAnd the angmohs would have a special advantage over the non angmoh citizens in their command of the language.
Why taking down the US dollar is easier said than done
ReplyDeleteFrom the moment the US weaponised the dollar to impose near-unprecedented financial sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine it was obvious that other countries, most notably China, would try to reduce their own vulnerability to similar sanctions.
A recent spate of agreements that China has struck to use its currency directly in trade deals, and similar efforts by less-developed economies to substitute their currencies for transactions that have more commonly been executed with dollars, have intensified discussion about the end of the US dollar’s dominance.
Since the invasion of Ukraine and their seizure of about half of Russia’s $US640 billion ($944 billion) of dollar-denominated foreign exchange reserves, China and Russia have been conducting most – about two-thirds – of their significantly increased trade in their own currencies. The yuan is now the most traded currency in Russia and Russia also now holds about a third of the world’s yuan-denominated foreign exchange reserves.
China has struck a deal with Saudi Arabia to pay for oil purchases in yuan – the first time in nearly half a century that the Saudis have been prepared to accept anything but the dollar in exchange for their oil. It is seeking similar deals with other Middle Eastern oil producers.
Last week, China’s China National Offshore Oil Company and France’s TotalEnergies struck the first deal for a LNG cargo denominated in yuan.
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Also last week, China and Brazil announced they would use their own currencies to settle trade and that Brazil would connect to China’s fledgling international payment system, its alternative to the US-dominated SWIFT international payments and messaging system.
India is trying to do more direct deals that reduce its exposure to the dollar. And in Latin America and South-East Asia, countries are also trying to circumvent the use of the dollar by doing more deals in their own currencies.
There’s even been talk of the creation of a “BRICs” (Brazil, Russia, China and India) reserve currency, perhaps backed by a basket of commodities.
The sudden surge in interest in what has been a perennial topic, the erosion of the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and the global hegemony that confers, and China’s central role in most of the de-dollarisation that is occurring, has led some to believe that the end of the dollar’s post-war dominance is within sight.
While it is likely that, as has been the case since the turn of the century, the pervasiveness of the dollar in global trade and financial transactions will continue to wane, it is improbable that the end of dollar dominance will occur any time soon.That dominance is built on a number of critical foundations that no other economy has. The US runs large trade deficits and therefore creates more dollars than its domestic economy requires, it has very deep and liquid markets to absorb the savings of those countries with big trade surpluses, the dollar floats freely with very limited capital controls and it has a legal system that the rest of the world generally trusts.
While China is seen as the major threat to the continued dominance of the dollar, it has none of those things and is most unlikely to change its economic model to run large trade deficits to absorb the rest of the world’s savings, or completely liberalise its financial markets, or abandon its managed exchange rate policy or its capital controls, or create a transparent and trusted judicial system.
ReplyDeleteThat’s probably why, even though the dollar’s share of global foreign exchange has fallen from about 72 per cent at the turn of the century to about 59 per cent, China’s currency accounts for just under 3 per cent of those reserves.
Only about 2 per cent of global trade is conducted in yuan/renminbi against more than 40 per cent for the dollar. The dollar dominates global foreign exchange transactions with a share of almost 90 per cent and about two-thirds of all global securities issuance is in dollars.
The reality is that there is no conventional alternative to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and, while China might have ambitions to chip away at that dominance, it is inconceivable that the Communist Party would surrender the tight control of its financial system, economy and even society that would be the price of a real tilt at grabbing that status.
Europe (about 20 per cent of foreign exchange reserves) might once have held ambitions for the euro but the disparate and at times dysfunctional nature of its individual economies and the nature of its trade policies – historically the European Union has run significant trade surpluses – has worked against it.
The trade issue is a fundamental one. While the dollar’s dominance benefits the US financial sector and enables the US government (and America more broadly) to borrow more cheaply than it might otherwise be able to do, it makes US non-financial businesses less competitive and has wiped out traditional jobs as they have shifted to developing economies such as China and India.
The reserve status is therefore both an “exorbitant privilege” and an increasingly exorbitant burden because running persistent large trade deficits – and America is probably the only economy and financial system that could absorb such a large share of the world’s trade surpluses – means increasing trade and fiscal deficits and debt and the winnowing out of much of the country’s less sophisticated elements of its industrial base.
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It is conceivable that, decades down the track, the world’s trade will have more of a multipolar appearance to it as various blocs develop trade in their own currencies. It is also conceivable that regional or international digital currencies, backed by gold and other assets with low volatility, might emerge.
It is difficult, however, to see anything emerging that ticks all the prerequisites required to either displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency or be a genuine alternative. If it did, it would require a dramatic, traumatic and probably quite destructive reconstruction of the global economy and trade.
Small brother ah, just be considerate ah, your father's supporters, are all teochew speakers, do you understand that?
ReplyDeleteSingh can only understand English lah, LOL.
Sorry Anon 10.54 for the simple crude translation. The effect may be lost.
China's rise was also thought to be easier said than done. What happened? Sure, it took them about 40 years. Maybe de-dollarisation could take longer. Who cares, so long as it works.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, let it be seen as overblown. But somebody will end up being the only loser. It is just a matter of others not wanting to take the risk of being sanctioned next for a start.
DBS loan $1.3b to troubled Adani group. Is this too much exposure to a single company?
ReplyDeleteWould DBS be able to recover this loan and when?
Pritam Singh and his WP should make this English requirement to be citizens an issue in the next GE. Based on the CNA poll, WP is likely to get a lot of votes for this and may win more seats in Parliament looking at the popularity of the issue.
ReplyDeleteGo for it WP. Go for it Pritam. You are now very popular and with a popular cause.
Anon April 04, 2023 11:03 am
ReplyDeleteThis Singh forgot Constitution. Since SG is multi lingual, then test 2 of the 4 official language lah.
This Singh is lifting a rock to hit his
Deleteown feet.
All new citizens must be able to speak the National Language, Malay, or the language of Administration, English. Old citizens are excused.
ReplyDeleteMandarin, like Tamil is just another official language.
What is in the National Pledge:
ReplyDelete'We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, properity and progress for our nation'
Upholding of language and equality is all there. Not upholding the pledge when reciting it means it is all hubris.
How about changing the Pledge to this?
ReplyDelete'We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on English, justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, properity and progress for our nation'
Pritam is not talking about people who are citizens. Singapore should be able to decide how we and who we accept as new citizens.
ReplyDeleteTesting of 2 of the 4 languages is a good idea, and examining how the new citizen integrates into a multilingual/multiracial society. Both tests are not against the pledge or constitution.
.
I asked the chicken, chicken said everyone must cackle like chicken.
ReplyDeleteI asked the ducks, the ducks said everyone must quack like a duck.
I asked the cats, the cats said everyone must meow like a cat.
I asked the sheep, the majority in the farm, the sheep sheepishly asked, can I ask them to baa like sheep?
The chicken, ducks and cats shouted, the majority must be silent. The majority has no speaking rights on this issue.
The sheep said, we are the most productive, we provided the wool and the milk to sell and bring revenue for everyone. Please have some consideration for us, the silent majority, the most hard working, the one that brought in the income, the one that is the most sheepish.
ReplyDeleteThe chicken said, we produced eggs also.
ReplyDeleteThe ducks also said, we produced eggs also.
What about you, cat? What did you produce except meow, meow, meow?
The cats provide love, love which is universal happiness.
DeleteFirst a Malay did the damage to the WP in Sengkang. Now this Singh is making the PAP rub its hands in glee. The outlook is not good for the WP. How bad it will be is hard to tell.
ReplyDeletePritam and his WP would disagree. They now believe they have the majority of the Singaporeans on their side, that they want Singapore to be an English speaking country, ignoring the majority Chinese's view. And the CNA poll supports their belief.
ReplyDeleteThen the big question is, which side is the CNA on? Is the result supposed to lull the WP and Pritam into believing all is fine and they are on the correct path? Or otherwise, that it is really the situation on the ground?
When the world's number one warmonger is kept out of the region, all the expensive military toys would be useless. The world must not allow the evil Americans to start more wars to sell their expensive and unproductive war machine.
ReplyDeletePeace will deal a death blow to the evil Americans whose economy is based on manufacturing war machine. With peace there will be no demand for them.
Two Black Hawk helicopters also kissed each other during a military night exercise using night vision goggles, killing 9 crews. Said to be between 23 and 36 years old junkies. Those are outdated and probably fraught with obsolete stuff that failed to function properly. Even the F35s are so fraught with problems throughout their existence, they keep crashing or lay unfunctional waiting for repairs. And they are talking about going to war with Russia and China all at once?
ReplyDeleteThe USA knows it is losing the edge if they delay the war any longer. By hook or by crook they want that war. China is prepared and ready.
Many of the American's war machine like the aircraft carriers, warships, warplanes, tanks, ICBMs etc etc are very old and suffering from metal fatigue, also from old technologies.
ReplyDeleteAngmoh not that tuakee lar. The real tuakee are the africans
ReplyDeleteThe PAP government will always be very kind to the angmoh in Singapore. Why? because the PAP believes that without the angmoh in the country to help the talentless Singaporeans, the country will become a 3rd world country. Without these angmoh talents in the country Singaporeans will not survive. Sad to say.
ReplyDeleteThink now they have chosen the Indians instead of angmohs. In many advertisements they are suggesting that Indians are the most desirable males for Chinese women.
ReplyDeleteRight you are both Anons.
DeleteDamn sickening nowadays to see all these advtgs by MediaCorpse.
Our Chinkees Leaders seemed to be like.those daft Euro Dafts who also under the balls of the Americunts.
Think ours also under the balls of the Talented Indians who already set the directions.
Ours are puppets now.
Yes Sirs yes sirs.
Such adverts are insulting, like Chinese men are useless or Chinese women have poor taste.
ReplyDeleteI immediately switched off such disgusting advertisements.