REACH – 9 in 10 support tighten foreign workers

‘REACH announced today (18 Mar) that in a telephone poll, close to 9 in 10 of respondents were supportive of measures to tighten foreign worker inflow.’ This is the findings of the Govt feedback website. What is laughable is that though a tightening of foreign workers is desirable, it misses the main issue of the citizen’s pain. It is not foreign workers that the Singaporeans are angry about. It is jobs at the PMET level that qualified and experienced local PMETs have been booted out and replaced by foreigner that really matters. While the people were kpkb about foreign talents, the Govt apparently refused to engage on this and kept talking about foreign workers when many of the jobs at these level were shunned by the locals. The local PMETs want to be employed and are angry for being replaced.

In another article by Reuter, I quote, ‘Citigroup (C.N), the largest banking employer in Singapore, said more than 80 percent of its nearly 10,000 staff in the city-state were Singapore citizens or permanent residents.’ This is likely the case in many banks including local banks. Even Jollibee when faced with a boycott, sang the same song, that 79% of its employed are Singaporeans and PRs. What is the problem with these statements? PRs are not citizens, not Singaporeans. How many of these employed are Singaporeans? The statistics must be broken down to reflect the actual number or percentage of Singaporeans that are employed at PME level. The country does not belong to PRs.

The Govt must be serious in tackling this discrimination against Singaporeans in the work place. Two things the Govt can do, 1, imposed a quota on Singaporeans versus others at PME level, and 2, all GLCs and Govt agencies, including ministries must hire a Singaporean to head the HR dept or division. This is to ensure more transparency and to protect Singaporean interests. These are the minimum the Govt can do to protect its citizens. If the Govt cannot even do this, it has failed in is duty to protect its people and it is time for a change of Govt.

Following these, the MOM and Tafep must investigate and take the errant employers to task with heavy fines and curtailing their privileges to hire foreigners. Forget about the shit that foreign companies will scoot and move out from this city. Hiring foreigners is only a small part of the whole picture of the attractiveness of Singapore as a business centre and HQ. There are many anecdotes of foreign companies bringing in inexperience young graduates to be trained by the locals and subsequently be promoted to boss over the same locals.

The whole employment policies on hiring foreign talents at PME and top management level need an overhaul. We cannot keep filling these positions with foreigners, including PRs, and hollow out our local talent pool. Eventually no local talents can fill these positions. The Govt is doing the people a disservice if this is allowed to continue like it is now.

Fair hiring policies for hiring locals

There is a small column on the front page of ST yesterday with this clip, ‘Governments around the world must ensure citizens get a fair shot at landing jobs in the face of competition from foreign workers. As Singapore grapples with this delicate balancing act, a team of Straits Times correspondents examines how the authorities in Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia are dealing with this thorny issue.’

It is amazing but good that the main media is starting to show an interest in the unfair practices in the job market against the citizens. Does this mean that they were not interested before, did not know that there is a big problem here, or not told to cover this topic? Anyway, now that they are interested, let’s hope they will do more investigative journalism to reveal the plight of the jobless or underemployed PMETs here and give a helping hand to Gilbert Goh in Transitioning.org. Businesses and employers that discriminate against Singaporeans must be exposed and taken to task. After all these PMETs are fellow citizens or could be their friends or friend’s friends or some distant relatives. But no, these PMETs are mostly remotedly linked to some of the correspondents or not at all. Among the correspondents that wrote on the subjects were Jonathan Eyal, Jonathan Pearlman, and Li Xueying from HongKong. I presume Lee Seok Hwai, Tan Hui Yee and Zakir Hussain are Singaporeans.

What did they discover? All the countries practises a similar policy of citizens first to the extent of being protectionist. They believe in looking after their citizens first and foreigners last. How silly of them, no wonder their countries are not as progressive as Singapore. They are losing all the great talents from the whole world. Did I hear that some foreign talents in Singapore are going to scoot when the Govt is going to tighten hiring of foreigners? Would they be welcome in these countries mentioned? Would these countries open their arms in eager expectation to welcome these foreign talents?

Some of the comments in the articles were: ‘Britain operates one of the strictiest foreign labour control regimes in the industrialized world.’ In HongKong there were three hurdles to cross and a Supplementary Law to regulate the inflow of foreign workers so that the job prospects and wage levels of local workers would be protected. And ‘Australia has a varied arsenal of weapons to protect the interests of local job applicants against foreign competition….The President of the Migration Institute of Australia, Ms Angela Chan, said the requirements for sponsoring foreigners were “very tough” and were designed to compel employers to try to hire locals.’ In Taiwan, ‘Locals over foreigners’ is written into Law. ‘Article 42 of the Employment Services Act, which took effect in 1992, says, “no employment of foreign workers may jeopardize national’s opportunity in employment, their employment terms, economic development or social mobility.’

In Thailand, ‘A 1973 decree…forbids foreigners from working in 39 fields, including hair cutting and shoemaking. Neither can a foreigner be a tour guide or a lawyer. Medical professionals must take a test in Thai before being allowed to practice. Indonesia also has strict laws to restrict foreign white collar workers to specific sectors and permits need to be renewed annually. There were only 55,000 foreigners working in Indonesia in 2011.

What does all this information mean? These countries are protectionists and thus unprogressive. No wonder Singapore is number One, the fastest growing global city. And foreigners working here have all the blessings from the Govt. This one no country can beat. And we have a MOM and Tafep. Now who are these organizations protecting? I believe they are protecting the Singaporeans and PRs. And I also believe the MOM knows exactly the practices of the above mentioned countries and must have designed our foreign talent policies in line with their practices.

Singapore and Singaporeans are number One. Would the media go on a crusade to save jobs for our PMETs? Or would these reports be a one off case and nothing will be mentioned again and local PMETs continue to be cast aside while foreign talents take all the plum jobs from them?

Is National Conversation meant to be serious?

The Natcon has been a govt initiative to discuss about the future of the country and the well being of the people. I think this is the agenda. And I think this is a very serious matter and should include bread and butter issues. Or should the Natcon be about painting a wonderful future, a fantasy land to feel good about? Should the problems facing the people, especially the young people that are going to live the future be of a major concern and topic in the Natcon?

What do you think? Should serious bread and butter issue be raised and discussed?

Japan in a mood for war

Under the revived hawkish leader PM Abe, Japan is geared to return to militarism and is calling for war. It is going to tear away all the pacific treaties signed with the Americans after the defeat in WW2. The cries of war are all over Japan. Japan will fight to keep the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands it seized from China at all cost. There is a new tension, a romanticism of old Imperial Japan that once ruled East Asia.

Japan is a small country relative to China but is threatening China once again. It chased Chinese surveillance ships at Diaoyu/Senkaku, arrested Chinese fishing boats, nationalized the Islands as Japanese territories, scrambled fighter jets to intercept non military aircraft from China. It is boosting its defence expenditure to acquire more military aircraft and ships. Wherever Abe stepped foot on, he is calling for tougher actions to defend the Islands and accusing China of provocations. It even tried to convince the Obama regime to join force to fight China. It is trying to convince the Asean countries that China is the enemy.

Japan is still caught in the memories of the 19th and 20th Centuries when, despite its smallness in size, could raid and invade neighbouring countries that were poor and underdeveloped, including a broken China that was bankrupt of everything except a sea of poor peasants. Under those circumstances, Japan, like the Europeans powers, with their huge military hardware and soldiers, could look superior to the rest. It conquered Korea, Manchuria, Southeast Asia and almost the whole of China.

China was weak and had no resources to fight a war, no finance, no modern industries, no modern armies, a corrupt leadership under a dying Manchu Dynasty and an inexperienced bunch of revolutionaries. But China fought with all the handicaps and weaknesses to prevent the country from being taken over by the invading Japanese. The Japanese could control some major cities but not the Chinese people in the whole country. In a war of attrition, Japan could never subdue and rule China even at it poorest and deplorable condition.

The China today is a renewed nation with resources, finances and all the industries, including war industries, and the three armed military services with modern weaponry and a central united command. Japanese must be in delusion to think that it still can fight China when the cards are stacked differently this time, in favour of China. A war between Japan and China would tell a completely different story.

The reality today is that Japan is a small country, small in every aspect, even the military forces vis a vis China. No matter how much Japan militarized and armed its people, it is still a small country to China. It is now a mismatch that only the Japanese hawks refuse to see. A small country like Japan wants to go to war with China and thinking of winning?

The new China and new Chinese are no longer poor hungry peasants and rag tag soldiers. There is a new vibrancy and spirit in these new people who believe in a new destiny. As far as China is concerned, Japan is no longer a threat. Period.

All the hawkish calls in Tokyo are just a make belief, a drumming up of national pride and arrogance but refusing to admit the new reality. Japan is no longer in the same league as China. It would even have problems attacking Korea and could be the other way. It would not be able to run through Southeast Asia like it used to do. Vietnam would simply stop it in its path.

Japan, Abe and all the hawks and rightists leaders are dreaming in the past. The world has changed. Japan is a small country and cannot be a big power that it used to be. Those days are over. The earlier that Japan recognizes this hard truth the better it is for the Japanese to live under the new world order and be a respectable world citizen, without having wild thoughts of going to war. This time it would not be Hiroshima and Nagasaki being flattened. The whole of Japan will be waste land and the casualties will make Japanese a threatened life form.

HR professionals must do national service to recruit Singaporeans

Nation building has been a continuous process for this little island of less than 50 years. We became a nation by accident in a way, by the grace of colonialism and a twist of fate. The colonialists came, grabbed whatever they wanted from the nascent countries everywhere when the natives were still evolving in different stages of civilisation. Nationhood was an alien concept to these tribal people that grew and lived naturally in their land. There were tribal chiefs, princes, kings, sultans, rajas etc etc but no nation or country recognisable with defined territories and sovereignties. The borders were porous, expanded or shrunk depending on the powers of the chieftains. It was easy for the colonialists to take over everything under the barrel of their guns. They lumped everything they could seize under their empires, breaking down all barriers of tribes, kingdoms or whatever.

Singapore existed for many centuries as a loot of the British Empire, part of the Straits Settlements that include Malacca and Penang, three entities separated by land and water hundreds of miles apart. The colonialists treated them as little jigsaw pieces and pieced them together or took them apart at their whims and fancies. Immigrants moved freely with the consent of the colonialists to meet their needs of the moment. There was no citizenship, no ownership, just subjects of Empires or free or indentured labour marketed by the human traders of the day.

1959, 1963 and 1965 were milestones in our history that saw this island becoming a country and nation with its own citizens. This was followed by years of daily drumming of a nation state, of being citizens of a country, our country, our people and our land. We have to gel as one people. And as citizens, live, work and fight to earn our rights to be equal in our very own country. We pledge to look after one another, for a better life for ourselves and our children.

We almost made it as a nation, almost, until things took a crooked turn. Overnight we were told we were not a nation or just a nation in the making, just a city. Worst, some even regard it as a hotel, free for all, anyone can come and stake his claim in the island, just like the citizens, with no barriers to entry. The silly cries of meritocracy prevailed and became the mantra of the day. Anyone that is good, or faked to be good, has all the right to step over the undead bodies of the citizens, to climb over them for the fruits of labour planted by the pioneers of this islands, the forebears of the daft citizens.

Meritocracy was embraced without question and distinction of nationalities. Many citizens fell on the sidelines and were disregarded as losers and have no place and right to protest. They were seen as simply no good. Foreign talents, the biggest myth that is being perpetuated in this city, not a country, are the new privileged class. They have more rights than the citizens by virtue of their claims to talents. The truth, many were fakes or just below average cons from third world countries.

The slack and neglect to recognise the worth and rights of citizens have allowed many foreigners to be here, some issued with citizenships, some as PRs, some with Employment Passes to dominate the job market in executive, managerial and top management levels. No one cares. Everyone forgotten that we are a country, a nation of people. We invited foreigners to take over our jobs and our city. And the foreigners were not going to be shy about this golden opportunity offered to them by the daft citizens of this failed nation. They seized the moment to dig in, bring in all their tribes, to set root here, easing or knocking down the citizens to make way for their buddies and tribesmen to gain a foothold in a paradise painted with gold. They are now entrenched, all with the blessing of top management and the human resource practitioners. And the best part, the govt did not know and has nothing to do with it.

The management of businesses and private institutions are only interested in their bottom lines. And the HR staff just tagged along, to recruit foreigners without a thought to the citizens. I think even ministries and GLCs too did not bother or care a hoot that they are taking in non citizens and abandoning the citizens. It was just not something that matters. Citizens, non citizens, they all look alike, they only want the headcounts.

The problem grows and is now a big problem when the displaced citizens have grown too big to be ignored. There is a sudden awakening, the disadvantaged citizens are not going to take it lying down anymore. They are staking their claims as citizens and wanted to be treated as citizens above others.

The management of businesses and enterprises, the ministries and GLCs and their HR now have a job cut out for them. They have a national duty to recruit citizens first above all else. All management and HRs must start to take care of citizens or failing which, they too will be replaced in a matter of time.

The HRs is the first line of defence of the citizen’s rights to employment. They must stop the crazy calls of meritocracy and foreign talents and start to think country, nation and citizens first. And they must report discrimination and victimisation of citizens at workplace by foreigners or management if they are unable to make things right. The HRs must stand on the side of the miserable citizens that have lost their jobs to foreigners, to give citizens a chance to employment, to reclaim their rights to work and live with dignity as citizens of a nation, not a hotel without owners.

The human resource practitioners have a vital role to care for the citizens and to protect the citizens from the hordes of foreigners here to replace the citizens from their jobs. This is a call to the HR practitioners to do national service. Their job is not to blindly recruit foreigners and to kick the citizens aside. Their future is with the citizens of this nation and they must close ranks with the citizens, to move forward together as one people. They must not be the enemies of the citizens of this country.