Our Immigration Act to protect Singaporeans

‘WHEN I was pursuing my undergraduate studies in the United States, a Taiwanese classmate of mine was deported at the border when she entered Vancouver ("Law allows minister to decide who is deported"; Sunday)

It turned out she had been in the US under a wrong classification of student visa. She was not given any due process, much less time to return to her residence to pack, but was immediately ushered into a plane and repatriated….

Singapore's Immigration Act serves to protect its citizens….

Security is important in Singapore. While we can empathise with those who were repatriated, we must stand by our Immigration Act as our safety comes first.’

The above is a letter in the ST online by a Juliana Ang. The USA is a big country that professes an open door to immigrants. But it also has a strict immigration law to decide who it wants and who it does not want.

We too have our own Immigration Act that is under attack for deporting some foreign workers that were involved directly or indirectly in the recent Little India riot. Some corners are demanding that the 53 that were deported must be given the right to defend themselves under our law.

Actually, what is the farce about deporting 53 foreigners that were found undesirable to our social security and safety? Actually, what is the purpose of an Immigration law when millions were let in indiscriminately under the least scrutiny? Our Immigration Act is a farce for sure, but not for deporting 53 undesirables, but for letting in millions that included many undesirables, fakes and trouble makers, people who discriminate, exploit, assault and cheat our law abiding citizens of jobs and a decent life.
53 may have been deported, but how many thousands or millions will be let in tomorrow? What is the real farce?

The real farce is that our Immigration law, if there is, is there to protect foreigners more than the citizens. Foreigners are here to compete with citizens unfairly, often by fraud and deceit over many areas of enterprise. If the Immigration Act is to protect citizens, it should give good jobs to citizens first, or citizens should have the first right of refusal. Only jobs that citizens do not want or cannot do should go to foreigners. If not it is a betrayal of the interests and rights of the citizens. Our Immigration Act is as good as no Immigration Act. Not forgetting allowing the world’s rich to buy up the few properties in the island and pushing the prices beyond the average citizens.

Our Immigration Act should not just protect the social security and physical safety of the citizens but also the jobs, rights and well being of citizens over foreigners.

DEAR TRS, I JUST TURNED 55 AND CPF DON'T WANT TO RETURN ME MY MONEY!

Dear The Real Singapore,

My well wishes to the next General Elections. Pray and hope the best last longer.

Sir, my name is UTHAYA KUMAR S/O P. THANGIAH, NRIC No: S1338799J. I am a Singaporean and on the 2nd December 2013, I have reached my 55 and I had great plans to utilize my CPF money, where my first priority is to get a nice place to live in and put my daughter to school in Indonesia. Purchase essential items for the home including a motor bike for transportation. 




All he got from his CPF savings was $5,000.

The above is the intro para of a letter written by Kumar and posted in The Real Singapore. This plea is going to be repeated by many Singaporeans when the hit 55 and found their savings untouchable. The Govt has decided to keep it for them for safe keeping to last them a life time.

Merry Christmas. No present for this Christmas for Kumar.

Appealing to the wisdom of the masses

What is the best education model for our children? This seems to be the hottest topic since the parents showed their displeasure on the PSLE. Some of the concerns are genuine and logical, some emotional and hazy. With the amount of research done in the field of education, with the great number of our teaching professionals being educated in the best universities, with a string of degrees to prove, we must have plentiful of them to tell the MOE what is the best system to adopt. If that is not enough, scouring the information available around the world should not be that difficult.
 
Why is there a sudden realization that things are not doing well and things must be changed? The obvious answer is that among all the experts in education, there is no agreement as to what is the best model for educating the young. There are so many schools with different values and assumptions of what is considered good for each country, the truth is that no one is wiser.
 
Now this perennial problem that is driving the parents and children crazy is given a new platform for airing, a kind of natcon. And the MOE is seriously looking into this issue and is also sounding out the parents for their wish lists. How many super talented Education Ministers have gone through the mills in their terms of office and how many changes have been made throughout the years? And strangely, the answer seems to be so elusive. Maybe every minister stepping into the MOE shoe deserves to tour the world to scout for the best education system.
 
There is the utilitarian school that advocates competitive education and making high demands from the children, to draw out the best from them, leading to hot housing. There are the advocates for a less stressful school system to allow the children to enjoy and be happy while in schools. There are many other variations in between. The bottom line is that parents want their children to be happy, less stressful and came out excellent in their education. Of course this combination is the best but unrealistic. The problem facing everyone, the MOE, teachers and parents, is how to find the right mix, less stressful, more fun, to give the children a good time in school and without compromising on the quality of education. A daunting and impossible task to think that this is achievable.
 
Maybe a buffet spread with all the variations and allowing the parents to make their choice and knowing very well the consequences of the different models. What I think the likely choice would still be the current system of high pressure hothousing model. What the parents would like is no choice, just an easy going, less stressful model for all children to enjoy schooling, with lesser competition. When they are faced with a buffet spread, many would have no choice but to want the best for their children, and sacrificing the more forgiving model when the children will grow up a happier child.
 
If there is a perfect model in the first place, the super talented ministers of the past would have found and delivered it to the happy parents and children. Maybe at primary level the schools should be more loving, more forgiving given the fact that nature would make most children to be children. Let the children have an easier time in primary level. The competition should come in at secondary level when the children are more mature and able, and a little better to know what they are in for.
 
I don’t think any education expert has the right answer. Ok I am not kpkb so I am not supposed to provide a solution. Neither am I paid to provide a solution.
This is Christmas. Relac.

3rd World in 1st World or 1st World in 3rd World?

Still vividly remember the slogan Garden in a City or City in a Garden. It is a nice cliché, sounds nice and meaning nice. What about a 3rd World in a 1st World City or a 1st World in a 3rd World City? Whichever way you look at it, it sure sounds just as nice. And it does not give one a sense of drama.

Is Sin City now a 3rd World City or is there a 3rd World in Sin City? The recent happenings that filled the pages of the media do not give the impression that it is a 1st World City. With a population of 5.4m of which more than a third came from the 3rd World, the composition will ensure that the visual impact is not going to be 1st World. Just hop onto a train and you will instantly be hit by the presence of 3rd World. The noise, the smell, the mannerism, and ungraceful and uncouth attitude speak all of 3rd World. There is no denying this truth.

What else are on the media? Street rioting with rioters throwing stones and bottles at the police, and cars burning? This is definitely 3rd World stuff. Unruly mobs in the tens or hundreds of thousands, all straying aimlessly, eating, drinking, urinating and shitting in the very same place. Confirmed, 3rd World. Open your windows for a whiff of the scented air, better than haze.

How about the bizarre, headless and limpless body floating in the canal in the heart of the city? This must be one notch better than floating pigs in the river, or floating body in the water tank flowing into the homes for consumption.

What about jilted lovers slashing their potential ‘bribes to be’ in broad day light? What about daylight robbery? Road rages where people got beaten up, especially taxi drivers? And there is a booming red light district that is growing and expanding across the island, even into the heartland. Good stuff for the GDP.

And there are drunken brawls for the sake of vibrancy and fun with innocents being bashed for no reasons. Women being rudely accosted in public by the drunkards? And tropical diseases are spreading in the most expensive part of the city cause by mosquito breedings.

Welcome to the 3rd World in a 1st World City or a 1st World in a 3rd World City. How about a new slogan for the tourist board, ‘Welcome to experience the 1st World and 3rd World in one stop’? Or better still, ‘See the 1st World cohabitating in harmony with the 3rd World’ and witness how 3rd World commits less crime than 1st World. Or see how the 3rd World is helping the 1st World by creating good jobs for the 1st World.

Sin City is getting more attractive, more exotic and full of surprises.

Let’s make nasi padang affordable

 HDB flats are affordable as they are priced according to the income of the buyer. It is quite easy to compute the income of young home buyers and price the flats according to how much they would have saved in the CPF and how much they would be able to pay for monthly mortgage over 30 years.
 
I think it would be equally easy to make the price of nasi padang affordable to the young people and also to those who are earning millions. For the former, a plate of nasi padang at $2.50 would be just right since they have not much left after paying for housing and if they dare to commit to a car, and to live perilously by having children too.
 
For those big earners, a $50 a plate nasi padang should be very affordable I am sure. Can throw is a glass of bandung for free and for good service a pack of tissue to wipe the mouth clean after the makan.
 
This is how the affordable formula is supposed to work. The price is pegged according to what the buyers can afford.
 
What do you think?