What is the Singaporean core? The meaning can be quite simple, like what is kopi or milk. The core of kopi is simply coffee and milk is simply milk. A Singaporean core should be a core with Singaporeans as the majority. In practice, this is like a moving target.
The Singaporean core or the original Singaporeans taking 1965 as the reference point, would only be about 2 to 3 million people. In the last 20 or 30 years, the number of Singaporeans is likely to be about 3.5 million, includes counting the new citizens as Singaporeans. Given the dimishing TFR, the core Singaporeans are barely increasing so any growth would come from new citizens, ie non Singaporeans. How is Singapore going to grow and protect the Singaporean core when the growth in population comes from foreigners?
Taking the example of kopi and milk. A kopi core, when milk is added, would gradually become kopi susu. And if more and more milk is added over time, the kopi core would be so diluted that it would become mainly milk. The reverse is also true of a milk core. When more and more kopi is added, it would end up looking more like kopi and eventually becoming kopi.
When the whole of Singapore's population is taken into account, ie citizens and foreigners, Singaporeans or the Singaporean core is now a minority. It would thus be a futile exercise to talk about protecting or preserving a Singaporean core when the majority of the future Singaporeans would be determined by the foreigners turned Singaporeans.
The future Singaporean core could be kopi or milk, not kopi susu, if the present immigration policy continues unabated or unchanged and the population allows to grow and grow from new citizens. The Singaporean core of the future would effectively be a foreigner core, NOT a Singaporean core as what we are expecting today. The core of India would be Indians, core of China would be Chinese, core of Japan would be Japanese. The core of Singapore being Singaporean is a fiction.
