Singapore without Singaporeans

Comments: Mellanie Hewlitt
Singapore Review
19 Jan 2005

After scam after scam (involving COE, CPF, Medi-shield, HDB etc) more and more Singaporeans are seeing the light of day and realise that this little island is a place only to work and make money. It is no place to call home, raise children and retire.

One cannot make a sterile air-conditioned office a home. This is something Singapore's million dollar ministers have yet to learn. The approaching long weekend will again herald another mass exodus of citizens from the tiny island. This trend (which occurs on every long weekend without fail) is a revelation and is symbolic of things. It reveals that for many on this island, there is no life after work. So many leave the pressure cooker city and find temporary bliss off-shore during the long weekends.

There is a life beyond the pressure filled world of work, money, school grades, exams, paper qualifications and the 5Cs, and more and more Singaporeans are reaching out and moving beyond the restrictive political, social and geographical confines of the little island to realise their dream.

We attach below article by an on-line forumer for your reading pleasure.

A Singapore without Singaporeans
By: Goh Meng Seng
19 Jan 2005

http://forums.delphiforums.com/sammyboymod/messages/?msg=64573.1

A Singapore without Singaporeans, A Nation without Nationhood. That's where we are heading to.

There are people who commented that Singapore is just a "Merchant City and a Hotel" to them. They are in their twenties but they are already planning their exits, migrating to somewhere more comfortable to live in.

They are not entirely "wrong" to think this way. Look at it this way, when you start to see those in the forties, losing jobs and not able to get employed with a decent wage, would you worry for yourself? Worst of all, the govt is seeking to raise the retirement age when it is obvious that those in their forties find it hard to get a job!

It is apparent that for those who have been caught by the "Asset Enhancement Scheme", they will not have enough money for retirement! And all PAP thinks about is whether this group of people would burden their coffers! That's how medisave came about.

Those in their forties and planning for retirement will have no choice but to cash out and retire somewhere. They must face the reality that they have come to the end of their productive life and the state is not going to take care of them. For all the myths they have believed so dearly, democratic socialism or asset enhancement, they have been disillusioned and there isn't going to be enough money for them to retire in Singapore. There will be no farewell party for them when they leave. It would be "good" if they no longer pose a "financial burden" to the govt anymore!

For those in their twenties they saw what would happen to them in their forties. They will also plan their exit and realize that they would only be "useful" when they are at their peak of productive life cycle. It is no wonder the PAP is beginning to woo them nowadays. But there are still many who wisely remain unconvinced and migrated out. So the FT policy is in place to fill up the void left behind. But these FTs may just remain forever Foreign.

When a nation is filled with people, both young and middle aged, thinking about migrating out of the country all the time, there isn't an existence of a Nation in essence anymore. Singapore is just a temporary refuge to their being. Andthere is no doubt what will happen to these people if there is to be an eminentthreat to Singapore as a Nation.

Nationhood has not been firmly forged for the past 39 years of nation building.The national day parades that we have had for the past have lost their appealwhen the reality of PAP govt policies set in.

Goh Meng Seng