National Day must remain a day of pride
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National Day must remain a day of pride
Posted by theonlinecitizen on August 8, 2010
Ravi Philemon –
It is the season to celebrate the 45 years of independence Singapore has enjoyed. Being almost as old as Singapore, I have lived through the transformation of this city-state.I remember sitting on my father’s shoulders to catch the march-pass along Tanglin Halt Road in the ‘70s. I have never missed watching a single National Day parade on TV from as far back as I can remember (except for the years that I was away in the USA).
This is the season to be proud of being a Singaporean.
I pay tribute to my mother this National Day, for she is the type of resilient, selfless Singaporean, who built the Singapore we have today. When we were rendered homeless through a series of unfortunate events, my mother held down three jobs, to put us three children through school. She knew that education will provide the chance for her children – her future – to claw back from the misery we were in.
This National Day, the more I ponder about the kind of future we will have the more unsure I become of Singapore’s tomorrow.
For one, there is the growing income gap – the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. The root cause of this problem I feel is the Singapore education system which has disadvantaged the ‘have-nots’.
Even though students in Singapore do exceptionally well in Maths and Science tests internationally, there are just a handful of them who turn out to be ‘world-beaters’. To remedy this, we must move from being an ‘exam meritocracy’ to being a ‘talent meritocracy’.
We must move from the culture of “Work hard! Memorise! Test-well!’ to a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. Only this shift in the learning culture will enable our students, who are the future of Singapore, to be creative, curious, and to have a sense of adventure and ambition. Streaming which happens at a very early stage of education in Singapore is a major culprit which impedes this shift in the culture of learning.
Streaming is a form of social class stratification, where those in the Gifted Education Programme would go on to be leaders in whatever fields they might enter, be it government, medicine, science or anything, the Special students would go on to earn university degrees and seek well-paid soft collar jobs, and the Express students would go on to Polytechnics and serve as associate professionals and clerical workers, and the Normal stream students would end up as technicians, hawkers, and road sweepers.
And this segregation by way of streaming happens at a very young age, based on who is the most ‘exams-smart’. Even those that are smart, but cannot test well despite trying to rote-learn, are streamed down. Those without the ’right’ paper qualifications are labelled as ‘failures’.
According to the year 2000 census, there were 116300 such ‘failure’ families in Singapore, who earn below $1000 per month. Six in ten of these households are headed by someone with only primary school education or less. And they work as cleaners, labourers or as service workers.
The government’s policy of excessively streaming the students at a very young age and causing unnecessary stress not only to the students but also to their parents, right from primary school to secondary school to places of tertiary education, must be re-looked.
And re-look this policy of streaming we must so that we can go daringly into the future Singapore, knowing that we have given the younger generation the gift of being lifelong learners, so that they can adapt and overcome challenges the future may throw at them.
Another reason why I look at the National Days of the future with uncertainty is because of those that are over 40 and are (or become) unemployed. Unlike the time of my mother, it may be more difficult for these to get jobs, so that they could be self-reliant. I personally know some people who despite going for WSQ courses have not been able to get a job.
Although this problem is found in the unskilled workforce, it especially impedes the skilled labour force. Ironically, it is but the skilled workforce that not only has the right education and skill-sets but also the experience; but there seem to be a prejudice by the employers in hiring skilled workers who are over 40.
Those that are in the 40s are in their prime and have many more years of being able to contribute to the growth and well-being of Singapore. We cannot just expect them to take any job that comes by their way; a job which may not pay them sufficiently to meet their burden of living costs and commitments as sons, daughters, fathers and mothers and becomes a cost of opportunity.
Besides the relevant ministries embarking on campaigns to educate employers to forgo prejudices of hiring older workers, the older workers themselves must be given time to search for appropriate jobs.
Although we see good GDP growth today and seem to have rebounded from the deep economic crisis, as we go into the future, nobody can guarantee that there will not be another economic crisis and no one can guarantee that there will not be another round of lay-offs. The welfare of the workers must be protected when the next down-turn strikes.
The government must use part of the CPF restoration exercise for a national employment insurance scheme, where every worker will be insured against job-loss or retrenchment. The mechanisms of such an insurance scheme to benefit every worker, including the duration and amount of payouts, can be further studied once the scheme is given approval in principal.
This will be the best National Day gift to the workers in Singapore, without whom we will not have the Singapore that we have today.
Happy National Day Singapore!
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Picture from jamcansing.com.
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pride ?
we're still a Crown Colony.............brudder...........
our independence is just an illusion............
the Lee family is like the viceroy of old............
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Pride? Yes...in certain ways.
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Pride? WHEN
PM Lee urged Singaporeans to “welcome” foreigners with an “open heart”
August 9th, 2010 |Obviously unaware of the rising disgruntlement and anger among Singaporeans at the relentless influx of foreigners, PAP Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged Singaporeans to “welcome” foreigners with an “open heart” during his National Day rally.
Lee has earlier promised Singaporeans that he will “slow” the inflow of foreigners, but less than half a year later, he backtracked and now proclaims that he will be importing another 100,000 foreign workers (excluding their families) into Singapore next year.
He continues to use the recycled PAP rhetoric that Singaporeans need foreigners because of its declining birth rates.
“Other countries are not only much larger than us, but have far deeper pools of talent than we have. We must make up for the shortage of Singaporean workers in our economy and the shortfall of babies in our population. Without an inflow, over time, our economy and society will lose vibrancy, our citizens will enjoy fewer opportunities and our shining red dot will grow dimmer,” he was quoted as saying in Channel News Asia.
Unlike other developed countries which tightly regulate the inflow of foreign labor, the PAP’s pro-foreigner and ultra-liberal immigration policies have resulted in semi-skilled foreigners competing directly with Singaporeans for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them.
According to a Wall Street Journal article in January this year, the uncontrolled influx of foreigners into Singapore has depressed the salaries of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
Though Singapore has one of the highest GDP per capita income in the world, Singaporeans suffer from low domestic wages and purchasing power which is comparable to Russia based on a UBS report last year.
Unable to stem the flood of criticisms from Singaporeans, PM Lee now claims that he ”understand” their concerns:
”I understand Singaporeans’ concerns about taking in so many foreign workers and immigrants…..We will make clear that citizens come first. After all, we are doing this for the sake of Singaporeans,” he added.
Talk is cheap. PM Lee should practice what he preaches by levelling the playing field between Singaporeans and foreigners such as compelling the new citizens and PRs to serve two years of National Service, disallowing PRs from buying resale HDB flats and tighten labor regulations on the employment of foreigners.
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Pride? When we are now being flood by PRs and Foreign Aliens that would not be interested to be Singaporeans!
here very safe - this is not a joke - come here REALLY - DON'T COME YOU SURE REGRET
we welcome the super rich to park their $ here! here got monies you are kings/queens!
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Recently my company underwent a facelift, and I saw 100% blanga workers cleaning up and debris, cleaning the glass, I did not even see a local soul.
Is our local shun those work or the pay way too low?
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most blanga workers are trick by their agents to come here and work
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These bangalas are the talents that singapore need.
That is what the dragon is refering.
Willing to work cheap, live cheap and follow instructions.
As to usual local singaporeans asking for singapore to improve in their policy, please forget your gripe and dream the big dream whatever it is.
Accept that your parking, overcrowding and flooding issues are your way of life like the rain and traffic jam at the CTE.
It will never be solved.
If you cannot tahan, please surrender your pink IC as there are millions of replacement waiting to replace you.
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think they owe $$$$$$ b4 they come over to spore.......
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the source is from bangladesh,india,china,burma,vietnam.its very simple really...just go tell them spore is very crowded.
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Originally posted by Medicated Oil:
These bangalas are the talents that singapore need.
These are foreign workers, what the Lee calls foreign talents are different people.
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indeed pompous celebrations at the padang....dun bother about the messages...just narrow down to some of the chio bus....relax today and fight them tomorrow
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every year the same remuneration of old themes...stand up stand up banana!
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old lee is always adjusting his pants......
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I want my national day 20 years ago where it about the nation's birthday not the Lee Empire......
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Originally posted by Uraniumfish:
These are foreign workers, what the Lee calls foreign talents are different people.
ya ya very different one.. foreign workers are those that work for 1k and without a degree, foreign talents are those that work for 1.1K but with degree.... big difference hoe... -
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A China honours grad is working in my family company as a driver. A just-went-back home china guy (he's very hardworking, better than the Singaporean drivers that we had), earned the money by roughing out 2 years here, and went home and bought a 3 storey house and started his own business. Now living very well.