Singapore wooing foreign talents

[eslite]

So, after the National Day Rally on Sunday, the biggest news is about immigration - wooing foreign talents to ensure Singapore's continued development.

Since most of here in Singapore are here on scholarship,we should be able to considered as foreign talents. The question is, will you stay and set up home here? As an ex-Malaysian said in the Straits Times "The government here is fairer and cleaner....There are no discriminatory policies towards race." (Something along that lines I think). If you do, why? If not, why?

[Wei_Ming]

Torn between patriotism and gratitude. Singapore offered me multiple scholarships, Malaysia offered me none. I think I'll most probably stay in Singapore. Besides being safer and more meritocratic, Singapore offers me a better future. The Malaysian government has done nothing significant to endear it's non-bumiputra citizens to itself. I can't help but feel that the minorities are being exploited for political gain. Sad.

[jiinjoo]

Just as an aside, I somehow find it extremely odd that I'm now considered a "conventional" foreign talent in this conutry, while some other "special" ones are going to be brought in.

Anyway, to eslite - it is blatantly obvious that the race card is always going to be around. S'pore is no different from M'sia in the aspect that it is NOT a "melting pot" and assimilation is the last thing they would do. Everyone is retaining and reinforcing what they think is distinct to their culture. In the history of S'pore politics, there has never been anything that has come close to the passion of people fighting for their mother tongue policies (the classical English vs Mandarin thing). There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but both countries continue to show the world that it is possible.

However, a "discriminatory policy" would imply that certain races are "oppressed" in the regime, such as the inverse affirmative actions in M'sia. Here in S'pore, poster childs tend to be sacrificed to hide their policies. Old cases like the first Malay in Hwa Chong, the first Malay fighter pilot and most recently the first PRC born turned S'porean SAF scholar are all cases where there is a Single deviation and they claim that there's no discriminatory policies. That's BS and you should know it.

There are other obvious observations, e.g. The government don't want to rock the boat - they want to maintain the race ratio - therefore, you can see how easy they are on giving HK nationals citizenship during 97, how much more PRC scholars they take in compared to say India, etc. But because they didn't shut out on entire race, no one can claim that they did anything to "discriminate" - it's just a whole lot more difficult.


In the long run, S'pore will still want to give more opportunity to Malaysians intending to seek opportunity beyond their homeland for a simple reason - we're too close a neighbour and the stake of alienating each other is too high. You come here, you settle down here, but you still have your roots in Malaysia. This relationship means need for peace, opportunity for business to flow more smoothly, etc.

It benefits both sides - you think south Johor plan is out of the blue? Look at HK and Shen Zhen - the number of relationship ties between mainland and HK was just staggering, bringing about huge advancement in the region when the economic wall was lowered. Shen Zhen and the Pearl River delta have managed to spearhead in fact the entire China's economic opening, simply by just doing the same "copy and paste", because HK thought them how to do it, and they then pass it on.

So, settling down here is no big deal. 4 million people in S'pore, 1 million are foreigners and I bet you more than half of those are Malaysians. We have been fueling the growth of this country for such a long time, and will continue to do so in the future. Eventually, your ties with Malaysia will then continue to bring fortune and stability for the people you care there, and contribute to the overall growth of the region, and that's really what matters in the long run.

[jiinjoo]

Just want to share an Aesop fable.

Source: A Doctor's Blog (http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2006/08/of-wild-goats-and-new-citizens-not.html)


The Goatherd and the Wild Goats

A Goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some Wild Goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night. The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold.

He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own. When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the Wild Goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.

The Goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd.

One of them, turning about, said to him: "That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the Goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves."

Moral of the story: Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.


Ok I shall shut up for now - back to the original discussion.