PM Lee: I owe S'poreans to get foreign worker balance right
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'I owe Singaporeans a responsibility' to get foreign worker balance right: PM Lee
SINGAPORE: It is the Government's duty to grapple with the "very difficult issue" of getting the inflow of foreign labour right - and at the same time maintaining the unique identity of the nation, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
"It is an issue where honestly speaking, there are no easy choices. There are trade-offs," said Mr Lee, speaking on Friday (Jul 31) in a television interview with Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee, chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities.
"I would like to keep this a Singapore-Singapore ... it has to maintain that Singapore character."
The programme, A Conversation with the PM: Our Future, Our People, was telecast on Sunday (Aug 2) on MediaCorp's Channel 5 and Channel NewsAsia. In the show, Mr Lee touched on concerns about the economy, anxiety over job competition with foreigners and a possible identity crisis in the future.
Here are some excerpts from the programme.
Prof Chan: Some people say the Government is being populist when you are now curbing population.
PM Lee: Well, I have two answers to that.
First, we do have to watch to see how the foreign workers and immigrants are fitting in with our community, and you have to watch them mix so that you don’t overbalance the numbers or the tone of our society. So it is not populist to take cognisance of these real problems and to deal with them and to calibrate the inflow.
Secondly, I would say apart from any sentimental reactions or emotional reactions, we do have to look at the overall population size in Singapore and you cannot say that if I want X million and the economy wants that, therefore I will have it. There is a trade-off in terms of the space and infrastructure, the carrying capacity of this island and we have to decide how far we can go.
And so I think what we have tried to do over the last 10 years when in the earlier phase, when the opportunities were there, we needed the growth, we were more generous in bringing in foreign workers and the immigrants.
But in the last five to seven years, since before the last election, we have calibrated, we have brought the rate down. Last year, the inflow was the slowest it has been in a very long time and I think that is necessary.
Prof Chan: I don’t think Singaporeans worry about the maids coming or construction workers. It’s your PMETs, the professionals, managers and executives and technical people who worry that foreigners are prepared to come in to work for less pay and they are marginalised ... So, how do you stop PMETS from being passed over and lose out as a result?
PM Lee: Well, from the PMETs point of view, of course it is good to have domestic workers, it is good to have the helpers and the nursing assistants who can take care of your old folks and your children. But when a PMET comes to compete with a PMET, I have a political problem.
Actually, if you look at it in a different way, from the point of view of a Singapore blue collar worker, he could say, what I want is more PMETs because they will create more employment opportunities for me. I do not want that foreign sweeper or cleaner or nurse to come here and take away my job or push down my pay.
So, I can understand the sentiments. I think we have to watch to make sure that when we bring in people, where there are blue collar workers, where there are PMETs, we also take care of Singaporeans who may be in that sector and who cannot easily move out of it. And in the old days, the PMETs were a very small portion of the population. And so if you are a PMET, you are at the top 10 per cent. You are presumed to know to how to look after yourself and the numbers are not big, but now PMETs are maybe half the workforce.
So, we can’t quite take a let things be approach and I think that we have to make sure that the PMETs get a fair opportunity, that they fairly treated and that we are not overwhelmed by an inflow which is squeezing our own people.
We have made quite a number of measures over the last few years to do this. We have the Fair Employment (Consideration) Framework. We have the TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices), which is the committee to look at complaints in case there has not been fair employment. We have got schemes to help our PMETs specifically to upgrade themselves to master the skills, get into their jobs and I think that we also have schemes to help the PMETs who are displaced because if you are 40, 45 years-old, middle-aged, PMET, you lose your job, it is not so easy to find a similar job in another.
The response (to the schemes) is not bad but some of the schemes are still new. So we will have to see how the response is and we will have to adjust the schemes as we go along.
Prof Chan: Now with the curb on immigration flow, Prime Minister, have you won more support from people, compared to the angst of the PMETs and SMEs?
PM Lee: I would say we have addressed the issue, we have made the difficulties more manageable. There will always be frictions when you have a foreign worker population or immigrant population in the country and we have to manage that, and that requires good behaviour and adjustment both on the part of the foreign workers and the immigrants as well as on the part of the Singaporeans ... I would like to keep this a Singapore-Singapore and that it has to maintain that Singapore character.
I would like to just make one more point about the population. We argue the merits and the reasons and the logic of it and the trade-offs. But finally, this is a very difficult issue and it is one of those things which as a Government we have a responsibility to deal with.
If we were not in the government, it is much easier. We can make recommendations, we can write papers, we can make speeches, and we can rouse arguments, unhappiness, point out all the problems we have where we are standing. But as a Government, we have to deal with this issue and it is an issue where honestly speaking, there are no easy choices. There are trade-offs.
If we have no foreign workers, our economy suffers, our own lives suffer. (If) we have a lot of foreign workers, the economy will do well, (but) we have other social pressures, other problems with our society which are going to be very real and which we have to take very seriously and which we cannot accept.
Somewhere in the middle, we have a mix of evils; on the other hand, we may be able to find a spot where all things considered, this is something which balances our needs as well as our identity, as well as our economic requirements, and enables us to move forward. Then after three, four, five years we look at it again, we revise our view and we adjust our policy.
But as a Government, I cannot avoid having to make this decision, I have to do it on behalf of Singaporeans, we have to think: How does this affect Singaporeans? Because that is where our responsibility is. It not only affects you for now but also affect you for the long-term. For your job prospects, for your children’s future when they grow up in Singapore and what sort of Singapore will they be in.
And it is our job to think of these issues and to make the best decisions which we can, in our judgment, on your behalf and to account to you, and say to the best of my ability this is what I have decided I have to do.
And you may agree with it, you may not agree with it, but I can tell you in complete honesty that I am trying my best to do this on your behalf. And I cannot avoid doing this because otherwise I think I will be letting you down.
I do not owe hundreds of millions of potential foreign workers from around the world an obligation. I owe Singaporeans a responsibility.
Prof Chan: You say that in 50 years, you worry whether Singapore can keep up this identity, which is the commitment of people to pull together and build the country. To be committed to the country. Why in 50 years? Do you not think you have to worry about the problem now, even now?
PM Lee: Well, I think you always have a problem, but if you ask me whether in five years’ time, the national identity can completely change, I would say no, because the generation is there. I mean older ones will pass on, but the core of the population essentially will be the same, and the experiences they have lived through and that sense of togetherness, cannot radically change unless something dramatic happens in the world.
But if you ask whether over 50 years, I can assume that, without doing anything, I would still feel the same when I can still have the same excitement, buzz and cheer when I come to SG100. I would say I am not so certain, because that generation is not yet born. They are going to be born in a very different world, they are going to experience very different growing up environments and opportunities. They are going to travel a lot more than their parents or grandparents.
And their sense of who they are, what defines them - that is yet to be seen.
... You look at so many other countries who are 50 years old. Whether it is Israel, whether it is Korea, there are so many of the countries which have become independent after the war and when you reach 50 years, 60 years, the mood in the country is very, very different from the mood of the founding generation, that sense of pioneering adventure, limitless boundaries, limitless opportunities, the shades of real life close in.
And for 50 years, we have kept the opportunities very open and we have stayed very united. Yes, we have issues, when elections come, they are hot. But when you have National Day, we all celebrate National Day and we feel it proudly. In many countries, these things are passé. So to keep it like that, for another 50 years, I think is a big challenge.
- CNA/es
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i go to CNA fuckbook
all i can say is
a lot a lot of angry singaporeans
good luck pinky lee
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forever got a lot of angwee sinaporeans
everywhere
angwee abt everything
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even about hi tea also
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PM Lee's Wayang before GE huh?
the crying incident before GE2011 is still fresh on our mind.
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Singaporeans are marginalised because there are too many the foreign professionals, managers,executives, technical and support staff who are taking the jobs in Singapore. Most of these foreigners prefer to keep to their own communities. Although Singaporeans may have the same tertiary qualifications and job experiences some employers prefer to hire non-Singaporeans. There must a right balance.
Astraea
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There it goes again. Daft one anti singaporeans speak of problems given by pap. USBF.
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Originally posted by SMB145B:
PM Lee's Wayang before GE huh?
the crying incident before GE2011 is still fresh on our mind.
Wayang started .
Wait and see if it cries. May be it may do something else. Cc. Sissy
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Lau qua loong talk crap, wayang for voting. Heck the care what it says. Proven track record cannot be trusted.
You people, remember population 10 million coming, they building underground city for this. Taking place after this election. THANK YOU 60 PERCENT FOR GIVING THEM THE CHANCE TO BRING IN MORE FOREIGNERS, YOU PEOPLE HAPPY ?
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Originally posted by SJS6638:
Wayang started .
Wait and see if it cries. May be it may do something else. Cc. Sissy
if it cries, we kena ponding. but then again someone said it's once every 50 years.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
forever got a lot of angwee sinaporeans
everywhere
angwee abt everything
So negative, narrow minded, super shallow and childish. Can you see the scenary outside from the well?
People don't pay cheap salary to the govt , people are "forced" to pay them millions and millions. They are doing very bad job to "take care " of singaporeans. Thus it is nothing wrong , it is justiable and understandable why people are angry.
Nobody has the right to tell true blue singaporeans to leave singapore just because some people, some cronies are unhappy about grievances from the ground. Singapore does not belong to cronies, plp, and pap only, sg belong to all true blue singaporeans.
Are you a crony of theirs to always be so affected by people voicing out the problems brought by them, are you a crony of theirs who is enjoying the benefits they give you?
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Originally posted by SMB145B:
if it cries, we kena ponding. but then again someone said it's once every 50 years.
We shall wait and see what pattern it come out with this campaign. Hahahaha. Will it blatantly make use of papa to gain votes??????
Hahahaha ......
If it uses pioneer medical benefit, it may backfire. Cos some people very smart found out that the govt raise charges of medical bill and then give discount to senior. Tsk tsk tsk, despicable and super greedy leh. Where is good ethics practice here?
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Originally posted by SJS6638:
We shall wait and see what pattern it come out with this campaign. Hahahaha. Will it blatantly make use of papa to gain votes??????
Hahahaha ......
If it uses pioneer medical benefit, it may backfire. Cos some people very smart found out that the govt raise charges of medical bill and then give discount to senior. Tsk tsk tsk, despicable and super greedy leh. Where is good ethics practice here?
lol
pinky, your wayang is damn too obvious lah
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General elections coming
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I was quite confident that the Govt is seriously controlling the foreign workers' numbers until I got this piece of shocking info from MOM.
Earlier this year, my elderly widowed father got involved with a PRC who is a work permit holder. To my horror, they recently filed a notice with ROM to get married. When I asked MOM why is the PRC work permit holder allowed to marry a Singaporean, MOM told me that she was granted exemption from marriage restriction policy when she applied for her work permit. In fact, MOM had granted her the exemption when she first came to S,pore this year and gave her a letter specifically stating so. Now, with MOM's encouragement and blessings, my father is going to marry her - some stranger of dubious background that he only got to know a few mths earlier.
When MOM has such policies, how can the Govt or PM say that they are controlling the number of foreigners? Are they taking care of the SG families?
Not sure if anyone of them has heard of this auto-exemption policy of MOM!!! They have been telling us that work permit holders must seek approval before marrying a S'porean and we have been blinded to believe that!!!
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general elections -
Eee lackaction