A ‘foreign talent’ PhD scholar at the Department of Political Science in NUS wrote an article [Link] on Global Times.
In the article, the author talked about Singapore’s middle class. She said Singapore’s middle class enjoys “substantial subsidies” from the Singapore government, using Singapore’s public housing policy as a “prominent” example.
The FT scholar said, “Under the generous public housing policy in Singapore, more than 90 percent Singapore citizens have the qualifications to buy Housing and Development Board (HDB) apartments with a price far below the market value, leaving only the affluent ineligible.”
“In Singapore, the HDB apartments are relatively luxurious. Many flats have three to four bedrooms, two toilets and bright and spacious living rooms. And the government also puts efforts into renovating and maintaining the apartments.”
She described the HDB she rented, “The HDB flat I rent has been renovated recently. Pipelines and wires in toilets and kitchens have been changed, the house has been re-tiled, and a commode and shower facilities as well as a completely new security door have been installed. The project is subsidized by the government and my landlord only needs to bear one-tenth of the renovation costs.”
She said that such generous welfare policies from the Singapore government help establish a “greenhouse” for middle classes in Singapore. That is, “under the government’s effective central regulation and control, people’s material lives have been improved greatly.”
She then switched focus and started to target the recent Population White Paper protest at Hong Lim Park in February 2013. She sees the protest as a demonstration against foreign immigrants.
She said, “In fact, the demonstrations against foreign immigrants in February were a challenge to Singapore’s development model. For a long time, the Singaporean government has tried to attract international talent through generous welfare benefits, so as to establish Singapore’s superiority of talent and attract international investment.”
“However, with the arrival of new immigrants, the middle class in Singapore has been under greater pressure. Higher costs of living and unchanged salary levels make many people want to use their votes to force the government to change its immigration policy.”
Without quoting sources, she said many “scholars” have pointed out that “after the founding of the country, the number of outstanding skilled workers and university graduates fluent in English cultivated by Singapore has been far ahead of neighboring countries”.
But she said this advantage, which has attracted international investors, is slowly being eroded with the development of neighboring countries.
“Singapore’s superiority in talent is becoming weaker,” she said.
Finally, the truth came out from her. She concluded by saying, “Indeed, restrictions on immigration can reduce domestic competition and provide the middle class in the greenhouse with a breathing spell.”
“However, in the long run, similar policies will also force investors to turn to other talent highlands and the running of the greenhouse will be difficult to sustain. The middle class may have to work harder to sustain their own Eden.”
In short, the FT scholar is saying if FTs are restricted, investors will go elsewhere to look for talent and Singapore’s middle class will be doomed on their own.
It is not known if this FT scholar actually wrote the piece in English [Link]. If she really did and given that she is a foreign PhD scholar sponsored by NUS, then Singapore may really be doomed with this sort of talent flooding Singapore.
* Global Times is an English-language daily under the auspices of the People’s Daily newspaper owned by the Communist Party of China. Global Times focuses on international issues.
TR Emeritus
*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com