Human Rights Watch has been monitoring . Let's be fair to Loh. Surely, Loh knows what is going on. Not only poor wages, but unpaid wages are happening. The worst thing is for workers to work under hazardous conditions (which have caused deaths). Is Loh sweeping this under the carpet? IMHO, no. Legal framework for migrant domestic workers in Singapore has been existing for years. Singapore has been working to end abuses against them (perhaps not fast enough). Human Rights Watch has been monitoring. For a long report from HRW click HERE BTW, abusing migrant domestic workers happens everywhere, not just in Singapore. .
HP Space Winner from Singapore Congrats to David Tang of Singapore for winning the HPSpace reality show title. www.hpspace.com The show was a competition boasting of 'creative participants' from all corners of Asia. 16 top participats were selected and featured on the reality show televised on Channel V. The show was touted as the first 'original reality show from Asia' and had a good start. Sadly half way through the show, the competition turned into a reality show and the creative competition totally lost sight of its objectivity. Perhaps poor ratings might have pushed producers over the edge and tried to salvage the boadcasting of the competition. A sore thumb that clearly stood out as the show went down hill was how the 'winner' of the challenges was decided as the show crept to the finish line. Judges & producers were clearly trying to create 'shock-value' for the telly experience and the results were often mind boggling. The final challenge turned into the biggest joke when the panel of judges voiced that they could not decide based on the contestants final challenge performance, nor even 'the body o work' by the contestants in the show.... they stated they needed to take into account the 'future potential' of the contestant as well. The 'judges' finally chose Singaporean David Tang for his 'greater potential' despite his lucksture performance and un-objective methods of gating his contribution to reaching the final. This is especially as all challenges were 'group participation challenges'. It's clear the 'creative competition' become a farce and nothing more than an overglorified televised job interview especially when u take into account that the contestants 'resume' turned out to be the ultimate deciding factor for the champion. In short, the winner was already pre-determined and all the performances in the competition was of no value other than 'producers trying to put a circus act on tv'. Such is the world of Reality TV business. jug8man.
Singapore not paying it's foreign maids? Malaysia has cases of not paying our own football players. Few teams in the League in hot soup. In regards to the day off for maid.... I think this is the situation. Correct me if I'm wrong Loh: Singapore= Can't live without a maid 7 days a week. Can pay extra for the 7th day Taneepak: In-humane / not right for a maid to work 7 days a week even with extra pay (because it is a pre-set condition by the employers before accepting a maid to work with them, so the maids are powerless... hence this is a employers market) If this is correct, then the only plausible solution is :- Hire 2 maids, each work 6 days a week with a different day off. The question now is that..... Can Singapore afford to function such a way? Singapore Also Can???? (afford middle class morality???) This is a classic situation of 'middle class morality' like the character Alfred Dolittle made into classic worldwide philosophy by the film 'My Fair Lady'
Let us be honest with ourselves. The reason why domestic workers from the poorer Asian countries work in the better off Asian countries are because of mutual benefits. The "exporting" countries need the money, a form of foreign exchange, and exporting domestic workers is a good source of revenue. The host countries employ them for one reason only and that is pure economics. Foreign workers are cheaper than local workers and why pay $5,000 when you can pay only $500? With such huge savings from employing foreign workers over local domestic workers, some employers who would otherwise stay at home can now seek employment to earn more money. However, a big slice of the total wages for a domestic worker is taken away by, of all people, the host country in the form of levy. This antagonizes the workers and their countries who regard the host countries as really mean, going for that "pound of flesh" from workers who really are treated shamefully. To add salt to open wounds the employers themselves work their helpers 365 days a year with not a single day off and with not a single dollar as compensation. No wonder Indonesia is really pissed off.
Social cohesion key to keeping Singapore going: MM Lee Channel NewsAsia 31 December 2009 2008 hrs By Imelda Saad, SINGAPORE : Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has expressed concerns over how the younger generation may be less driven compared to the growing number of foreigners in the country. Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with the National Geographic magazine, Mr Lee said recent immigrants are hungry and determined to succeed. Mr Lee noted that if Singaporeans do not work hard, they may lose out. But he pointed out that Singapore needs a constant inflow of foreigners because of the country's small population. Giving an overview of Singapore's development over the years, Mr Lee noted one of the country's biggest challenge is to ensure a more cohesive and better educated society at all levels. He said Singapore is in a good position at least for the next 10 years with the current leadership in place. For the long term, it will depend on whether there is a younger team imbibed with the same integrity and ability. Mr Lee said his task is to ensure institutions and systems are in place.
S'pore looking to host bigger events like the Asian Games Channel NewsAsia 31 December 2009 2333 hrs By Patwant Singh, SINGAPORE : Singapore is looking to end the current sporting decade with a bang at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in 2010. And it has been a decade filled with other major milestones for the sporting fraternity. As the country gears up for the next 10 years, one of the possible new targets could be hosting the Asian Games. Singapore's second Olympic medal after 48 years was among the highlights of the past 10 years for the local sporting scene. Others included hosting the world's first F1 night race, the creation of a sports school and the country's continued success in regional competitions. Much of these achievements stemmed from the work of the Committee on Sporting Singapore, which was launched in 2001 to develop a blueprint for Singapore sports. But local sporting officials are aiming even higher for the next 10 years. Oon Jin Teik, CEO, Singapore Sports Council, said: "Beyond 2010, it is a different play, where we will see new assets, new business models, new perhaps enterprises, new private sector engagement (that is) different from the last eight to 10 years of this journey." Among the new assets is a Sports Hub which is expected to be ready by 2014. This would boost the country's hopes of hosting the 2015 SEA Games. Combined with the experience gained from the Youth Olympic Games by some 500 full-time staff and 20,000 volunteers, the Hub will also enable Singapore to bid for bigger events. Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Community Development, Youth and Sports Ministry, said: "I foresee that to satisfy the appetite of these volunteers and these staff, and also to satisfy the appetite of the public, we have to go for a bigger Games. Could it be a possibility that we look at something bigger, could it be Asian Games?" The officials feel that Singapore should be ready to host an event like the Asian Games by then. And Singapore sportsmen are also expected to benefit from better support offered by a sports institute to be based at the Sports Hub. Local athletes have already tasted success at events like the Asian Games, returning with a record eight gold medals from the 2006 Asiad in Doha. Singapore is considering hosting the Asian Games, but it has to start working now. And unlike the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the scale of the Asian Games is also much bigger. At the last Games in Doha, 13,000 athletes competed in 39 sports, while the YOG will only see 3,500 athletes and 26 sports on offer.
S'poreans are top priority The Straits Times Dec 31, 2009 By Kor Kian Beng SINGAPOREANS are top priority for the Government, which will aim to grow the economy in a way that allows all citizens to share in the benefits, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his New Year message for 2010. It will do this in two ways: by growing Singapore's external wing, and raising per capita income by boosting the skills level of workers. At the same time, the Government will also 'manage and moderate' the inflow of foreign workers so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, he said. In his seven-page message released on Thursday, PM Lee also gave figures on how the economy had performed in the fourth quarter and on a whole last year. Quarter on quarter, the Singapore economy grew by 3.5 per cent from October to December. This is markedly below the 14.2 per cent achieved between July and September, and the 21.7 per cent between April and June. The slowdown in the last quarter is, however, in line with economists? expectations, who have anticipated that after two straight quarters of strong growth, a slump in the volatile biomedicals segment would drag down the fourth quarter figure. Year-on-year, the Singapore economy was in negative territory for 2009, at -2.1 per cent. The forecast for next year is growth of 3 to 5 per cent. PM Lee said that the Government will also 'manage and moderate' the inflow of foreign workers so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. -- PHOTO: AFP
Foreign workers still needed The Straits Times Dec 31, 2009 THE Government will 'manage and moderate' the inflow of foreign workers, so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday. But he hastened to add that 'we must continue to welcome hardworking, enterprising people to our shores.' 'We need them both to expand our talent pool and help Singapore to prosper, as well as to top up our own population and make up for our low birth rates,' said Mr Lee in his New Year message, even as he stressed that the Government's first responsibility is to Singaporeans. 'We need the many foreign workers who work here, to build HDB flats and MRT lines, to work in factories especially on late shifts, and to help man the IRs. 'But we cannot bring in unlimited numbers of foreign workers in order to grow our economy.' Mr Lee added that Singapore must also transcend its domestic constraints by growing its external wing. The Government will continue to encourage companies to invest and expand in the region and keep the economy open 'so that others will keep their economies open for Singaporeans.' The Government will 'manage and moderate' the inflow of foreign workers, so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday. -- ST PHOTO: MALCOLM MCLEOD
Your first sentence answered your own disagreement on the situation. workers migrate and become foreign workers for a better income compared to what they can receive back in their home country. They may (or may not) feel like 3rd class citizens in the host country, but usually it's a situation better than they might receive back home. Let's also not paint the picture black & white & smear the red paint on the Host. Despite having the maids to work 7 days a week... it in actual fact only makes complete sense. These maids live with their employers (same compound). On the day off, how do you tell a foreign worker to leave the place they live in? Where would they go as they are not local. Unless they have a solid network / union, these workers would not have an idea of how to spend 24hrs away from a place they would consider 'home away from home' The fact is, foreign maids workplace is also their 'homeplace' (give me a better term ppl ) The 7th working day can be considered a mutual agreement of convenience between both employer and staff. What once seemed to be an employer market condition now can reasonably be a fair and practical arrangement. It's just a matter of taking time to understand the circumstances both parties are facing and Not Clouding the Facts with a Smoke Machine if I may quote what someone once said. Further more.... let us not belittle South East Asias maid employers. Always a case to case basis but I'm very sure that we do treat our maids very well, well fed with good living conditions. Even to the point that maids are treated as not only family members but in some cases... like a 'senior family member' such as an the respect a real Aunt would receive.
Thank you chris-ccc and jug8man for your most timely contributions. There is no question about the more enlightened Singaporean employers who value their maids very much and take them as part of the family. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. I'm happy to note that the authorities are doing their best to improve conditions for maids and other foreign workers in the most practical way possible and hope that more can be done in the future.
Rules for Casino junkets The Straits Times Jan 1, 2010 Junket promoters who flout rules face penalties of up to $400,000 By Jessica Lim AN HOUR before the high-roller touches down in Singapore, and all his details would already have been sent to the Casino Regulatory Authority of Singapore (CRA) - going by new rules released on Thursday. The rules are even stricter on the casino operator and the junket promoter and its representatives, who bring in the big spenders. They will be required to disclose details of their financial history before being licensed to work here. Flout these rules and they face penalties of up to $400,000. Junket operators and analysts The Straits Times spoke to said that the rules are in line with what other jurisdictions require, although they admit that some high-rollers may stay away from Singapore if they want their movements kept private. Before coming up with the rules, the CRA looked at how junket operations are regulated in the United States, Australia and Macau, said its spokesman. 'We are a leading financial centre with a high level of safety and security as a competitive advantage,' she said. 'We developed a junket licensing regime that would be suitable for Singapore's local context. 'It is developed to facilitate a conducive environment for junkets to operate in Singapore, without compromising on law and order considerations.' Casino junkets - the rules and the penalties Casino operators have to: * Endorse a junket operator's licence application by signing an agreement which, among other things, spells out the commission to be paid. Junket operators need this agreement to apply for a licence. * Submit a monthly report for payments to all unlicensed service providers who get a commission from the casino, including, for example, a tour bus operator. * Issue identification cards for junket operators and representatives, who will need to wear them at all times while in the casino. * Notify the authorities within five days of a junket agreement being terminated. Rules for junket operators and their representatives: * Junket operators and their representatives have to be licensed. To qualify, they must reveal details of their financial history, among other things. * They must be above 21, and not be a bankrupt or have been issued a casino exclusion order. Similarly their companies cannot have a history of insolvency. * When requested, junket operators must provide the authorities with documentation and any information on their background. * Junket operators must notify the authorities, in writing, within seven days of any representative leaving the company. A list of licensed representatives employed by them must be submitted to the authorities yearly. * Junket operators have to keep a record of every junket - including details of each player like his full name, date of birth, nationality, address, passport number and taxpayer identification number. Details of their stay and the amount of commission, rebate or freebies given to each player must also be recorded. * Records have to be kept for at least five years at a location in Singapore made known to the authorities. Penalties include: * A letter of censure, or the suspension or cancellation of the licence of the junket operator or its representatives. * Changing any of the licensing conditions. * A maximum $400,000 fine for junket operators and up to $10,000 for their licensed representatives for each violation. * Disqualifying junket representatives from obtaining a new licence for a specified period. Junket operators are the middlemen who, for a commission, bring in high-rollers from all over the world. Typically, junkets earn a percentage - about 0.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent - of the amount of chips bought by clients, according to gaming websites. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
totally agree again...propaganda is when someone post a straight to the heart honest to goodness point for the betterment of society (it should be a two-way street anyway; even three-ways or four ways...)--then, IT IS DROWNED WITH PAGES OF POSITIVE ''PASTE ITs''! exactly and literally sweeping it under the rug! THEN, the rug is yank underneath from someone standing over it!
'Newcomers keep society on its toes' TODAY 05:55 AM Jan 01, 2010 Waning drive of settled generations a concern for MM Lee by Derrick A Paulo derrick@mediacorp.com.sg SINGAPORE - Keeping society on its toes - that is what a regular inflow of migrants, "without too huge a deluge", will do. And while Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew recognises that their arrival "worries" the current generation of Singaporeans born here and their parents, he believes it will give a fillip to the sense of drive within the Republic. "The settled ones have become less hard-driving and hard-striving, and we've got recent migrants - they're hungry, they're determined to succeed, having uprooted themselves, and they're doing better," he told journalist Mark Jacobson for a National Geographic magazine article in this month's issue. According to the transcript put online by the Prime Minister's Office, the aspiration for a slower pace of life here and a shrinking population is a worry, Mr Lee said, in an interview that covered a wide range of issues, from competition to casinos. Asked what he would say to parents of second- or third-generation Singaporeans on competing with the newcomers, Mr Lee said: "They have got to work harder or they'll become stupid. It's just that they don't see the point of it. Why race when you can canter and save your energy and do other things? Art, ballet, sports - whereas these new migrants, they spend all their time slogging away in the library or at home." While Mr Lee recognised the importance of the arts, he felt "an inordinate amount of time is spent on extra-curricular activities". Asked why it was a challenge for people in general to keep up a certain level of drive through the generations, he replied: "I think the spurs are not stuck on your hinds. They are part of the herd, why go faster? But when you're lagging behind, you must go faster to catch up with the herd. I'm quite sure that there are children of the migrants who strive arduously." a strong sense of curiosity Is it a matter of complacency? No, said Mr Lee - "complacency in the sense that their expectations are high and they expect their expectations to be met. But they want ... more and more opportunities". He also rejected the "stereotype view" that life is too easy here and people have lost their curiosity, as Mr Jacobson put it. "If they've lost their curiosity, they wouldn't be striving so hard to get to university, to travel abroad, to go to higher education institutes abroad, to learn higher skills," he said. His own physiotherapist, Mr Lee related, is an example of how Singaporeans are upgrading themselves. She intends to go to Australia to get a degree in physiotherapy, even though the hospital is not sending her; she is paying her own way, with no pay rise guaranteed upon return. But there will be chances of promotion after that. With a small population, the Republic needs to "top up" with migrants, said Mr Lee. "The trouble is, the moment they come here, they also have one or two children because they begin to think like Singaporeans. "Why? I will lose my chance of promotion. So I'm out of business for ... nine months, I come back, the others have overtaken me." Mr Lee was also asked why Singapore has to be "number one in everything". "You try to be number one, you might be number two or number three. Do your best. You don't have to be number one, but do your best and try to be number one. That's our attitude," he said.
Part 1 - Transcript of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's interview with National Geographic TODAY 05:55 AM Jan 01, 2010 ON EATING OUT Mr Jacobson: You have a favourite food hawker? Mr Lee: Well, I can't go anymore because so many people want to shake my hands and I become a distraction, I can't really get down to my food. Mr Jacobson: So can you have take-out? Mr Lee: Well, that's not quite the same. I tend to go to restaurants when I go out, and I try restaurants with a quiet corner where I can sneak in and sneak out with my friends, and not have a crowd wanting to shake hands with me. ON PERCEPTION THAT HE IS STILL THE 'FACE OF THE COUNTRY' Mr Lee: Well, no, that's a public perception which is not held by those in the know. I mean, all the top executives know that they are dealing with the ministers and the decisions are made by the ministers. My job is really as a long-range radar to look out for opportunities and for threats ... I cannot work at that old pace. I can work with subjects that require contemplation time, which really is backed up by my experience and my feel of how things will develop. Mr Jacobson: Well, nobody knows Singapore better than you. Mr Lee: I guess, supposing I had not intervened in the casino debate - the religious groups fought tooth and nail to stop it and the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were in a lot of trouble, so I stood up and said 'look, I understand the views, I was of the same view but I'll tell you the reason why I have changed my mind'. And that had a calming effect ... Either you accept that this is part of today's globalised world and you have F1 and all these glitzy events ... or you are out of business. And in Singapore, if you are out of business, you are out of food. ON CASINOS Mr Jacobson: Are you still morally opposed to them or does pragmatism always take precedence in your thinking? Mr Lee: Well, it is useless to resist when it is everywhere. Mr Jacobson: Well, the fact that it's everywhere, maybe it is the reason to resist. Mr Lee: No, you cannot stop it. You want to cut off the Internet? You want to cut off your cellphones? You want to cut off satellite TV? Then you will become like Myanmar. It's not possible. ON PEGGING MINISTERIAL PAY TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR Mr Lee: (We) are always lagging behind because whenever there's a downturn, we don't give the raise. Whenever there's an upturn, the private sector shoots up suddenly and we can't keep pace because the public says 'no, this is too much'. Mr Jacobson: Well, when people are getting US$16 billion ($22.4 billion) bonuses for bringing the country into the ground, it is hard to keep up. Mr Lee: I was once asked about the ... best paid ministers in the world. I said, you should look at the wives. The lowest-paid ministers have wives who are glittering with jewels and with big mansions. Mr Jacobson: So that means they are corrupt. Mr Lee: No, I didn't say that ... So Singaporeans have to decide. Do you want to underpay a minister and you have the kind of shenanigans as you have in the British Parliament? You know, they repair their homes in the country and in London, and charge it to their account. Or, you pay them a proper wage and say after that, look after everything. Nobody gets any special perks ... Official entertainment, you have got an expense account ... Everything is above board and the public knows that. So whatever they grumble, they know that they are not being shortchanged. Mr Jacobson: There are grumbles, but there are always grumbles. Mr Lee: There must be. Singaporeans are champion grumblers.
There are perhaps a few hundred domestic workers working in Singapore and also Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the law entitles them to a day off every week, long service pay or seperation pay based on years of service, and a minmum wage, which is the same irrespective of whether they come from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, or Sri Lanka. There are many support groups for these domestic workers like their local circle of friends, their local church or mosque or a visiting Iman or high priest, domestic agencies, finance companies, banking services, etc. To take advantage of such life-support services the domestic workers need to be in touch with them. They can only do this when they are given a day off every week. Perhaps I can provide a glimpse of my own experience as an employer. In the earlier years from late 1970s to early 1980s most of the domestic workers came from the Philippines and were employed mainly in Hong Kong by expatriates. They were mostly college graduates who left their families and children behind to earn a living their home country could not offer. These workers were well treated because their employers were expats from the US, Japan, Britain, and other expats from Asia. With the economic boom later on, Asia's economy started to skyrocket. But not all Asian countries shared equally in this economic boom, with the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh being left behind. Countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan were on top, and to continue staying on top full-time housewives in these countries suddenly discovered their "own" arbitrage in how to generate more income. They soon easily worked out that they could say get a job and earn $5,000 and employ a foreign domestic worker for say $500 to take over their duties at home. Of course this mutually benefits both parties, one who can earn much more and the other just enough to sustain life. But are the benefits fair? The disparity is greater in Sinagpore than in Hong Kong, and as you can guess the reason is the lower wages in Singapore, the no-day off, the levies vs Hong Kong. Domestic workers industry is now becoming big business in Asia. Singapore's economy would be not be what it is without them. At least Time magazine has the courage to consider Chinese migrant workers (close "relatives" of foreign domestic workers?) a potential candidate for "person of the Year". With the ever increasing demand for such workers the better off Asian countries are now importing ever more foreign workers. Now we see workers from many countries besides the Philippines, especially from Indonesia. The typical Indonesian domestic worker comes from Central Java. She is young, either single or newly married with one or two kids. Her extended entire family depends on her for a better life. The burden and responsibilty on her to go to a foreign land, with strange people and customs and with no friends, to support her entire family is very heavy. For the first 6 to 7 months of their employment they get almost no pay except for pocket change because the employment agencies take away their wages. Now if they get the sack after 6 months they will get nothing for the 6 months they have worked. They feel like failures who have left their entire family down. Now you know why the incidence of Indonesian maids falling to theri deaths is so high in Singapore. Also some employers exploit them. If they are Indonesians, they force them to sign on a piece of paper to acknowledge they have received $500 when in actual fact they have been paid only $250. They wouldn't dare report this to the government because they will be sacked and deported and their entire dreams and hopes, and that includes their family's, are dead. That is why they feel they want to die. My own Indonesian maid was in all sorts of financial trouble at the beginning of her employment, mainly from financial obligations at home, that I had finance companies and other banks chasing after her for repayments. I decided to sort these problems out with her and found out the depths of her despair and desperation, mainly springing from her obligations to her family she left behind. As the banks and finance companies were charging her obscene interest rates I found out that there was no way she can get out of this deep hole. I then became her "banker" and asked her not to get easy loans from friends or finance companies and she should instead get cash advances from me, free of any interest, whenever she gets into financial trouble. Now I periodically have to advance her a month or sometimes 3 months wages, especially during Ramadan and the during the Haj holiday. She has now worked long enough for me to be entitled to long service pay and she is free to have them even when payments are not due until she retires or quits. At least I have a happy worker and a happy worker contributes to her family who are so dependent on her. Now she shares her joy by paying for a goat to be offered to her family's small village as a thanks-giving every year. Now this is really something fantastic. Not only is she helping her family but she has her own unique way of sharing her happiness with her tiny village. She has sent her family enough money to build a house, buy two pieces of land, and pay for her mothers' medical expenses. They also need constant contacts with their kind, and that is regular contacts with their fellow Indonesians. They can then go for picnics on the beach, in the country parks that abound in Hong Kong, meet their friends for chit-chats, and once in a while attend a talk by an important visiting Imam. Without these social contacts, and like all humans who cannot survive without social contacts, it will take a heavy mental toll on them. In a strange land, strange culture, language, religion, etc you need these contacts even more. Shutting them out from society for 365 days in a year is the last thing any human being should do to another human being. Please remember that the early Chinese who emigrated to SE Asia, then considered as strange places, peoples, languages, customs, foodes, etc. came out with a wonderful solution-the creation of many different associations, like Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teow Chiew, associations where new arrivals from China would be made to feel at home. The Indonesians are not that well organized even today.
Part 2 - Transcript of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's interview with National Geographic Transcript of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's interview with Mark Jacobson from National Geographic on 6 July 2009, for the magazine's Jan 2010 edition Updated 06:54 PM Dec 31, 2009Q: Q: "One thing that really struck me, coming from an American perspective is how much people, as much as they may seem to complain, they obviously feel a sense of home here and they love this place and this is their home and whatever problems they may have with whatever, that love of it comes through which I don't think the people really in a place like America can really appreciate that. In America, what do they know about Singapore? They know it has an exotic name, the chewing gum and the guy that got caned. That's it. And one of my missions here is to kind of like explode certain mythologies that people might have about this place." Mr Lee: "Well, the Americans who've been here and done business, stayed here especially, if you ask them, they produced, the Americans get together and help each other, so they produced a book for new commerce, new entrants. So every three, four years they change and they give out all the eccentricities of the Singapore society, where do you get good food, what you have to watch out for, where they give you a bum rap and so on. And I think high on the list is the clean environment, no graffiti, safe personally, health et cetera, clean air, clean water and clean food except for some isolated cases and a safe environment for their children. I mean, where can you go out and jog at three o'clock in the morning and nothing happens? I think you can see them. You're staying at the marina around there?" Q: "I'm staying at Merchant Court." Mr Lee: "Merchant Court? Opposite?" YY: "In fact, just next to Clarke Quay." Mr Lee: "Yes, yes. You can. Nobody has been mugged, nobody has been raped. The crime rate is the lowest in Southeast Asia because we have a fairly disciplined population. Everybody is educated, nobody, there are a few dropouts who go in for glue sniffing and drugs and so on but we keep the numbers down and we rescue as much of them as we can. But the social delinquency rate amongst young people is at a minimum." Q: "One thing that struck me is how you never see a policeman. I live in New York and I see police, cops all the time." Mr Lee: "You have got to show your presence to scare people, I mean, that I'm around. But in Singapore, we've got what you call neighbourhood police, that they are stationed in the neighbourhood. There's a little neighbourhood post for each precinct and they stay there for two, three, even four years, so they get to know everybody there. So any stranger comes in they know and they become friends with the neighbourhood. So apart from the occasional round in a car, they make sure that houses are properly locked up and not left open inviting thieves." Q: "It's not necessary to be driving around with the search light and all of the stuff like that. That's the way it is in most places, really. This is a law abiding society in general." Mr Lee: "Well, it's the education in the schools and at home partly because we're such a densely populated kind of buildings, all high rises, so you have got to develop habits which are considerate to your neighbours. If you have loud blaring noise going through the walls, partition walls to the neighbours, they'll soon complain to the the neighbourhood police or somebody will come up to say will you tone your volume down because you're waking up the neighbourhood. And they learn to accommodate each other because we don't allow our ethnic groups to choose to live together. When they are resettled, they have got to ballot for their neighbours, so you get Malays, Indians, Chinese all shuffled around together when in the first generation, they used to sell and relocate themselves, so we have quotas and no precinct should have more than this quota of the population. So in other words, we bring about an integration by spreading them which means we spread them in the schools too." Q: "And it's worked." Mr Lee: "It's worked. And so we have a more homogenous and more homogenous in the sense that they haven't changed their religions, the Malays are still Muslims and they go to the mosques every Friday and they've slightly different habits. The influence from the Middle East has made them have head-dresses for no rhyme or reason." Q: "Actually, it's an interesting question that just came up recently that I was going to ask you about. I know that you put a premium on racial harmony and religious harmony and it's actually more or less legislated here, right?" Mr Lee: "Yes, because you can have enormous trouble once religions clash." Q: "Well, the two things I've been interested to ask you about that because I agree with you is number one, the recent rise of Evangelical Christians in Singapore." Mr Lee: "As a result of American efforts." Q: "I don't know if it's American efforts but I went to the New Creation Church and you might as well have been in Tennessee , it was exactly the same. As soon as you walked through the door, it was exactly the same but it seemed very popular. Is that a new monkey (?) ranch in there?" Mr Lee: "No, I don't think so. You see most Chinese here are Buddhists or Taoist ancestor worshippers, I'm one of them, so it is a tolerant society, it says whatever you want to believe in, you go ahead. And these youngsters, the educated ones, Western-educated especially, now they are all English-educated, their mother tongue is the second language. Therefore, they begin to read Western books and Western culture and so on and then the Internet. So they begin to question like in Korea that what is this mumbo-jumbo, the ancestors and so on? The dead have gone, they're praying before this altar and asking for their blessings and then they have got groups, Christian groups who go out and evangelize. They catch them in their teens, in their late teens when they're malleable and open to suggestions and then they become very fervent evangelists themselves. My granddaughter is one of them. She's now 28. My wife used to tell her look, don't go for any more of these titles, just look for MRS. It's just around the corner, God will arrange it." Q: "Well, in the US, as you say, it's import from the US or an export. These people have been very politically active." Mr Lee: "Well, they know here that if you get politically active, you will incite the Buddhist, the Taoist, the Muslims, the Hindus and others to do similar response. We used to teach in the schools in the 1980s to get back some moral values as a result of Westernisation, Confucian culture as a subject in itself for the Chinese whereupon the Malays, the Indians and so on, they reacted. They wanted not Confucian culture, they wanted their religion, so we decided we'll stop this. So we took the concepts of Confucianism and put it into civic subject, that society is more important than the individual, that the individual must care for the society and the interests of the society must take precedence over the individual, which is contrary to the American or Western system which says the individual trumps everything, freedom trumps everything, freedom of speech, freedom of whatever you tolerate even at the expense of making others feel inconvenient. If I don't like abortion, you're a doctor who aborts people, I shoot you." Q: "That may happen, that's valid I think there is a rather large emphasis on individual autonomy in Western cultures that is sometimes detrimental to the larger society. But that's the way you're brought up, that's what we're used to, so it becomes…." Mr Lee: "No, it's the philosophy of society you start with. You get all the Kantian theories and the Rousseau and so on, so gradually it evolved and then along comes Maddox and Jefferson's the right to happiness of the society and so on. So it's an optimistic sort of approach to life. The Chinese start off with a completely different end of the stick that all men are born the same and you have got to educate them and perfect them, otherwise, they will not improve. So they put a lot of emphasis on upbringing at home and in the schools. Well, we're losing part of it because the Chinese schools have disappeared. We're trying to preserve it or introduce it into the English speaking schools but the teachers now are also educated in English speaking schools and have lost the old traditions. So they're trying to get them to go to China and see how they preserve these qualities. But we find that in the cities, they're also changing." Q: "So when, don't take this the wrong way, but when you decided to close the Chinese stream education and the college, what was the rationale behind that and do you ever regret doing that?" Mr Lee: "No, I regret not doing it faster because politically, if there'd been a violent electoral protest in the next elections because they're so wedded to the idea that language means, culture means, life means everything. But I'm a pragmatist and you can't make a living with the Chinese language in Singapore. The first duty of the government is to be able to feed its people, to feed its people in a little island. There's no hinterland and no farming, you have got to trade and you have got to do something to get people buy your goods or services or get people to come here and manufacture themselves, export, ready-made markets and multinationals which I stumbled on when I went to Harvard for a term in 1968 and I said oh, this could solve my unemployment problem. So we brought the semiconductors factories here and one started, the whole herd came and we became a vast centre for production of computers and computer peripherals. But they all speak English, multinationals from Japan, Europe, whatever European country they come from, they speak English. So Chinese-educated were losing out and they were disgruntled because they got the poorer jobs and lesser pay. So eventually our own Members of Parliament were Chinese-educated and graduates from the Chinese university said okay, we have got do something. We're ruining these people's careers. By that time, the university was also losing its good students and getting bum students. Because they took in poor students, they graduated them on lower marks and so the degree became valueless. So when you apply for a job with a Chinese university degree, you hide your degree and produce your school certificate. So I tried to change it from within, the Education Minister was Chinese-educated and English-educated to convert it from within because most of the teachers have American PhDs. So they did their thesis in English but they've forgotten their English as they've been teaching in Chinese, so it couldn't be done. So I merged them with the English speaking university. Great unhappiness and dislocation for the first few years but when they graduated, we put it to them do you want your old university degree or you want English university degree? All opted for the English university degree. That settled it." Q: "In recent events as China begins to ascend, I mean, would you?" Mr Lee: "No, no. It makes no difference. We are not going to tie ourselves to China to the extent it makes us hostage. I mean, we have many investments there because the older generation are Chinese-educated, they feel comfortable but the younger generation, they have enough Chinese who want to go there and do business and they can ramp it up if you want because once you are able to listen and speak and read without writing, you can pick it up. And not everybody wants to go there and we've been offering scholarships to their top universities, Beijing, Qinghua, Hudan, very few takers. They say nah, I want to go to America or Britain because they know they're coming back here and competing in English."
Part 3 - Transcript of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's interview with National Geographic Transcript of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's interview with Mark Jacobson from National Geographic on 6 July 2009, for the magazine's Jan 2010 edition Updated 06:56 PM Dec 31, 2009 Q: "Do you think that, I mean, one question I wanted to ask you was building a country from scratch is obviously an enormous achievement, accomplishment." Mr lee: "No, it's not a nation. It's a society in transition. You need a few hundred years to build a nation." Q: "Oh really?" Mr Lee: "Yes." Q: "You have a lot of countries running around claiming they're nations. You don't think they really are nations?" Mr Lee: "Well, we make them say the national pledge and sing the national anthem but suppose we have a famine, will your Malay neighbour give you the last few grains of rice or will she share it with her family or fellow Muslim or vice versa?" Q: "Depends on the person, doesn't it? No, it doesn't?" Mr Lee: "No, I think there comes a time, I read a book by Edward Wilson who was Harvard." Q: "I know who he is." Mr Lee: "And he wrote about human beings." Q: "Actual past ones." Mr Lee: "And he described the Maoris. So when two tribes were fighting, the third tribe will come and see which tribe is more our side, more genes like us and they joined that side. So it's an instinct. Can you overcome that instinct? Edward Wilson says culture can overcome because he's American, he knows a mix of Europeans and others. But it takes many, many years. Yes, they all do the military service, equal treatment, equal pay, equal hardship, job opportunities but we live in concentric circles. Cross marriages, yes a few, usually the parents are most unhappy. Then where do you belong, the children of the cross marriages? Sometimes they get reabsorbed in their father ethnic group and they carry the father's surname. Sometimes, if you become a Muslim then whether you're male or female, you join the other side. But it has happened to the margins more and more. But I think the instinct, the human instinct is still there. I mean, it's in America." Q: "I live in New York which is similar to Singapore in a way." Mr Lee: "No, I mean, I used to talk to an Indian. He was the administrator of Agra and we were driving back to Delhi. This was in the late 1970s. So he was telling me he was writing a thesis on Shakespeare, a highly-educated man. At that time, English-educated, that generation. So I said, supposing I pretend as a caste, supposing I pretend I'm a Brahmin, high caste and I invite you to dinner, he said yeah I'll come. You give me a good dinner, I'll come. Now supposing I want to marry your daughter? He says that's different. The most thorough inquiries will be made. So I said supposing I tell you I came from Calcutta and how you're going to find me. He says no, you've got to live somewhere in Calcutta, you must have your family, your neighbours, your friends in Calcutta, we'll find out. Then we'll know what caste you belong to." Q: "So as long as you have enough human trail people will figure out who you are." Mr Lee: "Yes, and in Japan, they do it a different way. They exclude the Chinese and the Koreans who have been there for generations. They're still not Japanese citizens. Some had become since the West started criticizing them because you may have a Japanese name and you speak perfect Japanese, but for promotions, where is your home village? Never mind, I come from Tokyo, Osaka or Kobe. No where is your home domicile and they will trace you there." Q: "So what you're saying now is this somewhat contradictory to the programme that you have here where you have the quotas? It's really human nature, the people hang out with their own kind. Can you legislate that? Can you do anything about that?" Mr Lee: "It takes times. You can have a certain, as I said, concentric circles. They overlap at the outer circles. You start with your family, your relatives, your immediate friends and then your school friends and other friends in the outer fringe. In the outer circles, you have common ground but you can even invite them into your home and visit each other on festive occasions and so on but when it comes to marriage and becoming part of the family, that's a very different happiness." Q: "Is it, will it be your goal to break down those barriers or it's not worth doing, it's just a waste of time?" Mr Lee: "I think we just leave it alone." Q: "You just leave it alone." Mr Lee: "You try to break it down, you're going to cause a lot of unhappiness and the older generation vote solidly against." Q: "As Singapore moves along, I mean, answer me this question, who has the hardest job?" Mr Lee: "Hardest job?" Q: "You or your son?" Mr Lee: "It's to keep going at the same pace, same quality of governance at all levels, more integrated. I mean not assimilated but more integrated, more easy to get along with each other, a more cohesive society and a better-educated society at all levels, not just the few at the top at universities or polytechnics. Even the dropouts now we're putting them into technical institutes where they learn hands-on preparing engines, electrical equipment and so on in a fairly splendid surroundings because otherwise the old trade schools, they'll say ah, already you're a failure. But now they go into air-conditioned buildings looking the same like polytechnics. You don't feel shy about being seen there. You come out with a certificate and if you make the grade, they will go up one step to the polytechnic where you'll learn nearly a degree status and if you do well in the polytechnic, you go on to university." Q: "Do you think that the world is more complicated now than it was when you were a young man, when you were in the 1960s when Singapore first became independent?" Mr Lee: "Of course, I mean everyday is more globalised and more complicated. You look at this swine virus. In the old days, it'd have died in the village where the Mexican got it. He wouldn't have been traveling to Mexico City. Now it goes to Mexico City, it infects people there, within 24 hours, it's around the world." Q: "That's one thing I want to ask. As the country moves along, we won't call it a nation, as the country moves along..." Mr Lee: "It's a nation in the making. The optimistic view. We must have optimism." Q: "Absolutely or else why bother to get up in the morning?" YY: "Mark, MM has another appointment if you want to spare two minutes." Mr Lee: "I give you 45 minutes, you carry on." Q: "Carry on?" Mr Lee: "Yeah, yeah, it's all right. If you've come all the way two weeks, I can postpone my appointment later." Q: "I appreciate that very much. But I will stick to only the questions I have." Mr Lee: "No, when you say you spent two weeks here, that means you're doing a serious piece." Q: "It's a serious piece and also as I told you, I'm very anxious to give a realistic portrayal of the place that people have a lot of illusions about. So therefore, I want to find out really what's going on. Let's ask you a question about Singapore. One of the things that people say about Singapore is it's too, life is too easy here. People have lost their curiosity and that's the problem. How do you respond to that?" Mr Lee: "No, I don't think that is so much.., that's a stereotype view. If they've lost their curiosity, they wouldn't be striving so hard to get to university, to travel abroad, to go to higher education institutes abroad, to learn higher skills. I mean, I'm undergoing physiotherapy because I had a fall on the bicycle, so I'm stuck there for one hour talking to the physiotherapist and she's upgrading herself, she's done her training here. Her next stage is to go to Australia and get a degree in physiotherapy. I said is the hospital sending you? She said no, I'm paying on my own. I said will you get a pay rise when you come back? She said no but my chances of promotion will be there. So you see it's not that they have lost the curiosity. I mean, they're prepared to spend two years in Perth or Brisbane or Sydney. That's where they get the most physiotherapists because their children are great sportsmen." Q: "It's truly they keep on driving their motorcycles into the wall and then they get up and say, let's do it again." Mr Lee: "So there is this curiosity to find out about the world and it's affecting how they live. I mean, she was 32-years-old. I said are you married. She said no. I said you shouldn't leave it too late. She said well, I haven't found the right person. I said how is that? you are meeting fellow nurses, you better join, you have got a social development unit where you meet men above board, they are looking for spouses, you are looking for spouses and you meet in groups, unless you decide we are friends, and you want to cultivate a closer relation, and she said no, no, no, I'm a Christian, that limits my choice to 20 per cent of the population and we meet in Church." Q: "Do you feel a complacency among the people here?" Mr Lee: "No, a complacency in the sense that their expectations are high and they expect their expectations to be met. But they want higher and higher opportunities, more and more opportunities." Q: "Why does Singapore have to be number one in everything? Why can't you just be one of the ten great cities of Asia? What's wrong with that idea?" Mr Lee: "If we don't strive to be number one, you won't be number ten. You will be number ten. You try to be number one, you might be number two or number three. Do your best. You don't have to be number one but do your best and try to be number one. That's our attitude. Look, we have got no natural resources, we have got nothing except human beings in a small strategic location." Q: "You have got a good location." Mr Lee: "But you must have people with training, with skills, well-organized, disciplined and productive. I mean so if we didn't have an efficient port, we wouldn't be the biggest container port in the world. Where are the container TEUs from? We are not a big manufacturing China centre, they are from China, they are from Europe or Japan, but they transit through to Singapore because that's where they come in and six hours before they are in, they telegraph what containers they want removed, where they are." Q: "I was there, I was very impressed. It was pretty cool." Mr Lee: "So they arrive, immediately work starts, cleared, loaded, off they go in four or five, six hours depending on the number of containers."
Actually, it is a very silly thing to do. I mean the government is putting the workload on the petrol kiosk operators. Now, any right thinking business operators will tell you their main objective is to make money, not playing enforcement to ensure mandatory filling limits. I feel the Malaysian government should charge an 'entry fee' for all Singaporean/foreign licensed cars coming into JB. Easier this way. Say RM15 on weekdays & RM20 on weekends. If the Singaporeans not happy, we initiate military action. Simple solution actually.
