Dr Tan Khee Giap blames Singaporeans - lazy and fussy

Pagani wrote:

subject: LKY School Prof: Singaporeans are “protesting” too much
An economist and associate professor from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Dr Tan Khee Giap (see pic) has lashed out at Singaporeans for complaining about foreigners taking away their jobs.

Echoing PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew’s views that Singaporeans are “champion grumblers”, Dr Tan claimed that Singaporeans are “protesting too much” at a roundtable session at the Tax Academy of Singapore’s annual Budget seminar yesterday.

He told the audience presence that figures last year showed that about three out of ten job vacancies had been unfilled for at least six months which implied that Sinagporeans are turning away the jobs.

Dr Tan did not provide any explanation as to why the unfilled jobs are not accepted by Singaporeans. Perhaps the pay is too low and the working hours are too long.

The PAP and the state media have been busy trying to portray Singaporeans are being “fussy” in job application to deflect blame from their discriminatory labor polices which favor the foreigners.

In the last few weeks alone, the Temasek Review has published job advertisements put up by companies based in Singapore seeking foreigners for positions which can otherwise be filled by Singaporeans.

Dr Tan accused some Singaporeans of being “voluntarily unemployed” and suggested that “every resident worker who is unemployed for more than three months should be made to register with the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), which will have to help him find a job based on his last drawn pay.”

“The WDA can then track how many times each unemployed person turns down a job – much like the statistics the Housing Board recently revealed of new flat buyers turning down flat options,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.

He believes that WDA rejection rate will be “fairly high” without substantiating his statements and that this will “quash the perception there are not enough jobs to go around for Singaporeans.”

“WDA should work actively to help citizens get jobs. When these people turn down jobs once, twice, three times, the Government then doesn’t have to make apologies about bringing in foreign workers,” he added.

Being an economist by training, it is appalling that Dr Tan is not aware of the basic fact that having jobs alone is not enough – the jobs must pay reasonably well to ensure a decent standard of living for Singapore workers.

The PAP has opened the floodgates to foreign workers without putting in adequate measures to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans. It is impossible to expect Singaporeans to compete directly with the cheaper foreigners while remaining “cheaper, better and faster” at the same time.

Despite recent promises made by PAP leaders to “slow” the inflow of foreigners to placate angry Singaporeans, Dr Tan continues to call for foreign workers to spur Singapore’s growth:

“Foreign workers, while unpopular, are necessary for Singapore’s growth, which may not be able to rise on higher productivity alone. This is especially so as the Government has been spending more than it earns – for instance, on help for the needy – and running budget deficits for a number of years now,” Dr Tan said.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, the relentless influx of foreign workers in recent years has depressed the ordinary wages of Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.

It is pretty obvious that there will not be any major overhaul of the PAP’s disastrous liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies so long it remains in power.

Unless Singaporeans reclaim their rights as citizens of their country and vote out the despotic PAP regime in the next general election, they will soon be relegated to second class minorities in their own homeland with the males having to serve two years of National Service to protect the lives and wealth of the PAP elites and the immigrants.