FTs: Quality control? What quality control?

Couldn’t stop laughing when CNA reported LKY as saying Mr Lee, ‘authorities here maintain a “certain quality of control”" on immigration http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1261274/1/.html. And then shaking my head on how out of touch he was. And to think that once upon a time, he was my hero because he was a good pragmatic micro-manager. He also talked sense when JBB was spouting nonsense. Seems LKY has picked up JBJ’s bad habit of talking nonsense.

I will not go into the instances where a violent, cheating sexy-looking PRC shop assistant turned out to be a PR, nor when a PRC prostitute got citizenship (this is not an urban myth: there is credible evidence that it happened), nor when a violent, drunk ang moh got PR status when he was awaiting trail for beating up two S’poreans , nor when an Indian murder suspect, here illegally, got a work permit. Nor the many reported cases of faked degrees, and “faked” salaries.

No, I will just point out that the govt has just only, again, tightened the rules for FTs getting a job here.

Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday assuaged such fears, declaring that “such practices have no place in Singapore’s workplaces”, and would not be tolerated.

Based on feedback so far, Mr Tan said there were three areas of frustration over nationality discrimination: “Hiring-their-own-kind” where the employers prefer candidates of the same nationality; hiring foreigners as it is faster than screening Singaporeans; and a preference for well-qualified foreigners willing to work for lower wages.

To tackle this, the MOM will introduce a tiered structure for S-Passes where salaries would be tiered according to experience so that local PMEs are not undercut. The ministry will also investigate companies if necessary and suspend work pass privileges if needed — this was imposed on one “fairly prominent company” which advertised for employees of a certain nationality, Mr Tan said.

The government will stop tightening the tap on foreign workers only if three goals are met. They are:

• foreign presence in the labour pool is capped at around a third;
• productivity grows 2-3 per cent a year; and
• when Singaporeans’ wages improve.

Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin told Parliament yesterday, during the debate on his ministry’s budget: “If we are not able to meet these targets, we are likely to continue the tightening and restructuring approach.”

He noted that the foreign workforce, excluding foreign domestic workers, grew by about 67,000 last year – still too large a number, so his ministry has tightened its policies further to bring it down.

It will track the numbers sector by sector, he added. CNA

If there was QC, there wouldn’t be a need for such drastic measures, or the earlier ones, would there?

Instead of wanting more FTs to “spur” S’poreans, maybe he should have “spurred’ on the PM and other ministers when he was in a position to do so? I mean if he had “spurred” the Home Team, tpt, and HDB ministers, and his son, 5the PAP and S’poreans would have been much happier. The PAP would not have lost Aljunied, gain only 605 of the popular vote, nor nearly have its preferred candidate lose the presidential election. And we S’poreans would have better public tpt, less expensive apartments, and less crowded public spaces.

As to his comparison with Japan, I can only wonder why I once admired his analytical skills. S’pore is trying to grow its population, not just mitigate for an aging population. And for all his sneering of Japan, the Japanese have done pretty well. The economy has on some measures outperformed even the US, his ideal of a country that allows in FTs. See analysis here from HSBC, http://atans1.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/honest-conversation-on-fts-lets-have-it-not-juz-pretend-that-weve-having-it-iswaran/

Two great Romans, the dictator Sulla and the emperor Diocletian, at the height of their powers, temporal, and mental, retired from public life, leaving only memories of them at their best (often brutal) moments. Maybe LKY should have done that. He was also very protective of the public image of his mouth-piece Rajaretnam in the latter’s dotage. It may have been better if he had taken such care for his own image.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”

Well, well. So 102 FT drivers recruited from China (5% of all SMRT’s drivers) refused to work yesterday, disrupting SMRT bus services. They were not happy about their pay. Happily for commuters using the affected bus services, they agreed to return to work while talks continue.

Whither the FT policy, and LKY’s pride in FTs? Striking was a no-no for workers (except, as I recounted yesterday, when the govt had another agenda). S’porean sheep workers did not strike partly because they were afraid of retribution. Now FTs have led the way and have so far got away with it. They might even get more money. If they do, will locals realise that they too can get away with striking? If immigrants whom LKY respect can strike, why can’t they?

And if S’poreans start striking, will the MNCs move on?

Something for the cabinet, PM and his dad to ponder.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.”

As for SMRT, time to forget about the stock. Management is still dysfunctional, despite having a ex-SAF chief and scholar in charge. Err might even turn into another NOL, where as I have recounted another ex-SAF chief and scholar has run it aground (Search “NOL”  on this site).

Why the ‘T’ in the FT is not Talent but Trash: ICA not checking with police?

Did you know that ST reported that an Indonesian jailed with having sex with an underage prostitute, had just become a PR? I learnt this yesterday via TOC. This a few weeks after reading in TRE that ang moh gaw, Robert Dahlberg, who “moved on” while on bail, received his PR even after he had been charged for beating up two true blue S’poreans at Suntec City in 2010.

So it’s OK to be a PR despite having being charged with a sexual offence or beating up people? Shouldn’t the PR approvals have awaited the court’s decisions.

One wonders if the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), part of Home Team, which processes and approves PR applications, has done a thorough, robust check on applicants before approving them.  If ICA doesn’t even bother to check with other S’pore government agencies, how can we trust that it makes checks overseas. Are the qualifications from say Shangrilla uni or Utopia Biz School genuine? Do the schools even exist?

No wonder we  got the following PRC FT cases.  A PRc man invested S$1.5m so that he and his family could get PR. He apparently lied in his PR application that he was a senior executive in a private biz, when in fact he was a mid-ranking Chinese bureaucrat who stole the money. And then there were the case a few years ago of two PRs who ended up as food hawkers here (This only known because they were the victims on an attack). Or the PRC PR who worked here as a shop assistant. This only became known because she was found guilty of assaulting a SMRT officer who tried to stop her from “cheating” SMRT over her child’s fare. She refused to repent, saying she was in the right.

I hope a PAP MP asks the government to explain why ICA does not check with other govt agencies on whether applicants had criminal charges against them? And whether there are any other checks with other govt depts. This failure to check goes to the heart of the government’s credibility on its claim that it has a Foreign Talent policy, not a Foreign Trash policy, as many readers of TRE suspect.

Or could it be that inter-agency communications are lacking, be it the IT systems or the work flow processes?

Whatever the reason, PAP MPs should be concerned that the govt’s cred is at stake. It could cost them votes at next GE.

I don’t think the WP will ask the question. I suspect that, based on its parly performance so far, it is a sleeping co-driver, who prefers to let sleeping dogs continue sleeping. Doubtless Pritam is dreaming of being a millionaire minister, and Show Mao of being a well-paid adviser to a GLC or the PM.

Finally, juz wondering: Maybe the ICA officers are subversives trying to sabo the govt? They are Dr Chee groupies? After all he has lots of groupies in NUH. LOL.

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PS: Piece on a possible connection between NatCon  and the problems (highlighted by DBS) that the government created for the economy should now appear on Wednesday.

Tharman admits FTs can become citizens without integrating?

I juz read this in amazement: “DPM Tharman urges new citizens to form ties with S’poreans”.

Shouldn’t these new citizens have “formed” ties with S’poreans before they become citizens? What he says implies that FTs who become citizens are allowed to do so in a bubble. They don’t have to integrate with us. They are juz “urged to” after they become citizens.

If so, then this is another example of shumething “Uniquely S’porean”.

In other countries, FTs are not made citizens until after they undergo citizenship training, and passing tests to show they understand what being a citizen means. The training includes integrating with locals. Juz ask the British, US, Australian and NZ governments. FTs have to undergo integration training before they become citizens.

An annoying ministerial boilerplate remark

It was reported by CNA that DPM Teo Chee Hean (one of the better ministers in my view) “said the government’s focus is on ensuring that Singapore remains the best home for all Singaporeans.

‘Beyond developing an attractive living environment and a thriving economy which sustains good jobs for its citizens, Singapore also needs to strengthen the bonds that Singaporeans have with one another and with the country.”

My bitch is about “good jobs for its citizens”. If anything the government has attempted to “developing an attractive living environment and a thriving economy” by making it difficult for the wages of citizens to rise despite rising housing prices and cost of living expenses. It does this via its “FTs are most welcomed” policy, which keeps wage costs down. To be fair, the FT policy also helps keep property prices up. See next posting.

It is a fact that FT HR employees aggressively pitch to the employers, the merits of their compatriots. I know a manager in an MNC wanting to employ a S’pore-trained lawyer, being sent nothing but the CVs of Filipino-trained  lawyers by his, you guessed it, Filipino FT HR manager.

Even though it has now promised to moderate this policy, it has not changed its views on the importance of this policy. Hence its constant ministerial refrain that less FTs means less GDP growth and less jobs for S’poreans. And the constructive, nation building media and academics from SMU keep on harping on the unhappiness of employers who want cheap FTs, and the costs to the economy (including less full time jobs for ploy grads).

Immigration: This balls-up happened here?

Randall Hansen of the University of Toronto explained that the shift in UK immigration policy from a stricy regime to a very liberal regime by the then Labour government was a matter of economic policy, with Labour believing that highly skilled immigrants would expand human capital, and that low-skilled immigrants would prevent labour shortages … The problem, Mr Hansen continued, was that the government had drastically overestimated the benefits, and underestimated the rush of migration that would follow. Labour had forecasted a fiscal benefit of £6 billion a year—overly optimistic, nearly commensurate with the estimated fiscal benefit of immigration to the United States, which is a much bigger economy. And Labour had predicted that perhaps 20,000 … nationals would arrive; the number was closer to 700,000, as had been predicted by the right-wing sceptics at Migration Watch. When the benefits failed to materialise, the politics turned sour, particularly as the adverse economic impacts of immigration were concentrated among people least prepared to absorb them—as is often the case.

(The above is an extract from a longish post on an Economist blog.)

This being S’pore we will never know if the government got its estimates of benefits and numbers coming in wrong, and getting the voters very angry,with George Yeo, Ms Lim, LKY, GCT, Cry Baby Lim, and the three stooges (Wong, Mah and Lim) having to pay the price.