party and free food for new citizens , NS for Singaporeans

The PAP has launched the Singapore Citizenship Journey portal using taxpayers’ monies this month as a pilot project in three GRCs – Tanjong Pagar, West Coast and Sembawang.

Prospective new citizens will now have to register on the Singapore Citizenship Journey before they can become Singapore citizens as well as to attend compulsory “sharing sessions” with PAP-affiliated grassroots leaders.

The portal will also have an e-learning module to help new citizens learn more about Singapore and an online module in English for them to complete.

Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said in Parliament on Wednesday that “having a more structured naturalisation process will ensure that they understand and appreciate the pillars of national identity and values.”

It is unsure how prospective new citizens who cannot even speak a single word of English will be able to complete the online module.

In a desperate attempt to reversing the damaging effect of the “Stop at Two” policy in the 1970s and to boost Singapore’s declining birth rates, the PAP has opened the floodgates to foreigners in the last few years.

Due to the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent, an increasing number are born overseas.

A significant proportion of the newcomers hail from the inland provinces of mainland China, many of whom are unable to speak or comprehend English. The mainstream media carried reports of Chinese construction workers, cleaners, masseurs and even prostitutes being granted Singapore PRs and citizenships.

PAP’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with the National Geographic magazine that it is a “good idea” that Singapore welcomes so many Chinese immigrants as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.

Though the fundamental reason behind Singapore’s immigration policy is sound, it is implemented too hastily with little prior planning or foresight to anticipate problems arising in the future.

Too many foreigners were allowed into Singapore within too short a period of time such that it is near impossible to integrate all of them and the fault lies solely with the PAP.

For example, plans to integrate them should have been drawn up as early as 2003 and not only now when Dr Vivian unveiled a megal $10 million dollar Community Integration Fund to serve the purpose which is too little, too late.

With ethnic enclaves already emerging in the HDB heartlands, it is very unlikely that the new immigrants, consisting of a motley crowd of mainland Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Malaysians etc. will be able to mix around with one another, let alone integrate into the larger Singapore society.

At the end of the day, it is ordinary Singaporeans who are paying the price of the PAP’s policy mistakes and not the millionaire PAP ministers whose positions remain as secure as ever.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, the relentless influx of foreigners has depressed the wages of ordinary Singapore workers, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing, decreased labor productivity and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.

Unfortunately, the PAP continues to live high up in their own ivory towers and remain oblivious to the problems currently besieging the nation.

Unless Singaporeans vote out the PAP in the next general election to reclaim the ownership of their nation, they will soon be relegated to second class minorities within their country of birth with the males having to serve two years of National Service to protect the foreigners, PRs and new citizens