Contributed by one of our readers (you can download the original in Chinese).

Every morning 5am, Monday to Saturday, more than hundred of private buses with 44 maximum capacity each will pass through Woodlands custom. These buses ferry workers, mainly female, from Malaysia to different factories in Singapore and transfer them back in the evening.

Looking at the other passageway for motorcyclists, everyday there are more than 30 thousand Malaysian workers crossing the causeway to work in Singapore. More than 10 thousand motorcyclists are also using Tuas Second Link. In the evening, these workers will ride back to Malaysia.

Since before Singapore’s independence, Malaysian workers are welcome to take up manual jobs that Singaporeans do not want. Employers of these workers are required to pay the Government poll tax, from about 300 SGD to 450 SGD per month.

Alright, we shall not talk about these workers from Malaysia as they are taking up jobs that Singaporeans rejected. Twenty years passed, I travel to Singapore frequently. On Dec 2008, I went to Singapore and saw foreign workers everywhere, working at food stalls, food courts and even the public bus drivers are hired from China. Out of curiosity, why there are so many PRC workers, I asked a PRC worker selling dim sum, “Where are you from?”

He was impolite and not even looking up when he spoke, “I am from Shantou, have been here for 2 months.”

I could sense that he was little angry and I was even more curious and asked again, “How much is your salary, should be very good?”

He replied bluntly, “Talking about this makes me boiled, when my agent take the placement fee from me, he promised that the salary will be S$1,800 per month but now I am getting only S$1,100. I have to work 4 hours overtime daily and cannot even earn S$1,800.”

He hit the table and said, “I paid 40,000 yuan for placement fee, which is equivalent to S$8,000. Even if I do not spend a penny, I have to work 7 months to reclaim my 40,000 yuan placement fee, how can I not angry?”

I shook my head and said, “I am sorry to make you angry.”

He said angrily, “Before coming to Singapore, I heard that there are plenty of opportunities in Singapore. But, what I see now is swindlers more than anything else and your Government is a bid liar.”

In Oct 2009, I came to Singapore’s IMM to shop and discovered that many shop promoters are workers from China. Wow! What happened? Singapore has become the second China.”

I chatted with my Singaporean friends at a cafe, I asked her, “Why is there a sudden increase of workers from China? Now, even the promoters who were usually taken up by Singaporeans have now been replaced by PRC workers. I have heard that many Singaporeans are unemployed at this economy downturn. Are the jobs replaced by these workers from China? It is really incredible, aren’t Singaporeans given employment priority? ”

She shook her head replied: “We are really pathetic, I’ll give you some data and you will understand why I am so sad and has completely lost confidence in the future of my country.”

To employ PRC worker, the employer must pay S$450 every month, adding up to S$5,400 per annum, when multiplied by 50,000 workers from China amounted to S$270 million. It is a huge amount of money which goes to the government. Lee Kuan Yew is very pleased that Singaporeans’ money he and Ho Ching have lost in the 2008 financial turmoil can be recovered soon. ”

I was shocked to hear that and asked: “S$270 million a very amazing figure, but what happened to those Singaporeans who have been laid-off?”

 She explained, “A person with no income can apply for employment-seeking grant which is only S$250 per person, but it will only be approved if the applicant has no other family grant. We need to understand this is two different issues. First, employing seeking grant is only S$250 per month as compared to each foreign worker’s poll tax of S$450 which S$200 less. By replacing a Singaporean with a foreign worker in exchange for S$200, the astronomical amount of money lost by both the father-in-law and daughter-in-law can be recovered. How can his son Lee Hsien Loong not exploit Singaporeans? Second, you must remember that, if the unemployed have savings or one of the family members is working, then the grant he applied will not be approved by the Government. The government can even save on S$250, all to be transferred into the pocket of the government ”
 
I am very surprised that Lee Kuan Yew has been describe to be so remarkable, and he is but a tyrant who has been a dictator for 50 years. I mourn for the people of Singapore.

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