Everyman

Yellow helmets, thats all we remember, no face no name.

Although I am not a resident of Serangoon Gardens, I think the whole foreign worker dormitory issue really raised a few points for consideration. In case you are not in the know, a ruckus was kicked up recently when the government decided to convert a disused school in the heart of a residential estate into a dormitory for foreign workers. I have no comments on the policy aspect of the issue with the exception that the matter could have been handled better and to a certain extent I think it revealed the electoral naivety of our politicians. Until recently, our politicians generally operated in a rather large comfort zone. But with a more vocal, younger electorate this comfort zone is gradually diminishing. Whilst their overseas brethren would have spin-doctors or media advisers counseling on how best to manage the situation, our politicians solicited views from residents and then implemented the policy almost wholesale. Politics is not so much about the policy itself but also about how the policy is implemented, and implementation requires sensitivity and transparency.

Even if you are totally uninterested in policy, one cannot deny that the housing of foreign worker is a pressing problem in Singapore. Being Singaporeans, it is in our nature to want things fast, cheap and good. Singaporean laborers are just too slow and expensive, hence the influx of foreign workers. From a purely economical viewpoint I can understand that having foreign workers for neighbors would cause the price of a property to plummet. From a social standpoint, there will inevitably be social problems that arise not so much from murder, rape or theft but largely from a clash of culture; and for every one murderer, rapist and thief there are a thousand fathers, brothers and sons. But what really shocks me is that there is talk of herding foreign workers into townships or cloistered communities. Townships, the word sends shivers down my spine, being too similar to one of the more famous townships, Soweto which features heavily in apartheid literature. It is not that far a leap from Township to Ghetto. In searching for a solution to the problem we should not forget that the first world city that we inhabit is built on the bent backs of third world laborers.