Why did you come to Singapore?

[tootee]

i bet they dont really use the race/religion data you filled up.. its just a norm that most official forms has these field, it just comes as a 2nd-nature when the companies design the forms i think.. name, IC, address, email, tel, religion, race, etc standard stuff..

maybe these are pretty sensitive in other parts of the world (or most part?), but i'm pretty confident the gov or org involved is not using these info to discrimate.

just like HSBC ads, a simple gesture can convey different msg in different culture.. and be like HSBC, understand the culture and if its nothing negative, dont condemn it all for the wrong reason.

[I'll Bet.....]

i bet they dont really use the race/religion data you filled up.. its just a norm that most official forms has these field, it just comes as a 2nd-nature when the companies design the forms i think.. name, IC, address, email, tel, religion, race, etc standard stuff..

maybe these are pretty sensitive in other parts of the world (or most part?), but i'm pretty confident the gov or org involved is not using these info to discrimate.

just like HSBC ads, a simple gesture can convey different msg in different culture.. and be like HSBC, understand the culture and if its nothing negative, dont condemn it all for the wrong reason.

......you are not a local minority here in Singapore are you? If you were, then you would know how stupid your comments seem.

[jpatokal]

i bet they dont really use the race/religion data you filled up.. its just a norm that most official forms has these field, it just comes as a 2nd-nature when the companies design the forms i think.. name, IC, address, email, tel, religion, race, etc standard stuff..

maybe these are pretty sensitive in other parts of the world (or most part?), but i'm pretty confident the gov or org involved is not using these info to discrimate.

Bullshit. Try position allocation based on race in the military, HDB racial quotas, EP racial quotas, etc etc.

[LiverpoolFan]

You don't think they use all that info? Don't make me laugh! Having lived in Spore and other countries, SP is not as open as they like you to believe, no privacy there, it's BIG BOTHER all the way. Many people from other countries view religion etc as private issues and not to be declared for no good reason. If SP wants to attract more foreign talents into their country, they should be more sensitive to that. And they are not flexible, must do things exactly the way written like in instruction book, very fustrasting sometimes. However, I love how clean it is.

[Guest]

Why ask religion ? and why asked race ?

My answer to these are : 1)Religion : Universal and 2)Race : Global citizen

Those who asked these two questions are ignorant and narrow minded people.

Religion is just like the banana skin, most people forgot the essence of religion which is the banana itself (spirituality). Religion is characterise by 3 things, a)symbol b)practice and c)humanity(which is refer as spirituality). Inter religion fighting is mainly caused by a) and/or b) which are the banana skin !!
If everyone look at the banana itself, we are all common earthlings, bothers and sisters and where on earth there is "enemy" per se ??

Race is global citizen because we are interlink with "web" and so no different in race as long as we can communicate through the "web", there should not be country boundary as this limit human movement and so freedom.

So next time people ask you these two questions, you know how to answer them with the "justification" mentioned above.

Good luck !!

[love and come singapore]

I'm sad. So, so sad.

I saw a politician, an ex-minister, the other day here in Sabah. He was driving his latest toy, a brand new sporty Mercedes. He was driving towards his multi-million ringgit house, oblivious to the family in rags at the side of the road, and the non-functioning street lights, never mind the potholed road.

It has become a habit for our menteri besars - when in or out of office - to display great wealth. Not long ago, if memory serves me right, we had an menteri besar caught in Australia with a couple of millions in loose change trying to exit from an Australian city.

Considering that he had only served one term as menteri besar (and was still in office) the question that still remains unanswered till today is this: Where did he obtain his millions?'

The most scandalous of the lot must be the ex-menteri besar of Sabah losing RM31.6 million to a casino in UK. What is most perplexing in this case is how did someone in his position accumulate such fabulous wealth?

Frankly, it is not too difficult to trace where such wealth is derived from.

If you require approval from the state government for any application, don't expect to get it as a matter of course. Without going through the 'proper channels' and without some agreed financial arrangement, it is most likely that your application will be rejected without any reasons given.

Despite all these public displays of wealth by our politicians, the most glaring dereliction of duty must be the Anti-Corruption Agency. They seem oblivious to all that is happening. Maybe they are waiting for the culprits to make a public confession before they will take any action.

By now, the citizens of this country must be immune to all this blatant acts of corruption. Each new leader comes to office with the promise of eradicating this scourge but each time we are left disappointed.

Sadly, we must admit we just don't have the leaders that can exert the political will and determination to wipe out this menace.

As far as I am concerned, this politician sold the country by giving away fake identification cards to illegal immigrants. Rumour has it that he is being investigated, but I don't expect anything to come out of that investigation because the investigators themselves are most probably corrupted.

I studied hard for my degree, worked part-time in order to make ends meet while studying, obtained good results, joined the service in order to contribute my skills towards the development of Malaysia. I am receiving a four-figure monthly salary.

Foodstuff and fuel prices have gone up. I buy the monthly food supplies, insurance, the mortgage for my terrace house, pay the utility bills, and whoosh! The whole month's salary vanishes.

However, the presence of racism, insecurity, hypocrisy, disunity, discrimination, corruption, charades, spineless civil servants and politicians, banana republic attitudes all spoil Malaysia. How long can I stay in this country? I'm not sure.

One thing for sure, I am disillusioned, and I'm sure so are many other Malaysians like me, who are making an honest living in a dishonest and corrupt system.

[Guest]

i bet they dont really use the race/religion data you filled up.. its just a norm that most official forms has these field, it just comes as a 2nd-nature when the companies design the forms i think.. name, IC, address, email, tel, religion, race, etc standard stuff..

maybe these are pretty sensitive in other parts of the world (or most part?), but i'm pretty confident the gov or org involved is not using these info to discrimate.

just like HSBC ads, a simple gesture can convey different msg in different culture.. and be like HSBC, understand the culture and if its nothing negative, dont condemn it all for the wrong reason.

Tootee,

You circle around your words and somehow we just can;t understand your point and what you're trying to say....DUH.

[two good bad country]

Many Malaysians working in the Singapore regard the meritocracy and equality is on ideal level.

There are also those who experienced discrimination due to difference on nationality and race. Overall, Singapore has better image than our country.

Brain drain is inevitable when we have unequal or unfair treatment of a group of people regarded as different from the ruling group. It is tantamount to banishing them to second-class citizen, except that it was at acceptable level.

This preferential treatment inadvertently segregated the citizens although it started with noble notion of creating equality in terms of economic parity. Unfortunately, this system has since been abused.

When the mistreated felt that they "do not belong" to the country, loyalty becomes secondary importance.

There are also many factors contributing to brain drain not only unbalanced policy. As the standard of living in Malaysia is rising but our economic income is stagnant, this has forced many to venture overseas to find money.

There are also many who studied abroad refuse to return home as the condition of better job prospects, better life in foreign countries and earning power is more appealing than here.

On the first step to rectify this discrepancy is to eradicate corruption and the abused NEP. I believe the effect would be great.

The NEP has nurtured malay businessmen under the government umbrella - very different from the law of the forest that prevails in the actual business world. This has made them less viable in times of harsh economic conditions. Except for a few, the NEP has failed to cultivate malay businessmen in the acquisition of responsibilities, business skills and attitudes.

If the NEP fails or have not achieve its objectives after more than 20 years, it is not the people fault but the government.

Look at how only some have always benefited. Seems like there may be some who will hide behind the reasons of NEP to grow even wealthier while the real target people of NEP existence remains more-or-less status quo.

There is nothing equal in Singapore but rather a carefully projected image of a decent society where harmony and equality are abundant to be seen everywhere.

Opinions are good but too much negative will only consume you. From now, lets change our attitude of whining but instead voice out a solution of your own.

[riversandlakes]

I remember being young and idealistic, until the first wave of discrimination hit me after SPM. I got 10 credits and 7A1s. All the other "princes of the land" got into colleges and scholarships and some even universities, and I was left to fend on Form 6 (two freaking years). because my family was poor.

Do I need to remind anyone A Levels can be finished in six months if you were up to it? Two years for Form 6 were clearly meant to make people like me waste our youth. Two discrimination shots in one package - like your 2-in-1 shampoo.

Now, earning 7,000 a month, I have taken a job here in Singapore with no remorse or even the question of loyalty in my mind. Whatever for? The Emperor is in Peking, anyway. What does he know about you the poor peasant?

The excuse that was NEP was to bring equality and increase their share of the economic pie. If that was the case, why not a deadline to this NEP? Is it supposed to drag on forever? And the gov talks about integration and unity, YET look at the component parties of the ruling party - all based on races?

Or maybe it was just an excuse for cronyism. Need I bring up the AP issue now hitting Malaysia?

[run away from malaysia]

Is absolutely right!

For those who have been victimized under the Malaysian made meritocracy trap, look elsewhere. Opportunities abound.

Most of the talented people in the country leave because of this exact problem, the smart malays have two options, they can use their skills abroad, do something interesting, innovative,exciting, or stay in Malaysia, learn to abuse the system and their family ties and make shit loads of money.

I left Malaysia long time ago when my mother told me to look for greener pasture elsewhere.

Absolutely no regret. The government and local organizations sponsored all my educational and living expenses here to the maximum I could go.

Frankly speaking, if not for those incompetent, extremists, and brainless leaders and cronies who have destroyed Malaysia for the past 30 years, this land is a heaven on earth.

[no future country]

In the globalize world, it's amazing that there still exist segregation, enjoying all kind of free subsidies, while their fellow brothers and sisters have to pay their own way.

It is sad for someone who is an academician has this kind of mentality. The nation cannot prosper with this archaic thought.

Be like me, never buy or even bother reading Malaysian newspaper. Who cares anyway? Each year more and more experts from Malaysia emigrating to other countries leaving morons behind. That's the fact.

To me, I think there is never an issue or question whatsoever to have good Malaysian students (bumis or non bumis) in the UiTM or UTAR or whatever. They should be admitted because they are good students and by being present there, they will serve to improve and increase the quality and standard of education in these institutions. World-class higher institution of learning takes many decades to become one.

Race is never an issue here. I think only these BN based politicians would like to "cooperate" from times to times to highlight the issue.

Wake up.

I pity PM Badawi, he is better off hiring some zookeepers for his administration.

[riversandlakes]

perhaps they did it wrong from the very beginning (though of course they will never admit it). they shouldn't have designed and implemented policies based on races.

they should have done it according to the social standard of the particular citizens; let the government policies help ALL those are below the poverty line, and let the scholarships go to those who REALLY deserved it, so those cream of the crop can help to further this cause, and so on...

not all Chinese are Lee Kar Shings, and I know they know it.

[malaysia is low class]

The New Economic Policy (NEP) supplemented the 15 year special privilege provision enshrined in the Federal Constitution of Malaya. Having used up 13 years of the 15 year privilege provision, Umno asked for another 20 years to implement NEP.

The understanding then was at the end of 20 years in 1990, there would neither be the NEP nor the special privileges provision. Malaysians would all be equal.

That was a promise given by Umno leaders, and the component parties naturally thought that succeeding generations of Umno leaders would keep to the promise of the founding fathers.

It was raise bumi equity to 30 percent of the national equity but it only achieved 18 percent. So why does the Umno Youth push for implementation of a failed policy?

That generation of leaders who framed the NEP had been more upright in setting a time limit of 20 years to implement a policy which they knew was biased against, and unfair to the non-malays.

The spirit of comradeship forged by the Alliance government was unfortunately, not appreciated by the younger generation of Umno leaders who felt that since Umno was the government, it could do what it pleased without a sense of justice and civility.

The question now is can Umno be trusted to keep its promises? Why keep comparing the income level between the races when the most fundamental issue is to offer help where necessary so that all the citizens can live happily?

We are already losing the competitive edge with the emergence of China and India as significant Asian markets in the 21st century. And looking at it based on the Approved Permits (APs) issue, I notice a pattern that indicates an abuse of the NEP with more than 25000 APs issued to three individuals.

The national education policy is changed according to the whims of the ministers concerned. People at the top just make decisions without considering the students. Several years ago, a basic degree programme could only be completed in four years. Currently it is three.

The rationale given by the authorities is that it is important to increase the number of graduates. Universities therefore become factories churning out mass numbers of graduates. Malaysia today needs high quality graduates, not a high quantity of graduates.

The NEP has been a convenient tool for producing Umno-only champions. That is the route to power and riches. Unfortunately, it is not the path to become a global malay.

It is foolish to deny that the racial undertones at the meet did not cause a measure of alarm among the non-bumis in our country.

Why is it so hard to face facts? Why not just admit that all these hand-outs and demands for more and more concessions and quotas are just a shoddy attempt to enrich the few who are privileged enough to connect with those in power?

When exactly did the NEP and all those well-thought out schemes uplift the bumis? When did they actually benefit the bumi man-on-the-street? I see the kampung folk as poor as always.

It is a shame that the NEP had only succeeded in creating a bigger gap between the rich bumi and the poor bumi. Or is it more correct to say the elite bumi and the ordinary bumi? That is the reality of the plight of the bumis.

And I certainly agree that after so many years of independence, it is sad to face the reality that sometimes, the non-bumis are made to feel like we do not have a right to call ourselves Malaysians.

When it serves their purpose, it is demanded that all of us show our loyalty to our country, whether by words or action.

If we do not agree, then we are told - If anyone doesn't like it, just get out of Malaysia.

Why is it that our government does not see that abject poverty also affects the Chinese and Indians? The marginalisation of the poor and disadvantaged regardless of their race, is simply morally wrong.

Just as there exist a gap between the successful and rich bumis, there also is a huge gap between the rich Chinese and Indians and the ordinary folk.

[riversandlakes]

"If we do not agree, then we are told - If anyone doesn't like it, just get out of Malaysia. "

Yeah, and I've done just that!

[Vodkashot]

When you are in a foreign country, try to learn more about their culture. In Singapore, religious tolerance is everywhere. No conflict at all, if you mix with muslims, christians, buddists, taoists,............... It is common here that you are asked to fill in your religion. Know & accept the local culture & practice. Sometime, being too individualistic could be seen as arrogance in other people's eyes.

Really? I doubt so.