Pr's

[gravida]

I don't think that small (relatively) group of expats on this forum will change any decision, but on the other hand, it is quite hard to believe that indeed they plan to put so many people leaning against the wall and place the pistol to their heads 'asking' to take the citizenship.

Well, I am here, because of economical reasons and it is not a secret, but it will not be enough to keep me here, if I will be forced to make such decision with a sort of blackmail behind. Then, I prefer to start all over again, go back to my country or other place, have less money, but at least feel that I am making my decisions consciously, not under pressure.

[Plavt]

imho foreigners will never be assimilated fully in singapore because the locals arent very accepting. No matter what your status is PR or citizen, you will always be looked at as a foreigner. the locals vs. foreigners mentality must change first

I wouldn't go as far as to say 'the locals arent very accepting' more like they will never really accept you as one of their own, but it is true if you are a foreigner in any country you will always be seen as one and if honest with yourself will always feel you are. The reason is your roots are elsewhere unless you are amongst the few who have never stayed in your home country wherever that maybe the majority of your life.

[Plavt]

Would the views of this board be taken into account?

I don't it would be just the views of this board, I would imagine the forum would be just a number of places the government and its associated agencies would look.

[ksl]

My personal contribution to Singapore as a UK citizen, would be that i would fight to defend it, just like my forefathers, though I was born to be a soldier and my first encounter was the army cadets at 14 years of age, then professional for 10.5 years. Soldiering is in the blood, its like other careers. A policeman will always be a policeman if he as served long enough, that the brain function is altered.

You cannot expect this to happen with NS, the war with Argentina proved that politics and national pride is not the same. People will defend their Countries and families when the time is right to do so. Compulsory NS in my opinion is not the way for Singapore.

The government needs a professional army, it should advertise army careers with very attractive rates of pay, to increase the force.

Civil defence duties should be voluntary too. I sincerely believe the passion would develop in foreigners to become Singaporean, if they wasn't pushed all the time. Lets face it this red dot, cannot defend itself, more than 72 hrs anyway. The dot is more important to the west and USA, than it is to Singaporeans, so I just don't understand gahmen pushing its people so much.
I would join the army tomorrow here in Singapore, though our characters are all different and that should be respected. People will defend, no worries of that, but they will not fight because politicians tell them to fight.

[Plavt]

Compulsory NS in my opinion is not the way for Singapore.

I agree, and with this and the rest of your post; conscription is a disaster (not least the reason it was dispensed with in the UK), the Gulf War also proves the point since poorly motivated conscripts were easy for the Americans to capture if they didn't simply surrender in the first place. While travelling through France encountering young conscripts it soon becomes evident they are not professional. As I have said before; if you put people in an Army who don't want to be there, then you end up with a very bad army.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I received an update today from one of my sources inside the major acronym re the Citizenship issue in the news. It would seem that the plan is to target young male PR's who are Single or Married AND have separated families and/or children that have not been made PR's. The other targeted group are the PR families who have bought HDB flats but haven't applied for citizenship yet. If they don't take up the offer of citizenship, they will also probably have their PR either revoked or at least not renew their REP's. It's a pretty good way to get rid of the abusers AND mollify the heartlanders who say the PR are driving up HDB prices as well. And, if they are lucky, get 50K new citizens in the process? Interesting, no? How true this really is I don't know.

[Splatted]

All I need to know now is... is it advisable to renew my reentry permit (early) and get a 10 year one... before any such offer of citizenship is received...

or will this not make one iota of difference..

ie it's an actual revocation of PR, not the rejection of re-entry permit extension...

Any thoughts?

[Splatted]

Probably if there are too much heat , they will take notice.Look at Aljunied GRC on the 2000 election, PAP nearly lost it because they wanted to relocate the Chinese Temple. The Priest wasn't happy ..opposition nearly won it until a compromise was found. Maybe just maybe.......

I don't think generating 'heat' for the government is the solution.

At the end of the day, this sort of thing has to be won through appealing to the intelligence, common sense, and fairness of the senior ministers. (eg letter writing)

[sundaymorningstaple]

Splatted, I think, depending on how fast they are willing to push it, it could mean revocation. At the moment, revocation is available but is normally only used when somebody is deemed to be undesirable or got their PR based on family ties and then went through a childless divorce. My guess is they will not renew the REP first to give them a chance to take up citizenship and if they don't then maybe revoke the PR. Of course when they do this they will be shooting themselves in the foot, internationally as people will think twice about coming over here long term to set up operations for their parent companies. They will also think twice about bring families over just so the government can jerk the rug out from under them as and when they feel like it. We had a RC meeting tonight and as a member of the RC, when they asked for feedback on government policies tonight, boy oh boy did they get an earful!

As far as renewing your REP early, I doubt that you can renew it more than 6 months before it's expiry. Anywho, the 10 year option is no longer available. They have also removed it from the REP renewal application form as well, so I think you are S.O.L. on that front.

Again, as I said, I cannot verify the comments as it's not been announced as cut and dried yet, but my source is also a card carrying member and has a very good relationship with a number of those people. I don't think it's been fully fleshed out as of yet though.

[ksl]

wrong thread! Old age, long hours, and dehydration, not allowed beer for another 6 weeks

[durain]

KL 3. to 3.5 hrs by Car, by air the same, with airport waiting and taxi to KL. If you can drive much better and cheaper than air ticket, and you drive at your own leisure. Airport taxi was over 100 Malaysian.
We stayed at the Dynasty which cost 160 Malaysian $ for a double room, for a family of 3. So I would look at car hire if you do not own one, or maybe there are minibus trips from Singapore. try a search!

ksl, you been drinking again?

[ksl]

KL 3. to 3.5 hrs by Car, by air the same, with airport waiting and taxi to KL. If you can drive much better and cheaper than air ticket, and you drive at your own leisure. Airport taxi was over 100 Malaysian.
We stayed at the Dynasty which cost 160 Malaysian $ for a double room, for a family of 3. So I would look at car hire if you do not own one, or maybe there are minibus trips from Singapore. try a search!

ksl, you been drinking again?

I wish! have to have another blood test first, maybe 6 weeks more Yesterday i was tasting all the free samples of delicios durian moon cake in Takishimya weighed myself when i got home and 1kg extra, too many moon cakes More miles to run now!

[curiousgeorge]

(URL CENSORED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES)

[sundaymorningstaple]

Looks like the URL censor got CG's link. http://tinyurl.com/25l3g6p More'n one way to skin a cat!

[carteki]

He had said on Monday: 'In the past, we could just give you permanent residence without taking up Singapore citizenship. Moving forward, we are going to approach some of them to take up Singapore citizenship. If they don't, then their PR will be not renewed. That's a better way.

Not sure that the outcome is going to be what they expected... It turns out that certain PRs are going to "singled out" for citizenship. Not sure that those people who are selected are going to be the same one's who actually want SG citizenship.

It just struck me - from the rumour mentioned above that the focus is going to be on men - the natural limiting factor in birth rates is the number of women, not men!