A dormitory in Serangoon Gardens ...

Are Singaporeans an ungrateful bunch of people or are they just pure insensitive? Let's just compare this two groups. When we say a foreigner, we tend to picture a person as an expatriate but when we mention a foreign laborer, the picture you see is always soiled shoes and lousy odor. Two contrasting worlds isn't it?

 

I am referring to the recent debate on whether or not a foreign workers' dormitory should appear in the housing estate at Serangoon Gardens.

 

It was mentioned in the papers that residents upon hearing such news quickly stepped up petitions and protested against the plan to house as many as a thousand foreign workers.

 

Why is there such a huge reaction from the public? I cannot really relate. It appears Singaporeans have this wrong perception that these foreign workers are dirty, rowdy and a huge threat to the people living in the area.

 

Let's think about it.

 

These workers pay a huge fee to leave the country in seek of better opportunities and many of them have families awaiting their return. All they want is a better life when they get home after a few years but Singaporeans see it differently.

 

Singaporeans tend to degrade this particular group of people who work really hard for their money. We have to remember it is them who build our homes, our schools, our roads and like every Singaporean, they also contribute to the growth of our society. Without them, who do you think is going to help make our country a better place? Do you think Singaporeans would do the job of laying bricks and working under the sun? I really doubt it.

 

Singaporeans feel that they are a threat to security but look who is a worst threat? Is it our long lost Singaporean terrorist Mas Selamat or the Bangladeshi worker painting the walls of your new home?

 

On the other hand, we have a group of foreigners who hold a white collar job. They often called expatriates. These groups of people usually do not need to pay high prices to come to Singapore but in turn they get paid higher salaries than any locals when working in Singapore. For this group, we respect them even though they take jobs from locals but to be frank, they do bring along experience with them and thus, they too contribute to our society positively.

 

But think again. Why are expatriates treated differently from our foreign laborers? They both work hard for their money. They are only worlds apart when it comes to living conditions and spending power so is that the reason why we look down on foreign laborers who sweat it out for us. Are Singaporeans really materialistic?

 

Instead of trying ways and means to ostracize these laborers, why not show that we appreciate their help in building Singapore. We as Singaporeans have been painting the wrong picture to the world, telling everyone how ungrateful Singaporeans are especially after the huge publicity we gathered when our table tennis association wanted to terminate the services of a returning coach that helped the nation win a silver medal during the Olympics. Not a good sign right?

 

So let these foreigner workers share our gardens just like we allow the expatriate community share our roads and stay together harmoniously as one. Frankly without either group, we wouldn't be the Singapore today. We'll be building our own homes, mixing our own cement and washing our own clothes.