Singapore Democrats
SDP Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan says that Singapore needs alternative democratic leadership to avert a disaster brought about by the PAP’s immigration policy. Full text of speech below. $CUT$
Fellow Singaporeans,
The Prime Minister’s National Dayspeech, while rich in style offers little in substance. The PM has,perhaps not surprisingly, failed to address in a meaningful way thepressing concern that Singaporeans have which is the immigrationpolicy.
The flooding of our country withforeigners has given rise to serious consequences for our societywhich the people want addressed.
Yet, Mr Lee Hsien Loong stays silent onthis point, choosing instead to harp on anti-foreigner onlinecomments by Singaporeans. The Prime Minister just doesn’t get it.
He doesn’t get it that the influx offoreigners have caused our wages to fall especially for those in thelower income brackets and the cost of living to rise.
He doesn’t get it that foreigners arecompeting with our children for places in schools and entrance intoour universities.
He doesn’t get it that foreigners aredriving up HDB prices to insane levels that Singaporeans cannotafford and that such prices have created a bubble that when burstwill cause havoc to our economy.
He doesn’t get it that it is theGovernment’s abject mismanagement of the immigration policy that hasproduced an opposite and equal reaction from Singaporeans.
He doesn’t get it that people are angrybecause Lee Kuan Yew threatens that if Singaporeans don’t procreate,the Government will replace us with foreigners. He places the blameon the falling birthrate on the people without so much as to examinethe PAP’s policies that have driven Singaporeans to put off startingfamilies and have more children.
Singaporeans are a tolerant people.We’ve always been that way. We recognise that the majority of us aredescendants of immigrants. We welcome and accept foreign peoplesliving among us and working in our country.
But no people in this world will accepta government that imports foreigners with the view of replacinglocals and make them a minority in their own country.
Maybe, Mr Lee understands all this. Heand his ministers cannot be that blind. It cannot be that they don’tunderstand the hardships that their immigration policy have broughton the people. But they’re going ahead with it because the move willenlarge the tax base and bring in cheap labour for GLCs, and thesewill mean greater revenue for the government which will, in turn,translate into higher salaries for the ministers.
Make no mistake, the PAP is conductinga dangerous experiment of trying to create a global city by replacing Singaporeans with foreigners.
If the experiment succeeds, thenSingapore, as we know it, will be no more. We will be an islandcollection of various enclaves of Chinese, Indians, Filipinos,Malaysians, Vietnamese, etc.
Singaporeans will form just a minorityof what will look like an organisation with competing interests andnationalities rather than a nation and a home for Singaporeans. Gonewill be the Singapore that we grew up with and have known all ourlives – the comfortable familiarity of Singlish, the quaint mix ofthe various Chinese dialects, the cultural heritage of our Malayhistory and the rich contribution of our Indian and Eurasian brothersand sisters.
But if the experiment fails, we willhave a failed nation-state on our hands and it is us Singaporeans whowill be left to hold the baby. PAP Ministers, having made theirmillions, will be little affected by the upheaval.
The people are aghast and dead worriedat seeing what is happening to our home. Our fathers and sons, ourhusbands and brothers put ourselves in harms way by performingNational Service to defend this country which we now see being soldto the highest bidder.
Talk is cheap. The people are tired ofempty words and promises. We are tired of being lecture to and talkedat. While the the Prime Minister makes a good show of wanting toengage the people in a National Conversation, it continues with itsdraconian immigration policy and its ham-fisted, autocratic ways.
No, the people want action – clear,decisive action from the Government to stop and reverse theimmigration process. Anything less is unacceptable.
But how do we ensure that ourpopulation increases? We have alternatives. If only the PAP willlisten. Listen to the people, listen to the alternatives of theSingapore Democratic Party. We have what it takes to tackle theproblem. But it cannot be solved if the PAP listens only to its ownvoice.
The people want transparency andaccountability, and the only way that we can get that is for the PAPto stop its control of the print and broadcast media, to stopcensoring views and the alternative policies of the SDP.
The people want to reform the electionsystem. We want fair and free elections, where by-elections, be theyin an SMC or GRC, are not the privilege of the Prime Minister to callbut a right of the people to demand.
We want the Public Order Act abolishedand our rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and speech restored.
We demand these because we are thecitizens of this Republic of Singapore and we will not be treatedotherwise by this or any other Government.
The present strategy of replacing localSingaporeans must stop. And the only way for Singaporeans to do thisis to work for change – democratic change, so that an alternativepolitical leadership can rise and take our nation into a better andmore secure tomorrow, a tomorrow that belongs to us Singaporeans.
The people are looking for analternative. They want leadership. They seek democracy.Unfortunately, they are not going to get these from the PAP. The PM’sNational Day Rally speech has made this abundantly clear.
This is where the SDP comes in. Westand ready to serve.