PRCs here under stress react would react as they were conditioned to do back in China. It cannot be helped as this is part and parcel of what defines human behavior. So what should we do?
In an earlier post I suggested speak softly but carry a big stick. That was a desperate measure. We can wished that the government were wiser not to let in so many so quickly but that is academic, water under the bridge. We have to cope with the situation now.
The government created the problem, don't expect us to solve it. What we can do is not make it hard for the government to remedy it. Get PA to quietly orientate the PRCs to our ways. This is one of the best ways to leverage our grassroots organizations. We would still need the Big Stick and hope that its use would be sparing.
Meanwhile we must throttle the inflow of PRCs. If we need more foreigners we should give priority to the Malaysians, Hong Kongers and Taiwanese. We are just socially unable to cope. Economic growth at all cost is foolish, like driving a car with no seat belts and brakes.
We fear being overtaken in the economic competition but did this government never consider that their fix could be worse than the problem? The great loss is political capital in the currency of Trust. I don't know how they are going to recapitalize. We have huge reserves but we have paid too much for them if the price is a divided society.
While the government was able to whip a couple of million Singaporeans into obedience, I have limitless faith the current government has the political will and acumen to do the same to the few hundred thousand PRCs here.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's what PA was set up to do. PA was set up to help grassroots advisors do their work.
ReplyDeleteI think, one must contend with the links these hundred thousand PRCs have back in the motherland.
ReplyDeleteI can foresee that the criminal elements among them or those who eventually get involved in criminal/unlawful enterprises would get their idea, supports and backing from these links. This is human nature and quite frankly looking at the sort of news consistently coming out of China about what some of them are capable of doing to their own countrymen back home (latest: mercury in baby formula), doing something to outsiders like Singaporeans is not beyond comprehension.
Statistically speaking with more than a billion population, the criminal elements or people with the propensity to do bad is mind boggling, even if they account for only 1% of the population. That's 10 million isn't it? So the chances are 'pretty' good for them to descend on this little red dot to make their fortunes at our expense. I recall in the early days when Hong Kong was returned to China, Chinese criminal were robbing HK banks armed with AK47s! There was this video clip of them brandishing their AKs taken by someone from the roof. Scary indeed. Could the same happen here? White collar crimes would not be a surprise.