A few days back, Ms. Anthea Ong, a nominated member of
parliament asked if the Singapore government would consider issuing an apology to
Singapore’s migrant worker population for the awful conditions that they were
housed in. The Minister of Manpower, Ms. Josephine Teo, replied that the
government saw no reason to do so and made the point that she never met a
migrant worker who demanded an apology. More details on the story can be found
at:
In fairness to the Minister, the migrant workers have not
demanded an apology from the government and some have even come out on social
media to express the gratitude to the government for taking care of them.
One might also argue that the government has also been
exceedingly generous in its support for the migrant workers who have been
affected by covid-19. Some of Singapore’s keyboard warriors have even gone as
far as to complain that the government is wasting resources on the workers.
However, the government, while generous in its support for
the migrant workers during the outbreak, it does owe them an apology, which will
never be provided for in words and one realistically will never expect to be
demonstrated in action.
The issue of housing for migrant workers is not new and thanks
to the efforts of NGOs like TWC2 and HOME, a problem the government was aware
of. While the current outbreak of Covid-19 in workers dormitories is the
largest outbreak in terms of scale, it is by no means the first time that a
migrant worker has died of disease due to unsatisfactory living conditions:
Furthermore, our previous Minister for Manpower, Mr. Tan Chuan
Jin, had personally led raids on foreign worker dormitories and found conditions
to be unsatisfactory. Our former minister made the point that just because the
conditions were better “than what they had back home,” the living conditions
were still unsatisfactory. Mr. Tan also made the point that while the workers
he spoke to did not complain about their employment conditions, he suspected
they did so because they were worried that they might get into trouble with
their employers. More on Mr. Tan’s efforts can be found at:
What was Mr. Tan’s job for taking an active role in
safeguarding our manpower resources? He went moved to the Social and Family
Development Ministry and then made Speaker of Parliament, which involved a
$500,000 pay cut and no more talk about Mr. Tan being a contender to lead the
government anytime in the future.
So, not only has the government been aware of the problem,
it actually had a minister who was actively trying to do something about it.
So, with the benefit of hindsight, one has to ask why Singapore, which is
obsessed with meritocracy would remove a minister who was actively trying to do
his job from contention for the top job?
I and I suspect many others, would argue that had Mr. Tan been
allowed to do his job, it would have resulted in a lot of pain for a lot of
businesses, thus damaging economic prospects. As the activist, Alex Au explains
below:
It would be a challenge to restructure a system that so many
people have a stake in and keeping foreign workers vulnerable is in the
interest of certain people as can be seen through:
So, can anything be done to change the system? With so many
parties interested in keeping the system as it is, it goes without saying that
radical change will be fought tooth and nail.
Another solution might be to enforce existing rules. As the
current Minister for Manpower, Ms. Josephine Teo admitted to Parliament:
Nobody expects the workers to demand an apology. The balance
of power between the workers and the employers is such that no worker will risk
the only means of paying off agent fees and feeding families back home.
Furthermore, it is unlikely for a government so used to being “right” to even
admit that mistakes were made (even if it may gain more public sympathy in
doing so).
What we should expect is that the existing rules are applied
and enforced. We are supposed to be society that claims to be ruled by laws and
so, we should be ruled by laws. We cannot have a system where half of all dormitory
operators flout licensing rules. When half of anything does something, it is no
longer a case of “a few bad eggs” but an accepted practice, which needs to be
changed. Let’s start with ensuring the rules are followed and apply to
everybody. Then, let’s move onto restructuring the system into something more sustainable.
Appeal Notice
It’s important to give a voice to the voiceless. As Covid-19
has shown us, it is in our interest to look after the less fortunate is in our
best interest.
However, while important, helping voice concern for the less
fortunate is financially challenging and in this regard, I’d be exceedingly
grateful for donations to allow me to keep voicing concern for the less
fortunate. Any donation, no matter how small is gratefully appreciated.
You may donate through paypal at: https://www.paypal.me/tanligotitdone
or by telegraphic transfer or internet banking to:
Name: Tang Li
Bank Account No. 065-1-000768
Bank Name – DBS Bank
Swift BIC Code – DBSSSGSG
Address – 12 Marine Boulevard, DBS Asia Central, Marina Bay
Financial Centre Tower 3, Singapore 108982
No comments
Post a Comment