On Singapore’s Election

Singapore’s general election will be held tomorrow, but what has that got to do with a Malaysian?

Plenty. Especially since the issues of the day are foreign talent and immigration. Malaysians, especially the ethnic Chinese, are by far the largest immigrant group in Singapore. Every Malaysian have family members or at least know someone who works in Singapore. And the reasons are obvious – it is close to home, not too culturally distant, and the pay is good. But most importantly, meritocracy is practiced (at least in a way better than the Malaysian version of “meritocracy” – but let’s not go there).

Personally, I root for PAP. As an outsider I would prefer the status quo to be maintained. The reason for this is that in the recent months or so, I have been hunting for jobs in Singapore only to decide it wasn’t time yet. Now I am slightly regretting it because it looks increasingly likely that people are going to vote for opposition. And even if PAP retains power, they are either going to have slightly less majority or they are going to learn a lesson and I am afraid they are going enforce tighter control on the inflow of workers and students. Looks like I have to be male gigolo in Geylang or fake a marriage with a local to get there.

But then, should the Singapore government tighten inflow of foreigners, then it negates Singapore’s pull factor in the first place. The main reason I looked to Singapore is not the money, and of course not the political climate, but because the concentration of talented and competent people. It is a city that has the what I called “New York effect”, at least in the region. It is all about efficiency. When people are concentrated – especially if it involves highly competent people/talented people, then the “sum is greater than the parts”. Location matters. A good example: a fashion designer based in New York is more likely to make it big than a designer based in say, KL. He gets to study with world-class designer teacher. He gets the best fabrics in the world. He gets inspiration from a melting pot city. He gets the attention of global press organizations and that includes international fashion magazines. His work gets the endorsement of international celebrities. Let’s just say, Jimmy Choo wouldn’t be Jimmy Choo if he didn’t leave Penang for London. Same goes to other accomplished Malaysians – they all make it elsewhere, and that is telling. So I need to leave to become who I want to be.

That said, I believed Singapore will continue to need people to sustain economic growth and counter low birth rate and I do believed that there are enough wisdom on the leadership to import foreigners while managing and finding solution to counter growing anti-immigrant sentiment and local economic woes. Discriminating based on nationality defeats everything that Singapore stands for. If it preaches meritocracy, then it should discriminate based on competency level.