THE letter ''Why the civil service needs expats'' (Sunday Morning Post, April 4) certainly hit several crucial nails on the head, but I am not so sure the headline reflected the points made in it. The use of English as the de facto only working language in Government is, frankly speaking, the main reason why the expats are needed. The locals, with few exceptions, are so inept in the use of this working language that they could not begin to make themselves effectual in the work, where it matters, let alone compete with the expats. Whether because of the working language used, expat civil servants tend to only deal with expats in the private sector, and vice versa. The result is that the locals could not make themselves useful even if they possessed as good a standard of English; the expats, on the contrary, make themselves indispensable. NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
