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SCMP Series
Top 10 most-read Letters to the Editor 2020
4 of 10
1
China’s coronavirus numbers just don’t seem to add up
A worker walks among beds in a convention centre that has been converted into a temporary hospital in Wuhan, Hubei, on February 4. Photo: AP
2
What is China not telling us about the novel coronavirus?
A woman walks past statues wearing face masks, as the snow falls in Beijing on February 5. Photo: AP
3
Singapore deserves to be blamed for failing migrant workers
Migrant workers wear masks while queuing at a meal distribution point in the Little India district of Singapore on May 6. Photo: EPA-EFE
4
Could Singapore offer migrant workers a path to citizenship?
Migrant workers wait in line at a meal distribution point in the Little India district of Singapore, on May 6. A majority of Singapore’s Covid-19 cases are from the foreign worker community, who live in crowded dormitories. Photo: EPA-EFE
5
Does Chinese arrogance make some people turn against them?
Chinese tourists take souvenir photos with the national flag on Quanfu, one of the Paracel Islands, in Sansha prefecture of Hainan province in the South China Sea, in September 2014. Photo: AP
6
What I know about Lee Suet Fern
Lee Suet Fern (far left) and other family members of the late Lee Kuan Yew arrive with his portrait at the start of the state funeral at the University Cultural Centre in Singapore on March 29, 2015. Photo: AP
7
Singapore is now home, but Hong Kong is where the heart is
The people of Hong Kong left an indelible mark with their silent, stoic belief in doing the right thing the right way. Photo: Winson Wong
8
Three ways for China to win back the world’s trust
A security officer walks past a display at the PT Expo in Beijing last October. Photo: AP
9
Lee Kuan Yew was proof autocratic government can be good
Founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew addresses delegates at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore in August 2004. Lee was autocratic but revered as a statesman and nation builder. Photo: AFP
10
Cathay fate shows how Hong Kong is now toxic for businesses
Hong Kong’s popular tourist and shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui on October 17. Photo: AFP
Migrant workers wait in line at a meal distribution point in the Little India district of Singapore, on May 6. A majority of Singapore’s Covid-19 cases are from the foreign worker community, who live in crowded dormitories. Photo: EPA-EFE
OpinionLetters

Letters | Coronavirus lessons: Singapore loses if it separates ‘community’ from migrant workers

  • The Covid-19 outbreak in migrant dorms should prompt a reassessment of the mindset that separates such workers from the rest of the population
  • A post-pandemic Singapore needs not just economic restructuring but social changes starting from hearts and minds
Singapore
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Last month, Singapore’s sudden surge in Covid-19 cases made headlines around the world. Such an uptick in a country so well known for its social order has been met with some surprise internationally.
The government has been forced to use circuit breaker measures to contain the coronavirus. For an economy so open to the world, the costs of a partial lockdown are proving hard to sustain. Many are experiencing this extent of disruption to simple activities for the first time. A post-pandemic Singapore needs not just economic restructuring but readjustments at the community level, which means social changes starting from our hearts and minds.
Migrant workers are part of the Singapore community. Separating the two means dividing our interests, which is proving to be impossible physically, economically and socially.

Singapore runs on migrant labour to perform its most basic but back-breaking work in high-risk sectors. Many are migrants of need, not of want.

Migrant workers are not in occupations of their choosing. They show remarkable resilience in the face of the huge mismatch between their jobs and skills, given that some are university graduates back home.

01:19

The overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of some of the dormitories they live in have surfaced as the weakest link in Singapore’s otherwise gold-standard Covid-19 response. Alongside infrastructural improvements for their accommodation, societal mindsets must also change with the times.

Post-pandemic Singapore must undertake industrial restructuring of “immigrant sectors” to lessen reliance on imported labour. For all we know, we might be missing out on opportunities to have fair competition between skill holders in immigrant-heavy sectors that have proven irreplaceable, such as those involving care work and nursing.

What about extending settlement options to work permit holders, as unthinkable as this suggestion might seem? Cosmopolitan Singapore prides itself on equality based on a system of meritocracy. Rather than a blanket ban on citizenship and permanent residency pathways, is there room to readjust the current work permit regime to allow for that possibility? Otherwise we might be losing out on local productivity in essential areas.

Lynn Ng Yu Ling, Singapore

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