THE TEMASEK REVIEW

OPINION

When PAP MP Halimah Yacob proposed introducing a citizenship test like some other countries for prospective new citizens, she was not cut down to size by a geriatrician MP for suggesting a “highfalutin” idea.

Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan described it as “quite sensible” and would study the feasibility of implementing it on the ground in the future.

The Straits Times then followed up with a series of articles to “sell” the idea to Singaporeans as a panacea for Singapore’s immigration woes.

A mock pre-citizenship test was even conducted among locals and foreigners to prove the point that Singaporeans do not know that much about their nation either.

Knowing that the Singapore media is completely under the control of the ruling party, one should take its proposals with a heavy grain of salt.

The proposal of a citizenship test is no more than a PR exercise to show Singaporeans that the government does listen to them and to divert attention from the crux of the issue: that its immigration policy, or rather experience has gone awfully wrong.

Singapore would not end up having this hot potato on its hands had the government not opened the floodgates indiscriminately to the tide of immigration a few years ago in an ambitious bid to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million.

Overnight, countless of immigrants find themselves Singapore “citizens”, some of whom do not speak a word of English or stay here for only a year or two.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng admitted that two out of three applicants for PRs are successful over the last few years which is extremely high among developed countries.

The criteria set for becoming a Singapore PR appears to be very lax as there are no mandatory period of residence unlike in other countries like Australia (2 out of 5 years) and United Kingdom (5 years).

It was revealed in the papers recently that China national and Singapore PR Zhang Yuanyuan who sparked a furore by proclaiming her allegiance to China on CCTV7, received her PR within 2 months of application after finishing her studies in a private institution in Singapore.

By harping constantly on the citizenship test, the media is cleverly switching the issue from the rate of immigration to the rate of integration of the new migrants in the hope that the public will forget the atrocious blunder made by the government.

A citizenship test will not reduce the inflow of foreigners so long the government does not introduce more stringent criteria to control the types of migrants allowed to take up Singapore citizenship.

Neither will it help to identify those who will better integrate in Singapore society because a motivated applicant can always read up about Singapore to prepare himself/herself for the test.

It will serve no useful purpose other as a psychological tool to lull Singaporeans into a sense of complacency and to appease them. The government’s current immigration policy still stands.

With elections around the corner, the ruling party is afraid that the immigration issue may cost them to lose some votes and hence the need to put up a charade to show that they understand the concerns of citizens.

Recent speeches made by senior leaders indicate that they are still committed to increase Singapore’s population via immigration and there will not be any radical changes made to the policy.

Singapore’s low fertility rate is unlikely to improve in the near future and immigration remains the easiest option to boost its flagging population for both economic and political reasons.

The key question we must ask is not whether the new citizens are able to integrate into Singapore society but if we are accepting too many of them in the first place.

If we impose stringent criteria on the prospective applicants such as mandating them to stay in Singapore for a number of years before they can apply for citizenship, then we will not have to deal with the problem of integration which arises because too many foreigners are allowed to become citizens when they have spent too little time here.

Foreigners who are keen to become Singapore citizens must learn to integrate into our society on their own instead of the government using taxpayers’ monies to help them integrate.

It is disingenuous of the Straits Times to promote the citizenship test as a panacea for Singapore’s immigration woes in order to deceive and mislead the public.

If the government had studied the policy carefully and thoroughly before implementing it in a haste, we will not end up with so many problems now with the locals feeling threatened by the newcomers who have not quite settled down in Singapore yet.

As the population of new citizens continue to increase, the divide between the two groups will be accentuated as the migrants will tend to mix among themselves in their own cliques rather than to reach out to the locals.

Social integration is a natural process which takes place slowly over the years. One do not become a naturalized Singaporean overnight in a few years by staying within one’s own community from China, India or other countries.

The government is making a serious mistake in thinking that integration can be managed and facilitated artificially by throwing money at it which is tantamount to making another mistake just to cover up the first.

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