Snobbish and selfish?

Source : Straits Times - 13 Sep 2008

I REFER to Wednesday’s letter by Mr Yeo Oon Chye, ‘It’s about safety and security, not about power, pride and prejudice’. No attempt has been made to find solutions to the perceived safety and security issues, but many requests have been made to house the foreign workers elsewhere. This shows an underlying disturbing snobbish attitude. Or perhaps it is not just about snobbish attitudes or safety or security, but fear that property prices in Serangoon Gardens area would fall as a result.

It is ironic that we accept foreigners in our neighbourhood who are highly educated and whom we call ‘expatriates’, but reject foreigners who perform manual work in construction sites, shipyards and factories, whom we call ‘foreign workers’. Many of these workers have families and loved ones at home. That they chose the sacrifice to leave these behind and eke out a tough overseas deserves nothing but our respect and admiration. How many of us who complain about our meagre salary here would do the same?

If security is a concern, measures can be put in place to address this, such as more police patrols, more neighbourhood police posts, foreign workers appointing their own watch wardens and so on. If littering is a problem, educate foreign workers and enforce anti-littering measures more strictly. If traffic is a problem, make security personnel from the dormitory traffic wardens to direct and regulate traffic in the mornings and evenings or improve the road infrastructure.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) must not relent in its efforts to find decent housing for foreign workers wherever it is practical and economical to do so. If it agrees with Serangoon Gardens residents that, for whatever reasons, it would set a dangerous precedent that could create a potentially social-divisive problem, can residents in the heartland now protest against foreign dormitories in their neighbourhood? Why should foreign dormitories be sited only in the heartland but not in private estates?

The Serangoon Gardens episode has generated so much public interest that any decision taken by MND to house foreign workers elsewhere could send the wrong message that it agrees with the views and prejudices of residents.

To ease the transition for Serangoon Gardens residents, MND could perhaps house only a manageable number of workers at the start and gradually increase this number, so residents and workers have time to adapt, and improvements can be made to the surrounding infrastructure and amenities. It would be worthwhile if the neighbourhood residents’ committees threw a party and organised activities for representatives of the foreign workers to welcome them to the neighbourhood. If the foreign workers feel accepted and that they belong to the neighbourhood, they are less likely to litter carelessly or commit crime.

Lim Fang Chek