The good guys of course, are the stayers. Or fighters, whatever cool name you want to call it.
Reading the comments from the unpopular post I wrote one night before bedtime months ago, you would have noticed people took the effort and spent a minute or two to screw a stranger's backside just because he works in Australia now instead of Singapore. Nothing pertaining to the post nor the fact he still holds a Singapore passport like any one of them.
As long as you are not with us, you are against us.
With countrymen like that, who needs imaginary enemies up north and south to keep us doeful, continue letting our sons commit to ICTs and let our jobs be taken away from foreigners? The very reason why the government continues to reign supreme, push undesirable policies despite the annoyance of Singaporeans and need not account for them when these policies fail. The very reason why the opposition parties tried but failed to gain a foothold in parliament each time.
Disunity. And the opposition parties are still fighting one another, inciting unhappiness towards the incumbent where the key is uniting themselves and then Singaporeans.
I am still a Singaporean. I love my countrymen and I am loyal to my country. The fact I dislike the PAP does not change that. The government is not the country and the country is not the government. Indeed, Most of us still don't realise that or don't see the point to.
Indeed, we don't have the time for these crap and understandably so. The societal rules has left us so hungry that survival is always the first priority. So much so that we claw each other for a pat or a biscuit. There is no love between countrymen. There is no brotherhood. It's a dog eats dog world in Singapore.
Never forget these:
"Mine is a very matter-of-fact approach to the problem. If you can select a population and they're educated and they're properly brought up, then you don't have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It's like with dogs. You train it in a proper way from small. It will know that it's got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts." - Lee Kuan Yew, 1997
"If native Singaporeans are falling behind because "the spurs are not stuck into the hide," that is their problem. - Lee Kuan Yew, 2010
We are all dogs whether or not you like it. Some self righteous 'fighers' would fail to see. Some dogs live in their own dreamland. The quitters are stray dogs driven out or escaped from the pound to feed on scraps and survive the weather somewhere out there on their own. The rest continues to live in their small but clean little sheltered kennels acting on commands for little treats. "Sit!" "Stay!"
We are all the same, just dogs.
Don't estrange the strays. We should be hunting in packs like wolves. We are Singaporeans, we are brothers and sisters.
Good on you bro! Anyway, look towards the future and don't look back. There will always be people saying things about us folks working overseas. Let it be! As long as you have a clear conscience and is happy, who gives a crap about those comments? ;)
ReplyDeleteJeff Lim
@Jeff: thanks for dropping a comment. if you are familiar with dogs, you'll notice whenever a mangled stray dog passes by a house with a beautiful pet dog, the pet dog will bellow at the stray.
ReplyDeleteand the stray will simply walk on, oblivious.
i like the concept of your blog. don't stop writing leh
Everyone's fighting for their own survival. Even Goh goh, LKY or his son LHL.
ReplyDeleteEnd of the day, we must be clear: Singapore is an upstart nation who has proven herself to be an economy. Australia is a WELL-ESTABLISHED sovereignty dating far back beyond WWII.
It is very sad, when I read through the comments on your famous post, one of the posters have actually singled out OZ tax as too high for Singaporean's taste. I studied aussie tax, and I am extremely amazed by their list of tax rebates and indigenous tax rulings from ATO. Unlike IRAS, ATO did a much fair job ensuring the country's coffers are filled while ensuring a fair taxation for all its taxpayers.
It seems most Singaporeans are extremely narrow minded and locked within the concept of "money". If I were the Prime Minister of this country, I could easily scare and manipulate everybody to do my bidding.
Please keep writing! Your posts are very interesting...!
@Ellis: "If I were the Prime Minister of this country, I could easily scare and manipulate everybody to do my bidding." - So could I :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I appreciate it very much. Are you an external auditor? My wife was one in her entire Singapore career, too.
Yea man. How's the audit industry in Perth? I suggest your wife study the Australian CA to rejoin auditing in Perth bah.
ReplyDeleteIf the course fees are not worthwhile at this stage... (which I assumed so at this point in time) you can ask her to at least read up on the CA requirements. I believe the audit firms over there will sponsor their employees for CA courses. All your wife has to do is to impressive the audit partners..
ReplyDeleteI'm going for CPA as well as CA. For me everyday is an effort towards Australia (so long as I'm in audit) due to the fact that I'm a CPA associate.
I'll make sure RATS dun apply to me when I am making my real move to OZ in a couple of years time.
:)
@ellis: my wife has completed her cpa australia. Dun think she is going for ca.
ReplyDeleteThe auditing field here is much smaller. Most of them are in tax. Im sure you may be aware. At least that's what i know. So it may be harder to get into audit.
Yeah... tax agents can really earn good $$$... esp in the past..
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Perth or OZ wide?
Thats why its important to enter the country with some experience.
See how it goes bah, I'll keep trying.
@Ellis: I believe it is OZ wide but you can always check with your peers. Tax accounting is a big thing here because the system is so complicated. That created the market for these positions.
ReplyDeleteYou'll definitely enter Australia with experience. Applying offshore and not immediately after you graduate from an Australia uni, you wouldn't be able to get a PR visa if you do not have working experience.
I'm not sure how well audit experience in Singapore is accepted. My wife has probably 4 years of it in Big4 environment. We'll see how hard or easy is it for her when she starts looking for job in future.
If you guys are PR it's not too hard to land yourself in OZ Big four (I believe she is senior already right) so long as she has the same attitude to "suffer".
ReplyDeleteAll this.. gotta wait til she delivers bah...
Pls pls keep this blog operating even then LOL.
Your info that you share might be crucial :)
Just a flash of insight..
ReplyDeleteYou are prolly the best gift for your wife bring her to Perth... after 4 years of Hell in big four.
:)
@Ellis: She was an asst mgr. Guess she can't take it anymore and chose to leave with me.
ReplyDeleteIm not sure if she wants to work after giving birth. Will check with her.
I don't know about the quitters part but for me, those who would want to leave their comfort zone with a dream for the better of their family are fighter, not quitter. I would rather die fighting than die struggling.
ReplyDelete@Thomas: Yes, i did this for the future of my family too. Im not fulfilling my own fantasies, though I do admit it really feel less choking here with less people and more free space.
ReplyDelete@asingaporeanson: Yes, and I'm really looking forward to my stay in Melbourne next month :) I have been in China for the past six months, so anywhere will be better than China.
ReplyDelete@Thomas: There seemed to be lotsa ppl from Melbourne. Even at this blog i've encountered a few. You won't be lonely there i'm sure.
ReplyDeleteWow, LKY also called Singaporeans "dogs". No wonder the PRC scholar Sun Zu also criticized Singaporeans in the same way.
ReplyDeletenot too late to know..
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