Seeing Is Believing

Monday morning finds many a weary soul rubbing his bleary eyes as he prepares for another week of labour ahead to pay for the house, car and food on the table.

After a strong dose of  kopi-O, and trying to get the world more or less in focus, the byline by a Straits Times (ST) journalist that seems to read Spiderman turned out to be a Kimberly Spykerman.  The lady (presumably, although the name Vivian is used by a male minister) wrote that eye specialist Dr Marcus Ng, 37, drowned in a diving accident. Then mysteriously, the rest of the two column article refers to a Dr Lim.  And the minister says you can believe the stuff written in the ST.

In a longer, full page expose on Saturday, ST extolls the virtues of being a Singapore citizen, vis-a vis a permanent resident (PR).  If the school fees are anything to go by, the difference is not too much.  A citizen pays about $6,360 for a year in unversity, a mere %10 discount from the PR rate of $7,000. The reality is more expensive. Thanks to the number of places allocated to non-citizens, displaced born and bred Singaporeans have to resort to studying overseas universities for a basic degree. Any wonder why financially burdened parents have to skimp on Town Council charges?  The “health subsidies” (latter word has special definition in Singapore context) also see the same 10% differential, e.g.  C class ward (65-80% vs 55-70%), day surgery (65% vs 55%), specialist outpatient clinic charges (50% vs 40%). Finally, if our eyes are still not playing tricks, we can clearly see the printed price for going thorugh national service and paying a lifetime of taxes. Exercise your  eyes further on these numbers:  In 1990, there was one PR for every 23 citizens, but in 2000 this narrowed down to one PR for every 10 citizens. This year, there is one PR for every 6 citizens.

 The writer of the article (“From Cradle to Sickbed: Distinctions between citizens and PRs”) goes on to claim that the Singapore citizen has the right to vote, and visit 150 countries without a visa on your Little Red Passport.  All those who actually received ballot papers during the last 3 elections, please raise your hands.  Look again, many of the PRs are allowed to hold two passports, and have a choice of domicile if things get really out of focus.  Like the first Ford cars that rolled off the asssembly lines, Singaporeans can have any colour they want, except only one choice is available.