When Singaporeans are unemployed but foreigners have jobs: “It’s not xenophobia”

Singapore — Opposition Peoples Voice leader Lim Tean, commenting on Facebook on the issue of foreigners being employed when there were Singaporeans who were jobless, has cited a human resource expert as saying that the unbalanced ratio should not be tagged as xenophobia but betrayal.

Mr Lim has been highlighting the issue of foreigners being given jobs instead of locals. He shared a post, dated Saturday (Aug 15), by a certain Mr Martin Gabriel who appears to have studied human resources and international business at the University of Tasmania.

Mr Gabriel had said: “The government should try and understand the plight of the unemployed Singaporeans instead of labelling them as xenophobic.”

On Sunday (Aug 16), Mr Lim uploaded a post showing the senior management team of Temasek with the caption: “Do Singaporean PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) have any hope when Temasek is managed by 48 per cent of foreigners?” Of the 29 executives on the list, 14 were identified as foreigners.

Mr Lim said that “wanting Singaporeans in good-paying jobs is not racism or xenophobic, it’s patriotism”. He added that there were well-qualified Singaporeans perfectly capable of handling jobs being given to foreign PMETs.

“They are being reduced to delivering food, driving taxis or Grab to eke out a living for themselves and their families. Imagine the damage to their psyche and their dignity as each day passes and their hopes of re-entering the workforce dims,” said Mr Lim.

His comments were in response to Temasek calling recent Facebook posts targeting its Indian employees as “racist”, “false” and “divisive”.

Temasek stood by its hiring policies and called for more civility on social media, according to a report in straitstimes.com on Sunday (Aug 16). The company also disclosed that 90 per cent of its 600 staff members located at the Singapore headquarters are Singaporeans or permanent residents. The same ratio applies for its senior management team. On an international scale, Temasek hires a mix of employees, although 60 per cent are Singaporean, 10 per cent of whom are Singapore PRs.

As the company continues to provide employment opportunities for its Singaporean workers, it emphasised it would “be foolish of us not to tap the global pool of talent. There is not only value in diversity, but the cross-fertilisation of experiences and ideas across geographies, and the ability to connect the diverse dots, has become one of our key strengths”. /TISG

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