Please give PRs a break!

Extracted from The Straits Times 06 Sep 2008

I have lived in Singapore for four years, working in a restructured hospital. I got my permanent residence(PR) status only after living here for eight months. I am bonded to the hospital for six years because it sponsored my education to be a radiographer in Australia, and for this I am grateful to employer. I got married in Australia at the end of my studies, and my husband and I moved to Singapore. Soon we started a family. My daugther is now nearly there. All there of us are Australia, and I am Malaysian.

Nearly half my colleagues are also PRs or work permit holders, or "Foreigners" for short. I guess my colleagues and I are "Foreign Workers" because we don't live in a condo and earn a five-digit salary. Those who do are called "Expatriates".

The purpose of this letter is to remind Singa-reans that middle-class "Foreign Workers" exist in this country. We are your nurses, bank executives, IT professionals and so on. We pay taxes, contributing CPF, and send our children to childcare. And when our male children turn 18, they are liable for national service.

So why are we always left out? We are not allowed to buy HDB flats because Singa-reans think we can afford condominium. Now some even say we shouldn't be allowed to buy resale flats because property prices are turning to be so high, due to PRs "wildfully" buying. So the rest of us have to rent HDB flats. Then you cut medical subsidies at polyclinics because citizens (Singa-reans) think that it is unfair that we get the same benefit as them. And from next year, there will be no childcare subsidies for PRs because citizens think that we shouldn't enjoy such benefits.

So why did I became a PR? I am thinking of staying in Singapore permanently. We feel more comfortable in an Asian country and Singapore has a lot to offer. But being from another country will always be a stigma. Most of us choose not to become citizens because we still have family in our home country and we still want to visit them regularly. We came to Singapore seeking a better life. We have a home here but we need to be reminded of our roots.

So Why are we penalised? Now that the childcare subsidy has been doubled, can't PRs get at least half the amount? We should be entitled to at least half the benefits a citizen gets. In Britain and Australia, PRs enjoy the same benefits as citizens, except the right of vote. If the Government doesn't want to hand out freebies to so many PRs, tighten the requirements to become a PR.