Singapore's dangerous immigration policies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the one party Singapore island state's headlong rush to first world status, it may have caused serious damage to it's very survival. One such misguided policy is to expand the economy at lighting speed through the use, primarily of Chinese national immigrants. In the long run, this Chinesezation of the island will upset the entire South East Asian region's equilibrium and creates the real possibility of tension and disharmony within the region.

Today, by all reckoning, Singapore has about 74% people of ethnic Chinese descent. As a result of the plummeting birth rate among native Singaporeans, hardly 2 million of them can be considered native born, with them and their parents both born in Singapore. An ever increasing part of this ethnic Chinese population of the island are recent arrivals from Communist China.

A portion of this Chinese population are also comprised of Malaysian Chinese who have decided to immigrate to Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. A much smaller minority today, about 12% are native born Malays whose numbers are fast declining and not being replaced. An even smaller minority are the Singapore born Indians who are a mere 8%. Their numbers too are declining into extinction.

With an indiscriminate and rapid increase of businesses being created to boost the GDP so as to be seen as a an even wealthier city state, the government has decided to bring in ever increasing numbers of immigrants. The question is, immigrants from where?

It is very clear that Lee Kuan Yew's best choice of immigrants are Chinese from China. Although he hasn't said why it must be quite obvious from his statements. He admires the Chinese culture and heritage, the Ming Dynasty and the glorious past of China and I suppose he believes that these Chinese arrivals in Singapore in sufficient numbers would repeat that glorious imperial past.

With Singapore's declining native born population Chinese population, which is already tiny, this would mean even more Chinese from China who in the end will populate the entire island to make it almost entirely Chinese.

This would also mean that their main connection outside is with Communist China, with increasing trade business and transactions with China alone. The busiest air route will be the Singapore Beijing run, not the Singapore London run. There will be Chinese signboards, Chinese music and Chinese language spoken everywhere and anytime.

Mandarin pop stars will fly regularly for shows in the island and very soon we would be more familiar with the latest Chinese idols in China, not the American idol anymore.

It is also very possible that the business language of the island today being English would be very quickly replaced by Mandarin. In the end China would be able to have a serious effect on both domestic and foreign relations of the island resulting in Singapore being another satellite outpost region of China as Hong Kong or Tibet is today.

Can you imagine how this will affect Malaysia and Indonesia, both Malay Muslim countries to have a proxy China island which takes orders from China in their everyday business. It will undoubtedly increase the hostility which is already there today to a much greater level. And this large Communist Chinese population in the island will put off even the tiny native Singapore Chinese sector and alienate even the Malaysian Chinese who have become Singapore citizens. It may well cause them to leave island too, by which time all the Indians and Malays would have been long gone.

A Chinese satellite island of Communist China, miles away from Mainland China in the middle of Muslim South East Asia and taking orders from Beijing is not something Muslim Malaysia or Muslim Indonesia will tolerate.

In the misguided immigration policy of going exclusively for Chinese immigrants from mainland China, and the equally misguided policy of expanding the economy at any cost, I am afraid they are heading into troubled waters. And with Singapore's native born population as low as 2 million and falling, the dire prospect of transforming Singapore entirely into China and a real confrontation with both Indonesia and Malaysia cannot be ruled out.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com