“They (PAP) run Singapore like a company. They bring people from all over to come here and do our jobs,” said one of the many taxi drivers who act as a barometer of sorts, relaying to baffled foreigners the subterranean discontent of the local community in a country that has had its long traditions of political protest deadened by decades of PAP rule.
The driver’s disgruntled suspicion of foreign labor might seem misplaced in an economy with such low unemployment, but his misgivings are not entirely out of sync with recent developments. In 2011, of the 122,600 jobs created last year, more than two thirds, or 84,800 positions, were taken by foreign professionals, according to data from the government itself. Singapore already has a non-resident population of 1.46 million, and almost 40% of the island’s total population were born abroad. Although no serious analyst of Singapore’s political situation expects the ruling party to fall from power anytime soon, it is taken for granted among the generation populace that its share of the vote will decline even further in the next general election. Full story
