If you want to go into banks IT Dept today which are controlled by FT Indians-- unless pig sprout wings.
Subject: A step in the right direction: discriminatory practices against Singaporeans
To:
[email protected]
Cc:
[email protected]
Dear Mr. Minister:
I just read the article entitled ‘Don’t hire, promote own kind at expense of S’poreans‘. I cannot begin to say just how thrilled I am to see that the government is FINALLY stepping up to the plate in trying to curb this problem. I have been ranting and raving about this issue ever since I joined the workforce in 2004. I have worked at Hewlett Packard and Frost & Sullivan in Singapore, and both these companies are unabashedly guilty of such hiring practices.
I was a Director at Frost & Sullivan (Singapore) Pte Ltd. and I am well aware of our internal slant towards hiring MBAs from India. There was one time when we made 12 offers in one fell swoop to SP Jain (Singapore campus) and IIM MBA graduates. NOT A SINGLE Singaporean was offered a position. It wasn’t for lack of qualified Singaporean candidates either. Even our campus recruitment was geared towards hiring from Indian universities, instead of NUS, SMU and NTU. Cost was not the factor. We offered many of these graduates between SGD6,000 to SGD10,000 a month.
I can’t help but recall a situation of such irony that to this day, it pains me to have had experienced it at all. At Frost & Sullivan, one of our largest client sectors was the Government sector in Singapore. We brought in well over USD2 million a year in consulting engagements from the Government sector alone – both stat boards and ministries. When we staffed our projects, we would be lucky if we had even 20% of Singaporeans being utilized in the project team.
The entire management team at Frost & Sullivan are foreigners (with the exception of one). We have also helped many of our foreign hires to become Singaporean citizens during the period of their employment. While I am not against using foreign talent, the unfortunate reality is that many of these decently paying positions could have very easily been filled by Singaporeans.
Having done Manpower planning studies for two stat boards in Singapore, the facts and figures are quite startling, to say the least.
During my tenure at Hewlett Packard, I was on several government IT projects. Over 90% of my 100+ person team were foreigners. Like many other companies, how HP cleverly circumvented being “obvious” was to use “contractors”. Our contract was with the employment agencies who, in turn hire almost only foreigners. Hence, the headcount was never really seen. Of the 100+ person who was staffed on this one particular government IT engagement, less than 10% were full-time employees hired directly by HP.
In addition to my own personal experience, I know with absolute certainty that many of my close non-Singaporean friends who head up IT divisions within the banking sector have similar preferences of hiring foreigners over Singaporeans. While I cannot condone such practices, the system makes it far too easy for this to happen. They claim that it is better to hire foreigners because these foreign workers are more than likely to stay as almost all of them want to ultimately obtain Singapore citizenship.
Rather than formulating workable incentives to keep Singaporeans at their jobs, management takes the easy way out. Is this how a country takes care of its own?
As citizens, we give our country two and a half years of our life by going through national service. In that time, our foreign compatriots gain experience in the work force and we, as loyal citizens are penalized. Where is the logic behind this? I strongly believe that our government has a primary and inalienable duty and dedication to its citizens.
The vicious cycle is well engrained in every level of employment. Senior Management positions are given to foreign nationals. They then are inclined to hire their own kind, cutting people like myself completely out in the cold with no options but to seek higher-salaried employment elsewhere.
I am now a foreigner working in China because of the simple fact that many of the high-paying jobs in Singapore have been taken by my foreign friends. I would return to Singapore in a heartbeat if I could make the same sort of salary as I do here.
I have never felt more slighted being a Singaporean than I have during my career in Singapore.
Warmest Regards,
xxxxx
