Friday, September 12, 2014

ICA's Hot Potato

Some pictures are really worth a thousand words. The body language of each player could have such a rich story to tell: the immigrant made good (trying hard anyway), the sneering driver going about his job (having lost the last better paying one to a foreign talent), the lawyer pondering if justice is really blind (after blowing his parents' savings for an overseas degree). There's enough material on the canvas for Tan Pin Pin to craft another award winner, albeit one that will not undermine the security of the nation. If the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) says okay, it must be okay.

The hot potato has landed on ICA's lap. The story of yin and yang (yīn 陰 or 阴 "shady side" and yáng 陽 or 阳 "sunny side"), hard steel of greed preying on the soft heart of an old woman. What's on the lips of everyone is how a tour guide from China was granted an employment pass. The ICA website says any foreigner interested to work and has a job offer in Singapore may apply for an Employment Pass. The applicant will need to earn at least $3,300 and possess acceptable qualifications.

The guy first came in on a 4-week holiday in 2009. He was employed by a company set up in his own name and that of the retired physiotherapist. As a director of Young Music and Dance Studio, he may have been free to set his own compensation package, an unfettered practice indulged in by some politicians. Although the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI) has challenged the claim of directorship, ICA may have considered other acceptable qualifications. Photographic images of Kodak moments with key political figures may have carried the weight of an imprimatur. A letter of support from a standing member of parliament may have sealed the deal. Which could add up to explain the accelerated award of Permanent Residence status by 2011.

Recall in 2009, ICA was having a whale of a time, issuing entry papers like it was going out of style. The auntie hawking alcoholic beverages at kopi-tiams island wide lost their jobs to more lithe versions from the Middle Kingdom. The PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) will have their own taste of the bitter concoction a few years later. Not content with their place in our land of opportunity, some imported talents stalked senior citizens, targeting a soft spot with their sob stories of hardship back home.

While clearing the personal effects of a relative who passed away recently, we came across an entry in his notebook. He was a thrifty person who always saved for a rainy day, and actually had some money to leave behind for siblings. But not before some China crow got to him first. "Damn China girl," he wrote, "cheated me of $8,000."

16 comments:

  1. So there shouldn't be an employment pass to begin with or either there is some element of fraud to cheat ICA since there is a dance school but no students?

    Whichever it is, there is still the good relations with a PAP MP to fall upon ? Otherwise what the hell anyone want to be be grassroots activist some more only a PR?

    Just wondering why & what the hell is a PR involved in our domestic local politics when he can't even vote in any election?

    That may probably explain

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  2. Are the Rulers surprised to find that many Sinkies are born detectives?
    And they are very aware of all the doings and going on despite being daft.
    But,
    will change take place at the Next
    General Election?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your relative wasn't the only one cheated by FT, today's ST ran a small passage on how some professors at NUS medical school appointed an Indian national to be a professor without checking his forged certificates. The NUS folks were reportedly "dismayed" when a routine check by some small university in Virgina uncovered the charlatan's faked credentials during a routine check before his new appointment. Would anyone ever recover salaries paid to the "professor"? Perhaps they would now promote those at NUS who failed to do basic checks, just to show you how rules don't apply to elites.

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  4. By now our elites in the public sector and the university are expets in handling hot potatoes. They don't get scorched
    Was any one one got burned when the limping terrorist walked out of a top security compound?
    Did any mata mata lost his job in the aftermath of once-in-50-years riot?
    So why should the Yang case be any difference?
    He is a real talent you know. Within 4 or 5 years, he got a PR, millions of $ and even successfully flip a property and earned him $200,000.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We should get him to stand as an opposition candidate, he's good.. as good as the incumbents

      Delete
    2. re get the fellow to stand: right on!
      he knows how to operate. and he
      has clear insight into how the other
      side works. dun think he has a
      degree as well. sounds perfect!

      Delete
  5. The gov't has becomes a joke with the lame immigration policy and border control. Flooded the country with PRC (communist country), pinoy, Malaysians, Indians and banned a film by saying contents undermine the national security of the country. Terrorist (Mat Selamat) and abductors (involve in child abduction case) can go out or come into the country as they like. I shudder at the thought of the incident in India when terrorists came in by boats and attack people in the street, hotel. The over zealous issuing of PR, citizens, S passes and employment passes to foreigners have already undermined the national security of the country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ICA is the one who undermined national security by granting citizenship to the Indian who has brought his family to Syria to join in the killing.

      Delete
  6. There are already kidnapping syndicate coming to Singapore by sea claiming to enforce child custody for a certain woman at UK.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, if you question the powers that be, you are undermining the national security of the country. Can the security of this country be any more under water, when our first line, the immigration checkpoint, is as porous as a sieve, and the floodgates have been opened to all and sundry? Talk about fifth columns, we have one right here in the grassroots, under the noses of the PAP no less. If they can ban an innocuous documentary, who are we to ban on all the more serious breaches? Sack the Home Affairs Minister? That'll be the day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed, sack big nose Teo. What do you think.?

      Delete
  8. It is either Singaporeans take down the PAP Clowns
    or
    the Aliens take down the Singaporeans.
    This is the Reality.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is the reality we are staring at.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Even as PRs, some are already keen to support PAP through grassroot org and PA. PAP sure win for next 50 years when all convert to citizens. Now you know it is in whose interest to have 6.9, 8 or 10 and why it is good if you have no degree?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I can see the timing of this "no degree aso can" campaign. There are so many forged degrees from India and China, so the papigs now say " no degree not important la, as long as the FTs got talent, they can be doctors and engingeers... all can be promoted la!"

      Delete
  11. Look everyone....before blaming ICA...please think who made/direct ICA to be tat way...

    The papies are the ones correct yes...even want to blame...blame the correct ones please.

    zzz

    ReplyDelete