Re-examining our attitudes towards foreign workers

Commenting on the recent illegal strike by Chinese SMRT bus drivers, SMU Assistant Professor of Law and NMP Eugene Tan noted that the incident has magnified the risks associated with a heavy dependence on foreign manpower. “Can we always rely on foreign manpower to do the jobs we ourselves don’t want to do? What if political frictions occur between Singapore and say Malaysia or Indonesia?... We have big research projects into energy security, food security but do we think about manpower security?” he said. He added that most of the foreigners are probably here to make money and not likely to want to “cause trouble”.