Quote:It came on Sunday, December 8, and it was not just a racial riot, not just disadvantaged Indians venting their despair. No, it was the first sign that Singapore’s demographic pressure cooker had started to blow its lid. Those who know the conditions under which more than a quarter of the city state’s population live and work were less shocked that the riot occurred than that it did not spread and cause greater carnage. For he who rides a tiger cannot dismount. And in contracting more than one million South Asians to do its dirty work – all the harsh, grotty jobs that effete Singaporeans will not do – the island republic mounted a very fearful tiger. It cannot now get off without effectively committing economic suicide. As the local academic Mukul Asher once told me: “Singapore has been able to use these foreign workers and their low wages and conditions to maintain its competitiveness and high growth rates.” The trashed stores, overturned police cars and torched buses in its Little India district, however, exposed the danger of this exploitative policy.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 06:02:44 +0000
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