Suggestions to regulate and tighten rules governing PRs

Singapore PR who has gone back home to China

The government considers PRs to be residents of Singapore, committed to the country. In reality, my opinion is that a large percentage of these PRs become PRs for the convenience and benefits rather than with the intention of “transitioning” to a citizen. They enjoy benefits superior to foreigners and compete with Singaporeans on many privileges which should be exclusively Singaporean.

PRs have the best of both worlds in the following cases (the list is by no means exhaustive!):

Buy HDB houses (not being able to buy direct from government is not a big disadvantage)

Send kids to international schools

Option to encash your CPF if you leave

Option to skip NS

Stability in case you lose your job

Option to buy landed houses with permission

In short, they enjoy most privileges of a citizen without assuming the duties (even liabilities?) that come with it.

If the government wants to take care of Singaporeans, as most ministers include the Prime Minister, promise, they should take the following steps:

• Tighten criteria for granting PR: First, a person should have been on a work permit (WP) in Singapore for at least 5 years before becoming eligible to become a PR. I personally know people who have got PR within months of coming to Singapore! When a person applies for a PR as soon as he comes, one is not sure how long he will stay here. Let alone be able to judge his commitment to Singapore. It beats me that the ICA can decide so fast on a PR application. Secondly, do not give PR based on income. Yes, income is important but not critical.

For example, do not refuse PR to the housewife of a citizen because she has no income or because her income is low. Third, PR should be granted only to the family as a whole and not to members, so that foreigners cannot create a situation where they can prevent their sons from doing NS. Fourth, stop automatic routes to PR such as graduates from specialized institutions, etc. Everyone has to go through the same process.

• Make PR truly a transitional phase: The population paper states that PR is a transition between a WP and a citizen. Reality is far from it. We have PRs living as PRs for too long with no intention of becoming a citizen. The PR should have a validity of 8 years at the most with no extension. Citizenship requirement should be tightened to make it mandatory to have been a PR for 5 years at least.

So basically a PR has a three year window to decide if he wants to become a citizen (once he becomes eligible after 5 years till he loses his PR in 8 years). If he does not decide by the end of year 8, he should lose his PR status and go back to a WP. He must not be allowed to reapply to become a PR again. Only exception can be if he has applied to become a citizen and been rejected for genuine reasons that can be corrected with time.

• As part of the tightening process in the above two points, an immediate review of current PRs should be done (reviewing half a million PRs or say about 150,000-200,000 families should not be a difficult exercise). PRs who have excluded family members (e.g. male children) should immediately be revoked as it is a clear case of trying to beat the system. PRs who have not applied to become citizens in the past 8 years should be asked to either apply or give up their PR status. Let us start from a good base. Going forward, if a male PR has skipped NS by moving overseas, his parents should also lose their PR.

• Remove benefits that are unjustified. These in my opinion are buying landed property, buying HDBs and ability to send kids to international schools (has the government not said PRs will integrate with citizens? Let it begin at school!). Buying landed property and HDB should be incentives for becoming a citizen. Also, if your aim is to eventually become a citizen, your kids should study with the citizens and not with the foreigners, most of whom will not become citizens.

• Tighten CPF rules: PRs should not be able to encash CPF by leaving the country. The system should also be tightened such that if a PR decides not to become a citizen, his CPF will be lost (this can be used to top up the balances of the poorest Singaporeans in an attempt to help them reach the minimum sum). This will ensure that only those who are really committed to Singapore and will eventually become citizens will apply to become a PR. An exception can probably be made (partial withdrawal?) if the PR leaves Singapore due to retrenchment or if he is denied citizenship by the government.

A PR should be really a transition to becoming a citizen as the government’s population paper says. Getting a Singapore citizenship should not be easy or “instant”. Even if all these measures are taken, it would still be easier to get a Singapore citizenship than the citizenship of many western countries. So what is the harm implementing them? We are open to new citizens and PRs – just bring in the ones with the right mindset and commitment, not ones who want to exploit the system.

Ref:TR emeritus