A Reddit user currently serving NS wrote of how “helpless and redundant” he feels because while his former classmates from other countries are moving forward, he is “stuck in camp listening to power-tripping sergeants.”
u/GreenLow721 wrote on r/SingaporeRaw on Wednesday (Apr 12) that he felt like a second-class citizen in JC compared to the foreign scholars.
He added that they “basically received all the same benefits and more as any Singaporean student” arguing that “there were some Singaporean students including me who were actually better than them at studies” and that the foreign students “were good but honestly not that great as you would expect.”
Nevertheless, he feels that these scholars were given more opportunities than Singaporeans.
“Even worse, they were marked more leniently as seen by the fact that for PW, only all the scholars got an A, and not the Singaporeans. Are you telling me Singaporeans are bad at speaking English that they can’t even speak better than people from China?”
u/GreenLow721 also pointed out that some didn’t sign up for permanent residency (PR) but instead “choosing to wait out until they were older to apply (to avoid NS).”
“The fact remains that these scholars get to reap the benefits of being Singaporean and even more but when it comes to serving NS (to ‘pay’ back the benefits you received), they don’t need to but us Sinkies need.”
Despite having the same academic abilities as foreign scholars, the author has to waste two years of his life in the army. He also has to take loans to pay for university, and has fewer opportunities to build connections and gain experience. This is not the first time we hear about such sentiments, and it is evident that there are many Singaporeans who share these feelings.
It is unacceptable that our hardworking citizens are being left behind. This is especially while foreigners are receiving government aid and get to begin their future earlier. The government should start prioritizing the needs of Singaporeans who need it the most.
