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."