Wreck sparks anger at the million-odd
immigrants brought in as a result of government policy
At 4
a.m. on May 12, a red Ferrari supercar driven by a Chinese national named Ma
Chi ran a red light, slamming into a taxicab at the corner of Singapore's Queen
Victoria Street and Rochor Road, killing the 31 year-old driver, the taxi
driver and his passenger, a 41-year-old Japanese woman.
The
implications of the crash have continued to mushroom, kicking off a massive
public outcry both in Singapore and China. In Singapore, it has raised the
already festering anger level at the enormous numbers of foreign nationals that
have entered the country, as well as the ease with which foreign nationals,
especially rich ones, can gain permanent residency. The crash and its aftermatn
have become a factor in a by-election scheduled for Saturday in the Hougang
district of the island republic, for a seat that has traditionally been held by
the opposition..
Ma was
described as an “expatriate financial advisor from Sichuan,” his pregnant wife
told Singaporean media, adding that she didn’t know his 20-year-old companion.
a mainland Chinese woman who died in hospital later. . Ma had purchased a
luxury S$3 million condominium on the island nation’s east coast, she said,
adding that he also owned a US$400,000 BMW as well as the limited-edition
Ferrari 590GTO, which he was said to have bought for his 30th birthday. He was
said to be applying for permanent residency when he was killed.
Singapore’s
blogs have erupted with rumors. The dead man was first rumored to have been
linked a fugitive Chongqing mafia boss named Ma Yong who fled to Guangzhou in
2007, and that he was involved in money-laundering in Hong Kong, to the tune of
several millions a month.
Last
Saturday, a China-based journalist, Cao Guoxing, wrote that Ma Chi was the son
of Ma Kai, a high-ranking state councilor and state council secretary general,
the president of the National School of Administration of the Western Region
Development of the State Council Leading Group Office.
Cao’s
posting of Ma’s supposed identity, on the Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo,
was taken down within five minutes. There has been no confirmation in state
media that the two were related. However, alert Chinese netizens republished it
widely, kicking off outrage in China over Ma as a scion of the fu er dai, the
rich second generation who have done little to earn their riches. He was
described as a spoiled rich brat and a disgrace to China, according to local
media. The parternity has since been denied by Ma Kai.
Either
way – money launderer or son of a high-ranking official or just a rich
businessman -- Ma has been reviled in both countries. He was said to have been
reeking of alcohol when his body was removed from the wreckage. Comparisons
have been made to Bo Guagua, the son of the ousted Chongqing party boss, Bo
Xilai. Guagua was forced to deny he owned a Ferrari, only to be reported to
have received three speeding tickets in a Porsche in the United States.
Numerous news stories have described Guagua as carrying on a lavish lifestyle
while a student at Harvard University.
The
Chinese internet has been filled with articles about the fu er dai, with stories
feeding into the mainstream press as well. Yesterday, Xinhua reported that
authorities had detained the 15-year-old son of a general for beating a couple
and damaging their car. In 2010, a 22-year-old youth was sentenced to six years
in prison after he ran over a student, killing him, and saying “"Sue me if
you dare. My father is Li Gang," a senior police officer.
Hundreds
of locals have taken to the airwaves in Singapore, denouncing rich foreigners
for racing on the streets of the tightly regulated city, charging that
foreigners are pushing up living and property costs. That has extended out to
all foreigners, who are said to be stealing jobs from the locals, overtaxing
the transport system and causing other problems. Mainland Chinese are at the
forefront of the attacks. Two months before Ma’s accident, according to Agence
France Presse, a Malaysian cleaner at Changi Airport was killed by a taxi
hijacked by a Chinese worker.
Singapore
has always been identified with immigration, since the time it was a colony
established by the British, drawing workers form China, India and the Malay
archipelago, demographers say. However, in the last decade, it has picked up
dramatically as a result of government policy. The non-resident population has
increased at an unprecedented pace since the turn of the century, accounting
for 25.7 percent of the population according to the 2010 census, with the
nonresident population growing at an annual 19 percent rate while the resident
population was growing at just 1.7 percent.
Lee
Kuan Yew, the founder of the Singaporean state, told Chinese clan leaders in
January 2011 that the declining birthrate made it necessary to remain open to
new immigrants. Despite heroic efforts by the government to raise the
birthrate, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng in a press release from the
Prime Minister’s Office, said Singapore's total fertility rate had sunk to a
historic low of 1.16 in 2010, down from 1.22 in 2009, and well below the
replacement level of 2.1.
Singapore,
a Chinese island in a Malay Muslim sea between Indonesia and Malaysia, has
always been concerned about keeping up the proportion of Chinese Singaporeans.
Even Malays, however, have a total fertility rate of 1.65 per woman of
childbearing age, and Indians are even lower than Chinese at 1.13, according to
the press release.
'So we
need young immigrants,” Lee said according to the press release. “Otherwise,
our economy will slow down, like the Japanese economy. We will have a less
dynamic and less thriving Singapore. This is not the future for our children
and grandchildren.'
Hence,
he said, the need to welcome immigrants and help them integrate into mainstream
Singapore society:
“The
first generation will take some time to integrate, but their children will be
completely Singaporean,” he said. “'I have met some such students in our
schools: They serve national service and marry Singaporeans. They will increase
our population and talent pool. Singapore will be vibrant and prosperous, not
declining and ageing.”
Lee,
however, apparently didn’t count on immigrants like Ma Chi.
Asia
Sentinel
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