Progress Singapore Party member Jeffrey Khoo took to Facebook with a story of a Grab driver who was once a member of the National University of Singapore Society but has since “fallen on hard times”.
Elaborating on his story, the driver said that he had worked as a Commercial Director at a large multinational company, but left it to launch his own business. Unfortunately, after having given three to four years to the endeavor, “things did not work out and he found great difficulties securing a job. For the past few years he has been driving GRAB and now at 48, he feels all hope is lost to find full-time employment,” Mr Khoo added.
Mr Khoo, who had been part of the PSP slate at West Coast GRC in the General Election in 2020, wrote that he had taken a Grab ride en route to a meeting at NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House from Shenton Way. In the course of talking with the driver, he found out that the man had once been a member of NUSS, which “surprised and saddened” Mr Khoo.
“He had to sell off his (NUSS) membership some time back,” Mr Knoo wrote in a Dec 1 Facebook post that has been widely shared. NUSS is considered to be Singapore’s premium graduate club.
He then probed further about the man’s opportunities to upskill in order to improve his chances of getting a better job.
“Here is his problem: with children to feed and bills to pay, he has no choice but to drive as much as possible to increase income. Basically no time to attend courses. He further mentioned that he needs a job now and not ‘higher potential for a job’ by acquiring more training,” Mr Khoo added.
The man also said that “What infuriates him most is the number of managerial roles given to foreigners and not Singaporeans,” a comment Mr Khoo said resonated with him.
Mr Khoo ended his post by writing, “Throughout the long conversation, this gentleman was not aware of my political affiliation or involvement. He was just pouring out his frustrations to a fellow Singaporean.
Before I disembarked, I encouraged him that there will be change at some point in the future and we must not to give up hope. Incidentally, ‘Hope’ in the Malay language is ‘Harapan’.” /TISG
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