SINGAPORE: On Friday (Apr 21), Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong acknowledged the value of English proficiency, he added that it should not be the only criterion for Singapore citizenship.
“The knowledge of English at the working level, while helpful, should not be a defining or indeed a limiting factor, which might happen if you introduce it as a test, as a single point test,” said the Minister, adding that a “significant proportion of Singaporeans throughout our history have not been able to speak English well”.
He even gave his own grandmother, now 96, as an example. “If we had years ago applied this test, then someone like her may not have made it into Singapore.”
These remarks were made in response to the reiteration of Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on his proposal for an English test for evaluating an individual’s application for citizenship or permanent residency in Singapore, which appears to have found a considerable amount of popular support.
“Is a working proficiency in English a criteria for citizenship for better integration between new citizens and Singaporeans of all races and religions since English is our main language of communication?” Mr Singh said in Parliament last February.
And when Mr Tong said that English proficiency should not be a single-point assessment for citizenship, Mr Singh replied that he did not say it should be a sole consideration for new citizens or PRs. “I made it clear in my speech today that it was a nudge to align our immigration policy and our bilingual policy.”
Reacting to Mr Tong’s remarks in a Reddit thread, some netizens harked back to Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew.
“LKY literally shut down chinese and tamil schools to force everyone to speak English. man would be rolling in his grave if he heard this bulls**t,” one wrote.
Another appeared to agree. “LKY will have a heart attack if he is able to witness his own party members spewing this kind of s**t when the same party is the one abolishing Chinese schools and advocating the use of English in 80s.”
“Why pass up the opportunity to choose people who can integrate and be easily understood by majority of its citizens?” chimed in another.
One wrote, “If you don’t know English, how (will) our nation compete and collaborate with the world?”
Others took issue with Mr Tong using his grandmother as an example.
/TISG