Kolumnis Temasek Review, terbitan Singapura,17 Februari 2011 Zahara Abdullah menulis antara lain: I have been coming across several Malay families who are renting out their HDB flats or even selling their HDB flats and living in Johor Bahru and commuting to Singapore. Each family had the same reason to give. They are unable to afford the cost of living in Singapore.
Tulisnya lagi: A few days ago, a friend of mine who is a senior professional in logistics industry claimed that around 40% of the Malay despatch riders live in Johor Bahru. However I am unable to verify this. However when I asked others in logistics industry, they did agree that there are large number of families, where the breadwinner works as a despatch rider, have indeed relocated to JB due to cost pressures in Singapore. These despatch riders earn less than $1000 per month and they are unable to cope even when they have two children.
“It does not seem to be the case that all the families that shifted are having a single income earner. There are indeed families in which both the couples are working and yet they are unable to afford to live in Singapore. The few families that I managed to talk to have a household income of less than $2000 a month. They shared with me that given the high costs they face which come along with work e.g. lunch meals, transport, clothings etc etc they are left with little to afford the other family expenses such as grocery, electricity etc.
Another group of Malay families who make up this trend of Malay families shifting to JB include those who are unable to service their HDB loans. Apparently some of these families are having problems paying their HDB mortgages and out of desperation not to loose their HDB flats they rather rent it out and shift to JB.
The last group of Malay families that I came across are those who faced life shocks such as retrenchment, illness etc and they were unable to ride through the financial turblence that came along. Hence they shifted to JB to keep afloat… (klik http://www.temasekreview.com untuk tulisan selengkapnya)
Kolumnis ini mencabar 12 Ahli Parlimen Melayu di Negara pulau itu menilai kedudukan kumpulan Melayu ini dan menyelesaikan serta memudahkan mereka kembali tinggal di Singapura. Adakah benar Melyu Singapura yang menurut statistik 2009 yang jumlahnya 13.4% berbanding China (74.2%) dan India (9.2%) itu berada dalam kesempitan ekonomi yang amat memerlukan bantuan Kerajaan Peoples’ Action Party (PAP) Singapura?
Reaksi kepada pandangan Zahara ini pelbagai. Terdapat 110 komen pro dan kontra daripada penduduk pulau itu.
Satu komen daripada Mai I Wan antara lain berbunyi: These less fortunate fellow citizens won’t get help from the gahmen! It’s left to us especially you, the Malay community to help them by voting out the PAPpy! What SG truly needs and in urgent need is a gahmen with humility! C’mon! Let’s get united and do what we need to do to help our less fortunate citizens! Their future, more or less lies in our hands.
Zahara mempersoalkan tanggapan Kerajaan Singapura bahawa orang Melayu telah bertambah maju di bawah Kerajaan PAP. Namun seperti jelas Zahara belum pernah sejak tahun 1959 terdapat begitu ramai orang Melayu Singapura yang mencari perlindungan ekonomi di Johor Bahru. Bagaimanapun, seorang penulis Singapura, yang juga seorang bekas wartawan pernah membayangkan satu ketika dahulu bahawa “Melayu Singapura antara yang paling gigih meningkatkan keupayaan diri (berdikari dalam bidang ekonomi terutamanya) setanding kaum-kaum lain seperti Cina dan India di pulau itu. Dan beliau bangga dengan kegigihan Melayu ini. Katanya, “Kami tidak memerlukan bentuan sesiapa, tidak juga daripada pemeritah.”
Rasa tak salahkan tinggal di negara jiran. Jaraknya pun dekat. kemudahan pengangkutan pun ada. Kalau Kos sara hidup lebih murah berbanding di negara sendiri, silakan. Takkan kerajaan Johor nak larang.
ReplyDeleteLalulintas di Tambak Johor sesak kerana orang Johor kerja di Singapura menetap di Johor dan orang Melayu Singapura kerja di Singapura dan menetap di Johor Bahru. Macam lalulintas sempadan Amerika Syarikat dengan Mexico saja.
ReplyDeleteDuit Singapura tinggi harga. Duit Malaysia rendah nilai. Jadi biasalah. Kalau duit Singapura rendah nilai mesti ramai orang Johor tinggal di Geylang Serai atau Woodlands. Mungkin MB Datuk Ghani Othman pun akan buat kediaman rasminya di Singapura. Betul tak Beb?
ReplyDeleteSiapa yang pernah hidup sebelum merdeka dulu tahukan tinggal di JB dan Singapura. Duit sama harga. Singapura jadi pusat beli-belah orang Johor. Woodlands terkenal dengan pasar minggunya. Tambak Johor sibuk dengan pejalan kaki. Tiap malam minggu seronok jalan kaki merentasi tambk Johor. Seronokkan masa itu. Ramai orang Melayu di Johor Bahru buat rumah di Woodlands sehingga ke Batu 10. Tak ada pun orang kisah.
ReplyDeleteAda yang setiap minggu tak miss makan nasi briani di Arab Street atau makan cendol dan bubur kacang hijau di Geylang Serai. Kadang-kadang singgah di kedai pelakon Ibrahim Pendek. Hanya nak salam dengan pelakon komedi popular itu.
What a pity! Singapore was once the shoppers' paradise for JB residents. I for one, used to walk the Tambak Johor to get the glimpse of the night beauty and the the so-called Tambak soothing breeze. A wonderful experience. Alas! Not only am I too old for that now but I realize that Singapore today is already a nation with all the man-made barriers, politically,economically and perhaps culturally too.
ReplyDeleteNo more can we walk the famous Jalan Ampas of the Malay film yesteryears of the fifties. No more can we talk about the great names like P. Ramlee and his contemporaries in Jamil Sulong, M. Amin, Ahmad Mahmood or Ahmad Nisfu.No more can we listen to the weekly programme of Bangsawan Di Udara by Radio Malaya, featuring the famous Tijah-Din Bangsawan.
How I lament the days when I walked along the stretch of the Singapore Esplanade, the Tanjong Katong beach,the Joo Chiat Road and The Arab Street. How we used to pray at the Masjid Sultan on Friday. Most of all deep in my heart I long to gaze the two-storey Istana Sri Gelam, where historically it used to be the palace of the Sultan of Singapura, Tengku Hussein Shah.
Remember another shopping heaven - the one-and-only Robinson and also the Change Alley? I wonder What would the Temasek island founder Sang Nila Utama say or think if he sees today's Singapore being transformed into one of the ultra-modern cities of the world. Do you think he would be proud? I think his answer would be No-lah, Yes-lah!!
The late Singapore comedian Mat Kambing used to joke: Yes-No-Alright.
And don't we ever forget the famous nickames like Dol Keropok, Awam-il-Sarkam, Tongkat Warant, Keris Mas, Mas, Masuri SN and Kalam Hamidi of the Malay journalists-cum-writers.They were great and still are, but forced to migrate to Kuala Lumpur in search of greener pasture!
You have a choice: Fantasize living in the old sleepy Singapore with its poverty-strickened economic backdrop or stride forward with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to a better city of the first world. I would prefer the latter with Singapore citizens sharing equal rights and living together as one nation. Singapore is great no matter how you look at it.
ReplyDeleteZahara's article should be printed in full to know the message. I've read the Malay-biased piece and would like to share it with others, especially Singapore residents living across the causeway. Read more http://www.temasekreview.com
ReplyDeleteSure enough being minority group. Singapore Malays are behaving like minority. No fuss about it. Keep up behaving like a minority. You are not Malaysian Malays who depend on subsidies to survive. I love Singapore!
ReplyDeleteI do not quite agree with Loyal Citizen comment. I think he is the type of katak bawah tempurung. And knows nothing about Malays in Malaysia. So shut up!
ReplyDeleteSiapa Zahara Abdullah? Kalau warga Singapura mungkin beliau tinggal di JB kot?
ReplyDeleteKalau ikut statistik Wikipedia jumlah rakyat Singapura pada tahun 2009 ialah 3.2 juta, tidak termasuk jumlah penduduk tetap.Daripada jumlah itu 74.2% atau 2.37 juta rakyat keturunan Cina,13.4% atau 428,800 orang rakyat keturunan Melayu manakala 9.2% atau 294,400 orang rakyat keturunan India.
ReplyDeleteAgaknya bagaimanalah statistik rakyat Singapura ini mengikut keturunan 50 tahun dahulu? Menarik juga kalau Zahara dapat bincangkan.
Menarik juga kalau Zahara boleh tulis sikit tentang nasib yang menimpa waris-waris keturunan Sultan Hussein Shah, Sultan Singapura yang ditabalkan penjajah Inggeris dahulu? Di manakah mereka tinggal sekarang ini? Atau mereka sudah hilang di tengah-tengah pembangunan kota Singapura yang begitu pesat. Masihkah mereka menetap di Istana Sri Gelam?
ReplyDeleteComment by John Teo in The New Straits Times, 4 March 2011 interests me. Teo says amongst others: If minority groups in Singapore become greater in number than the Chinese, will they clamour for quotas in employment, education and other areas?
ReplyDeleteAs Singapore grapples with challenges brought about by multiracialism and multiculturalism, it cannot but recognise that it is similar to other countries in dealing with minorities to create national cohesion.
The wonder of it all is that Malays in Singapore go with the flow while cognisant of its status as a minority group.
In that sense, Singapore is a lucky country, no matter how much its leaders want to show the world that its success has nothing to do with luck.
There are presumably people on both sides of the Causeway who hope that the past will remain buried and that both countries will forge a more mature and rational future that will benefit both countries.
But it takes two to tango. And Singapore, ever quick to sense and resent bullying by larger neighbours, must realise that people live in multiracial societies.
And the first rule of living under such situations is not to throw stones at others.
Perhaps that is the hardest truth of for Singaporeans to understand, made more difficult by the blind spot of their founding father. For full text read The New Straits Times, 4 March 2011.