Prime Minister Office How to get local born citizens to accept new citizens
I like to suggest how to get our local born citizens to accept new citizens.

We should expect the new citizens to have the same obligations as local born citizens, especially in the field of national service. 

But new citizens may be too old to serve national service, or they may not want to be new citizens if they have to suffer this obligation.

What can be done?

The solution is "out of the box". 

Make it attractive for local born citizens to serve national service. It can be done as follows:

a) Reduce the full time service to one year, and reservist duty to five years.
b) Give an attractive pay, say $1,500 per month, for full time service. 
c) Allow opt out by paying a contribution, say $20,000.

The majority of young people would be happy to serve national service under the revised terms. They will not suffer the disadvantage, which they do now, in competing for jobs against new citizens.

If the local born citizens are treated well for their national service obligations, they would not resent new citizens who are accepted into Singapore without national service.

PM Lee - I hope you are listening.

Tan Kin Lian

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