Digital
Divide
The Gap Widens
Singapore may well become a high tech country in 15
years. But for the near future, life will be darn
difficult for older, lower-educated workers. By Seah
Chiang Nee
Feb 11, 2001
In the past 10 years, income levels have gone up -
but the gap between rich and poor has widened. Blame
it on the new knowledge economy or on globalisation
or on resistance to upgrade skills; the fact is that
things are going to get worse.
This divide has nothing to do with economic growth.
In fact, the stronger the rise in per capita GDP,
the more it will widen.
In 1990, the average income of the top 20 per cent
was 11.4 times higher than that of the lowest 20 per
cent. Ten years later, the difference was 21 times,
according to the latest statistics.
Take last year (economic growth: 10.1 per cent) when
the average household income rose from S$4,691 to
$4,943 or 5.4 per cent, the lowest 10 per cent earned
a whooping 13.6 per cent less ñ dropping from $531
to $459.
What does this mean? This is how I look at it.
When the economic crisis hit in 1997, Singapore wasnít
hit too badly because its financial fundamentals were
sound.
By default, it had pulled ahead of Malaysia (the next
wealthiest Asean country) by, I reckon, another 10
years.
But against the West and Japan, Singapore is miles
behind in skills and knowledge.
More than 30 per cent of its work force has less than
primary-level education and will take another 15-20
years for their replacement by attrition before Singapore
can catch up with the better-skilled nations.
The long-term trend: With proper policies and strive
(plus a talents influx), the republic may succeed.
But the pain will be great for the 750,000 unskilled
workers and heartlanders. Many will be displaced and
unable to find alternative jobs.
Some may abandon the Peopleís Action Party (PAP) unless
it can navigate them towards a soft landing with policies
to minimise their suffering. Hanging onto power will
be an uphill climb in 10 years. time because of these
vast problems because they touch on jobs and lives.
Many of the elderly are staunch PAP supporters. They
are finding it more and more difficult to deal with
the high-cost, new tech world.
At the Urology Section of the Singapore General Hospital,
an elderly gentleman in his late 60s, stood before
the Payments Counter trying to understand what the
girl was saying.
He spoke only Hokkien and the cashier, who knew only
English and Mandarin, had to seek help from a dialect-speaking
passer-by.
The proceedings involved a great deal of shouting
because the senior gentleman was also deaf.
When it came for signing for something, he couldnít
do it and had to use the thumbprint.
Some 10 feet away, another elderly patient wanted
a drink of water (for a urine test) but while trying
to take out a plastic cup from the tube container,
he made a mistake and pulled out three.
For a couple of minutes he tried but failed to push
them back. A younger man helped him do it.
Incidents like these involving the elderly who canít
handle the simplest of modern-day tasks are probably
quite commonplace in Singaporeís heartland.
The sight struck me that after three decades of rapid
progress; Singapore is still divided into two parts.
One is made up of an increasing number of savvy, well-educated
people who are able to compete with the best of the
knowledge world.
The other consists of less skilled Singaporeans who
cannot cope with societyís modern life.
Just look at the classified ads on jobs and youíll
see how Singaporeís job market has changed. There
are gobbles of pages of jobs for professionals, skilled
technicians and business graduates that offer high
pay.
This adds on to the irk of the lower-skilled. When
they have a tough time seeking work, professionals
like doctors, lawyers and bankers are getting more
and more.
Among heartlanders, sensitivities are high, as shown
by the DBS Bank furore over service charge for small
accounts and official suggestions to reduce the size
of Housing Board flats and discouraging the sale of
small capacity cars all hit raw nerves.
Many of them are unable to use the Internet, programme
a mobile phone or cope with a thousand and one gadgets
that life has turned up in the past four or five years.
Even vendors of products, from durians to stocks,
are resorting to high tech, smart design or innovative
marketing to survive. The same applies to taxi drivers,
remisiers and insurance salesmen ñ traditional refuge
for the new jobless.
There are some 750,000 such troubled people, the vast
majority of whom are blue collar or low-skilled service
workers or run small businesses.
One late night last week, a hard working survey taker
visited my house and interviewed me for my views on
life-long learning, job retraining and skill upgrading.
He was working for a private firm on contract to the
Ministry of Manpower.
What were my interests ñ IT, science, designing, etc?
Did I prefer structured or informal learning? Would
I take part if courses were offered? It is one of
the biggest exercises in the coming years.
In the short term, the government will train at least
45,000 workers free of charge over the next three
years, conferring certificates on them that will spell
out their new skills. The costs are almost $500 million.
In the next four or five years, the government plans
to spend billions of dollars on training and topping-up
CPF savings. Ultimately, the plan is to upgrade half
the workforce, or one million workers. They lack knowledge
of or access to the Internet.
Singapore is uncompetitive in the skill arena. Today
the workforce is 38 per cent skilled, 24 per cent
semi-skilled and 38 per cent unskilled, no where near
the levels of the West and Japan.
The government wants to change the respective figures
to 65-20-15 per cent, which could take 15 years.
But the PAP obviously sees it an urgent priority to
ensure the heartlanders have safety valves.
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew recently declared that
Singapore would not fully go the American way of total
competition where losers would lose everything.
"The market is very cruel. In the real world, the
losers must (be allowed to) go home with something.
They can't die."
Seah Chiang Nee
