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The "Comment" in today's Streats newspaper page 13, entitled: "Not so transparent after all", is certainly critical of the Singapore Government, but true. When will Singapore and other Asian governments grow up and not hide "sensitive" information or data from the public under the cloak of national security?

I wonder if the writer of this article, Conrad Raj will start to get visits by agents of the government and will eventually be bankrupted by those in power for being so daring in bringing up the facts and stirring public interest in things that the government has controlled for such a long time? After all, information is power. In controlling or concealing information from the public, the government wields power over the population and controls them.

The government must have something to hide, if it is unwilling to reveal the number of jobs being given to foreigners, compared to citizens. Perhaps the government policy regarding jobs reserved for Singapore citizens is much worse off than that for foreigners and gays (even if they eventually become "residents"). Therefore the Singapore government is afraid that if this is revealed then there will be a popular backlash, and they will start to lose votes in the next election.

From the Singapore government's point of view, there are many advantages in encouraging non-citizens to work here. Foreigners or PRs cannot vote, but can still contribute to the local economy and work just as well as citizens. Non-citizens are also easily disposed off if not wanted any longer or if they become trouble-makers (just revoke their work permits and send them home). If Singapore citizens are provoked or pushed-around by severe government policies, then they could take revenge by giving negative votes to the ruling government party in the next election. This has been the trend, as the election results have shown in recent years.