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NS-style skills training will teach women importance of being gracious

Singaporeans’ dependence on foreign domestic workers is an elephant in the room.
Egregious hiring practices aside, I have observed that this phenomenon has led to a paradigm shift in the way the service industry is viewed.

National Service for women will provide vocational training to those who need it most, the writer says.

National Service for women will provide vocational training to those who need it most, the writer says.

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Lee Siew Peng

Singaporeans’ dependence on foreign domestic workers is an elephant in the room.

Egregious hiring practices aside, I have observed that this phenomenon has led to a paradigm shift in the way the service industry is viewed.

Where it was once honourable, any kind of “service work” is now deemed unacceptable to most Singaporeans.

Generations of Singaporeans have observed in their homes or those of friends and family subservient domestic helpers made to do all kinds of menial work, often with nary a word of appreciation.

Treated as robots rather than human beings, they are told when to sleep, wake up, eat, shower, and are sometimes underfed, bullied and punished. Made invisible to visitors, these providers of an invaluable service are reduced to servitude.

“Service” is not the same as “servitude”.

Our young men do National Service (NS), deemed an honourable endeavour. 

It is a rite of passage and a time of bonding when young men from different ethnic, family, economic and national backgrounds are thrown together with the mission of defending Singapore.

When do girls become women? Don’t they, mothers of the next generation, count in the defence of the nation?

Surely women from different backgrounds also need to learn what being Singaporean means. Call it integration if you wish.

Why not have NS for women?

My vision is for women of a reasonable age — 18 or even 16 if appropriate — to complete basic skills training that would include first aid, the use of defibrillators, crowd management, driving (trucks, buses and ambulances), swimming and life-saving, map-reading and survival skills (foraging, cooking and building shelters) for three months.

Depending on their innate skills, interests and education plans, these women can opt to do a military option or, under proper supervision, be deployed to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, department stores, government agencies, museums, art venues, or even food courts and hawker centres.

Many young people do not seem to have a clue as to what they would like to do in the future. An NS stint for women, paid by taxpayers, may help prospective employers identify those gifted at sales, healthcare, plumbing, waiting tables, event management, and driving trucks or buses upon which viable futures can be built.

Not only will NS for women provide vocational training to those who need it most, it will help redefine “service”. Having provided a service to others who may or may not show appreciation, these women will learn the importance of being gracious.

In due course, this will translate into a better-integrated and gracious society. We will become a nation of men and women ready in total defence.

Then perhaps we might even reduce our dependence on foreign workers.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Dr Lee Siew Peng is a social anthropologist who teaches Esol (English for speakers of other languages) and English for academic purposes.

Have views on this issue or a news topic you care about? Send your letter to voices [at] mediacorp.com.sg with your full name, address and phone number. 

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National Service women graciousness foreign domestic worker

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