SINGAPORE — The Singaporean core is defined not by whether these Singaporeans are born and bred here, but by whether these are people who have made the Republic their home, where they serve and contribute to society, said Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday.

Rebutting Workers’ Party Chairman Sylvia Lim’s definition on Monday that a Singaporean core should be “made up of Singaporeans who grew up in and with Singapore”, Mr Tan asked: “I am not sure how far back we should go before Singaporeans count?”

Citing the examples of Members of Parliament (MPs) Irene Ng and Chen Show Mao, he questioned if not being born in Singapore makes them “second-class citizens”. “We have many Singaporeans who are not born here.

“They may not have grown here, but they have decided to make this place home, and serve and contribute to this society,” said Mr Tan.

And even as some choose to leave, Mr Tan said they “leave as friends and will look out for us because they remember the friendships forged”.

“Taking too nationalistic an approach can and sometimes brings out the worst in us. We are much more than this as a people,” he said. “I believe we Singaporeans are an open-hearted and kind people. We are generous, we are warm and we embrace those that are around us.”

While Singaporeans are concerned about the future, such as over the competition for jobs with “all these foreigners in our midst”, Mr Tan noted that “competition is there whether we like it or not”.

But the Government, he pledged, will continue to ensure that “jobs will be created to meet the aspirations of our children, of our young”.

Opportunities will be created for locals to move up the ladder to form the core of the workforce, he added, and various education and training programmes catered to “early-career Singaporeans” will be intensified.

“We will restructure, we will take comprehensive approaches to make sure that our people continue their good education and (have the) facilities to continue (their) education and training,” he said.

“I do believe that, as we restructure, as we evolve and build a better future for ourselves and our people … we will have a Singapore that we can be proud of. A place where our Singaporeans can find jobs, good jobs, opportunities to pursue different avenues for them to achieve their own dreams. And they can find fulfilment here.”

Mr Tan also reiterated that the foreign workers that the White Paper states will continue to be let in, albeit at a slower pace, are here “to augment areas where we need them, especially in the areas where, increasingly, we find less Singaporeans”.

These are transient workers who will not grow old here and their numbers will expand or contract depending on how situations evolve over time, he added.

MP Alex Yam (Chua Chu Kang GRC) also touched on the definition of a Singaporean core in his speech yesterday. He said: “The core is also not about how big or how small, but how important it is.”

Noting how an apple would not be able to function without a core, Mr Yam pointed out the importance of Singapore’s “physical and cultural heritage”.

He said: “For ours is a young country, still attempting to root the Singaporean-ness in each of us, the importance of a shared heritage and history cannot come at the expense of growth, neither can we be prepared to welcome more newcomers if we have no firm culture or heritage of our own to speak about.”