I do not have any reason to retain my original citizenship anymore. I am the only one in the family who haven’t switched sides. My kids are Singaporeans. It doesn’t sound plausible for me to retire in Malaysia alone in a place I am unfamiliar with, with nobody I know.
Looking at how Malaysia has degenerated with each generation of politicians (if you can even call them 'politicians') who are just interested in lining their pockets with billions, you feel that Malaysia is a hopeless place. The 20/20 Vision I heard about in 2003 - whatever that means, never came to pass and I have no doubt it ever will. Putting a monkey or a pig up there is anytime better than putting some corrupted people on the seat who are always thinking of how to pocket big money with their cronies.
The biggest push, or pull, factor is I need to get a place of my own after my divorce.
Sure, I can put Coco as a co-buyer and buy one with her. However, I am just not comfortable using her name. As far as possible, I hope not to implicate her in property ownership at this point in time.
Besides home ownership, I am starting to feel the impact of being a non-citizenship as age catches up with me. There are many real and practical concerns that citizens would not know or feel the impact of. I am not even talking about the right to vote, which has been the salient difference between a citizen and a non-citizen. Something as simple as:
- being able to be the first buyer of a BTO flat
- being able to buy a resale flat in the open market
- being able to qualify for all sorts of grants
- being able to qualify for HLE
- having a 30% discount off the polyclinic medical charges
- getting $9000 for the self-employed Covid grant versus $1200 for PR
- getting GST vouchers, CDC vouchers and whatever vouchers
- some jobs are only available to Singaporeans
All these add up. I am not even talking about school fees for a degree or post-grad programmes.
As I am journeying to become a citizen, I am starting to understand why new citizens, especially Malaysians, could or would vote for the ruling party.
There's just zero benefit to be a Malaysian, as compared to being a Singaporean, if your family members are in Singapore. Zilch. Zee-loh. In fact, we pay to hold onto this useless citizenship. Every five years, we pay to renew our re-entry permit, not to mention the hassle involved if it's expired. And it's super easy to have it expired without you realising it as the date is no longer stamped on your passport. It's an invisible date only available on the ICA website. Well, you can print it out but you tend to keep it so well you forget where you kept it.
So I submitted an online application via the ICA website for the Singapore citizenship in June 2021.
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