KUALA LUMPUR: When a Malaysian minister in June doubled down on his previous comments that Singaporeans would go to Malaysia for work, Doreen Sim received sceptical text messages from at least five people.“The general comment from Singaporeans is, ‘Why go to Malaysia (to earn) less?’” said the 52-year-old Singaporean, who runs an IT firm providing network services and has been living in Kuala Lumpur for the past 20 years.Sim said it was easy to dismiss Nga Kor Ming - the Malaysian housing and local government minister who made the comments - if people simply compared salaries paid in the Singapore dollar against the Malaysian ringgit.“It will be a long way before his comments become a reality if the decision to move to Malaysia is solely based on money,” she told CNA.
This is not the first time Nga has touched on the contentious issue, having previously used it as campaign fodder in the lead-up to the 15th General Election held in November 2022 where he framed it around the hundreds of thousands of Johoreans enduring long commutes to earn higher salaries in Singapore.He surfaced it again earlier in January 2026 by reposting a clip of his 2022 speech when the ringgit hit a two-year high against the Singapore dollar, but later clarified that his remarks were meant as a joke.
