Credit Where Due

Soon Marina East is going to be the New Downtown, but at the moment it is still a giant construction site. There are the towers of the Marina Bay Sands casino IR rising from the ground, the tunnels for the Marina Coastal Expressway being bored underground, scaffolds for future skyscrapers being erected and filled in, and lots of dust flying around. There are also lots and lots of foreign construction workers around. It's almost scary.
But I'm not trying to bash the Gahmen's immigration policies here. Rather, I would like to raise this point: Shouldn't these people be recognised for building Singapore's future? When Gahmen ministers go around parading their achievements ("I was instrumental in turning Marina Bay into the New Downtown area" or "I conceived of the casinos IRs" or whatever), shouldn't they share the credit equally with all those humble busyworkers who actually created what would otherwise be mere plans on pieces of paper? Of course the ministers would argue that the vision counts for much more, but what good is a vision that is never realised? And why, then, should those who make the vision a concrete reality be given short shrift?
The prevailing National Indoctrination Education narrative celebrates the hard work of coolies and construction workers in the past, and tells us that Singapore was built up from their contributions. Acknowledging their contributions is the least we could do to show our gratitude for them, and indeed it is a shame that many of these people were not at all recognised for their contributions in their lifetime. There is no reason why similar recognition should not be forthcoming now. To deny it on the niggling grounds of nationality would be narrow-minded in the extreme.