In 1984, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, stressed that Singaporeans should adhere to bilingualism because “English will not be emotionally acceptable as [their] mother tongue. English has long been attributed the status of an important additional language in the linguistic ecology of Singapore, mostly due to its ethnically neutral status and Singapore’s strong aspirations toward global economic success. L1 child SingE is characterized by a range of features on all levels of language organization, strongly reminiscent of what has been reported for L2 adult SingE. Singaporeans acquiring English as an L1 from birth are first-language speakers of English in the same sense as traditional L1 English speakers. They should be granted the same rights and status when it comes to questions of ownership and proficiency – in public and political discourse and by linguists alike. They do not acquire a defective system, just yet another version of a complex system of Englishes.