Why must accent?

Thought this was quite an interesting post by this guy called ian. See his post here.

I don’t get it. I really don’t.

You live in Singapore for 18 years of your life, you go overseas for 4 years and after that, all the good work is gone. You come back and start speaking with a foreign accent. I understand that you have been living in a foreign country for the last 4 years surrounded by people who speak like that so maybe it is normal for you to be slightly affected. But if the environment plays such a part, then why, tell me why after returning to Singapore and spending the next six years of your life, you don’t lose the foreign accent and gain back the Singaporean one. How come those ang mohs or foreign talents from whatever other country doesn’t gain a Singaporean accent after living here for a long time. Sure, they pick up a bit of Singlish and our slangs but do they lose their accent from home. I haven’t met one yet. In fact, they need to make an effort to talk like us. It isn’t natural.

I’m not against speaking good proper English. But you can do that without an accent.