Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor
On 9 April 2007, Minister in Charge of the Civil Service, Mr Teo Chee Hean, announced a three-step formula to revise salaries in the public sector to bring them in line with the private sector. (link) Specifically, ministers and senior civil servants’ salaries would be brought to 88 per cent of the benchmark by the end of 2008.
The first two revisions have already taken place – on 1 April 2007 and on Jan 2008. Salaries are now at 77 per cent of the benchmark.
The second revision saw such a huge outcry that PM Lee had to announce he will donate his increases to charity. (link) This was seen as a move to assuage unhappiness on the ground. PM Lee explained that it was to give him “the moral standing to defend this policy with Singaporeans”. (link) But Mr Teo said that “it is wrong to think that a bigger pay would undermine the moral authority of the government.” (CNA)
What is more important is what Mr Teo himself said, when he defended the pay hikes in April 2007:
I’ve been asked whether this is a good time to make such salary adjustments. But, actually the point is that such salary adjustments must be done in good times. Otherwise, we’ll end up with problems in the public service. (Emphasis mine) (CNA)
Well, times are not so good now. In fact, it will be rather bad, according to all predictions, forecasts and projections – including the Government’s own.
So, will the Government go ahead with the third hike which, according to Mr Teo, will take place by the end of this year?
One suspects that when the Government first decided that they would have the three-step increase, it probably thought that the economy would be robust in 2007 and 2008 – and beyond. This was on the back of the three years of economic recovery prior to 2007. Indeed, in July 2007, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew himself said Singapore was in a “golden period”. “If there are no wars or oil crises,” he said, “this golden period can stretch out over many years.” (MFA)
Seen in this context, the Government probably thought that they would be able to carry the ground on the salary hike issue. As long as the economy continued to hum along, Singaporeans would not be too bothered about high salaries for our ministers.
But politics is a funny thing – and not all forecasts and predictions, even by wise old men and a “special”, “unique” and “exceptional” government (link), come true accordingly.
2008, especially, turned out to be a roller-coaster ride for the Government, which was caught off-guard by many issues which now threaten to cost it some political capital.
After ministers got their second pay hike in Jan 08, the very next month, in February, Mas Selamat Kastari escaped through a toilet window in a detention centre. It became, quite easily, the biggest news (some would say the biggest joke) of the year.
After 10 months, he is still at large and the Government continues to believe that he is still in Singapore even as they tell the public that they have no proof of it.
In April 2008, inflation in Singapore reached a 26-year high of 7.5 per cent. (link) The Government, clearly, was caught off guard by this. (See here: Inflation projections – a moving target.) Singaporeans experienced a spiralling rising cost of living, especially in areas such as transport, food and healthcare. Retrenchments have started – first with DBS and then with NOL.
The latest revelation that town councils have lost money in investing in structured products have also received angry reaction from residents. All these taken together with other gaffes such as the Lee Bee Wah/STTA saga, contentious issues such as compensating organ donors, and the predicament of Las Vegas Sands’ Integrated Resort.
In a nutshell, the ground is not sweet.
For the Government to push ahead with a third pay hike for its ministers will require the expenditure of more political capital – especially when an early election is on the cards, despite what the Government may say about it.
2009 will mark the PAP’s 50th anniversary. One can be sure that if an election is held then, the PAP would do everything it can to win convincingly – whether it is through pork-barrel methods of giving out cash on the eve of polling day, as they did in the last elections, or through the same tried and tested character assassination of opposition members tactics adopted in past elections. Nothing will be allowed to mar the party’s half century milestone of existence, you can be sure.
And this is where we may speculate about what the Government might do vis a vis ministerial salaries. They will have to take into account any political fall-out from giving themselves an even bigger pay cheque.
Here are the possibilities, with my own rating for the most probable:
- Go ahead with it. There is no political opposition strong enough to capitalise on it. Tell the people that in this time of difficulty we need to attract talented people even more. Thus, the need to increase salaries. This is probable especially if the budget in January is a generous one. (Strong probability)
- Go ahead with it but with smaller increases than planned. (Probable)
- Postpone it and say “we are standing with Singaporeans during this time of recession.” (Unlikely)
- Postpone it and ministers take a pay cut at the same time – to show solidarity with Singaporeans. (Unlikely)
- Third hike cancelled or abolished. (Definitely unlilkely)
In its 2006 General Elections, the PAP’s manifesto was “Staying Together, Moving Ahead”. Two years after that election, it will be interesting to see how the PAP Government live up to that declaration – especially at a time when it would, in most people’s eyes, be wise to indeed stay together with Singaporeans. Or will ministers be “moving ahead” while Singaporeans lose their jobs by the thousands come the new year? A clue about whether the Government will indeed increase ministers’ salaries will be to watch if there are any increase for the President’s pay in the coming weeks.
By the way, the PAP came into power in the elections in May, 1959. 50 years on, I am sure it is tempting for them to want to hold the next elections to coincide with that anniversary – especially when Mr Lee Kuan Yew is still around.
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“If the ministers didn’t get a pay raise, then I’ll worry”
NOTE (1): Even if senior civil servants salary were to be cut, the money is still in their coffer and they have to find way to spend it.
Every year, each ministry is given a burgeoning amount of money to the tune of hundred of millions to a handful of billions to spend.
The ministry have to find a way to burn up these money or else they may be getting less the next budget year.
Unless ministry are given less budget give each year and the money saved is channeled back to the population at large, there is little effect of senior CV getting a pay cut or lowering bonuses.
NOTE (2): I hope the government is not ramming up the GDP so as to secure fat bonuses when the effect is not filtered to the general population.
Big MNCs that were given big perks by the government setting up shop to produce high end products like pharmaceutical and ramming up GDP does little benefit to the general population.
These set-up require few labours to run the business but can push up GDP but it does little help to the general population. And the sales figure of these firms fluctuate a lot as it happen now.
For a country that’s at least 2 times smaller than the district of Johor Bahru, it’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. 84 MPs to oversee Singapore, simply amazing. That’s why our Govt is super-efficient. They
1. send you GIRO tax plan BEFORE you submit your tax returns on Apr 1st.
2. dream up EVS prepayment scheme for electricity
3. tweak ERPs more often than they clean your HDB blocks
4. dream up CPF Life so that you can feel rich for life, but is never really rich
5. start a Happy Toilet campaign while retrenched people scramble to become toilet cleaners
84 MPs, one Mas Selamat – Singapore 0, Mas Selamat 1
#50
hahah…I dun mind they pay me this kind of pay n i will let them 5% more on top of the usual income tax..
No. 50 Me “Imagine if they pay themselves just 10k a month. How much LESS income tax would they be paying? Singapore will lose out, not only on these hugely out-of-the-world talented people and income tax gains from them.
In essence, BE GRATEFUL GUYS.”
I would be grateful if they join the private sector, use their talents to help businesses grow, so that more Singaporeans can be gainfully employed. Since they can earn much more in the private sector, they will be paying more tax, just as well.
As for the Govt, let people of integrity and with a passion to serve come forward.
Basic Pay will definitely not be cut, instead it will be raised to keep up the benchmark. However, the GDP bonus will disappear for 1 year but increase in the future years. This KPI indicator is a farce, the threshold is set too low and it is not in the control of Singapore government. This is definitely not pay for performance. A better indicator should be the average pay rise for the 10 to 60% percentile of employed Singaporeans.
No. 56 cy “A better indicator should be the average pay rise for the 10 to 60% percentile of employed Singaporeans.”
Yes, I second that. The GDP is skewed at best, can be manipulated easily and doesn’t translate to actual benefits for the majority. KPIs should be measured directly off the people of Singapore, on a per capita basis.
We all are aware that our mnisters are the highest paid in the world. Our President through no fault of his own is the highest paid in the entire world. Maybe he should be sent over to America to help Obama.
One wonders whether the world knows how talented our ministers are and the huge salaries that they are paid. Americans will be amazed to know all this. Singapore should offer our ministers to america to help them over this crisis that they are at the moment in. Our SMM and SM should volunteer their expertise to the world at large.
Tell the world what they have been doing wrong and what we in singapore have done right to such an extent that we will be able to pay all our ministers pay increases at the expense of the people.
The Workers’ Party Mr Low Thia Khiang has suggested that ministers’ salary be tied to the bottom 20% of Singaporeans. Specifically, he recommended that ministers’ pay be 100 times those of the average bottom 20%.
No. 59 “The Workers’ Party Mr Low Thia Khiang has suggested that ministers’ salary be tied to the bottom 20% of Singaporeans. Specifically, he recommended that ministers’ pay be 100 times those of the average bottom 20%”
That’s the ultimate & yes, I support that. If the bottom 20% improves, that means that have really done an excellent job as leaders of a nation of people at all levels.
They will take a pay cut. They have no choice. We should see to it.
andrew low,
i doubt the govt will increase their pay.
otherwise, many people would have lost hopes in our govt.
The PAP govern is worst than Taiwan former president Tan S B. Tan took money from the rich men and big companys.The PAP govern squeezes money from all singapooreans regardless whether you are jobless or low pay workers.
10 CRUCIAL Citizens’ Wishes with effect 2009.
1. Ministers’ pay to be cut by 50%. Other senior office holders’ pay to be cut by 20%.
2. Ministers’ pension benefits to be eradicated immediately.
3. MPs must serve as fulltime civil servants. Part-time MPs are purely cosmetics and a waste of tax dollars.
4. ERADICATE GRCs totally. It is the most manipulative method of securing MP seats besides redrawing electoral boundaries.
5. Make MPs legally accountable for their respective town councils’ fund. Annual reports must be made public after vetting by established accounting firms.
6. Singaporeans should be employed directly by town councils and must be accorded priority in estate maintenance jobs through better pays and benefits. This helps to absorb the low or unskilled workforce, increases employment opportunities, etc.
7. Laws protecting ministers from investigations MUST be eradicated. No one is above the law and is subject to the same legal course as any citiizen.
8. The army, police and the judiciary MUST UPHELD impartial law and order devoid of any influence by anybody, political party, etc.
9. Journalists MUST UPHELD their responsibilities – unbiased, fair, balanced, unskewed and in-depth journalism. News publishing company should BE DEVOID of political ownership.
10. Every eligible Singaporean MUST have a chance to vote during a general election. The results will be a true measure of support for parties, policies and direction for the country.
Dream on, Harrison.
The truth is, we do not care how much these people earn as long as they do a good job. But are they doing a good job? it is callous that Singaporeans are asked to bite the bullet while the government officials enjoy fat perks and bonuses. Even the private sector management are taking pay cuts (see Straits Times yesterday) to boost morale (and morality?). But remember the party is called People’s Action party, that means if people don’t take action, these folks are going to continue to party at your expense!
Perhaps they will take a pay cut of between 15 – 25%, taking the cue from Temasak Holdings.
to quote Harrison:
’8. The army, police and the judiciary MUST UPHELD impartial law and order devoid of any influence by anybody, political party, etc’.
I wonder how the Singapore Armed Forces and Police Force could be independent of the Ruler of the Country.
patriot
I agree that their salary benchmark should be peck somehow to the salary of the bottom 10%. Only in such a way will their interest is aligned to the people of Singaporean.
The current benckmark is only tied the top earners of 8 professions which include doctors, lawyers, accountants and bankers. Whether in good times or bad, there will always be people in this group who will make bigger bucks than the previous year while the bottom 10% will see their wages cut.
In addition, their bonuses should not be just tied to GDP growth. Their bonuses should also be tied to the unemployment figures of Singaporeans (must exclude PRs and foreigners).
I propose the following :
1. 20% of the salary cap be tied to the existing benchmark
2. 80% of the salary cap be tied to the salary of the bottom 10th percentile of Singaporeans at 50 times that salary.
This 2 benchmarks will determine the maximum salary for the year.
3. Their salary be divided into 2 components, 60% of maximum salary as fixed component and 40% as variable component or bonuses
4. 50% of their bonuses be tied to GDP like existing scheme
5. 50% of their bonuses be tied to unemployment of Singaporeans
We must have a pay scale for our political leaders and senior civil servants that is aligned with the interest of the people of SIngapore and not just benchmark against the top earners in Singapore.
I think this is a tough topic as it concerns money – a person’s worth is tied to it.
Many ministers I know sacrificed many millions to join the cabinet. For example, Minister Ng Eng Hen was a top surgeon and earned close to $10 million yearly. Now as Manpower Minister, he probably earned around $2 million all in.
SO truly there are some that sacrificed to join public service for reasons best known to themselves. The recent Law Minister is also a top laywer but sacrificed a few millions to helm the law ministry.
Some may truly join the cabinet to serve or do something fruitful for the country. One can be a lawyer anytime but there is only one portfolio to be a law minister at any one time.
I am also against the sky high salary of our cabinet. It diluted the part about sacrificing yourself for country. However, people like Minister Ng earned my respect as they truly work hard and sacrificed alot to come in and serve.
There is no yardstick to measure on how much to pay our cabinet. What is a good measure? Is $1 million each enough per minister? Is the way we peg ourselves to the top 5 professions reasonable?
I think one of the main reasons for LKY to introduce the high salary range for our cabinet is that firstly there is a shortage of people who are willing and capable to join the team. So once you spotted someone suitable you don’t want to compromise the part about giving him a relevant package so that he does not lose too much when he jumps ship. He has less one consideration to contemplate when he is invited to join.
Secondly, it helps to remove the corruption factor. This is a smart move as if the cabinet is corrupt due to a low salary package, the country is being subjected to alot of fraud and malpractices.
Nevertheless, I am still not in agreement with our sky high salary package. The Australian PM here earns not more than $500,000 a year excluding perks. He has a 20 million population and well over a million kilometre of terrain under him.
He also has to deal with a partisan shadow opposition who will give him hell so that he will need to stay on his toes all the time.
However, finally, the worse blow of all is that we have no say on how much they can pay themselves. The worse form of democracy is no democracy at all. It is a monopoly of power shrouded under the mist of democracy.
Unless, we vote in another alternate political power strong enough to act as a check against the ruling party, they can even pay themselevs as much as $5 million a year and we can’t do anything about it.
I don’t think there’s a problem paying whatever salary those ministers demand,
BUT MAKE SURE THEY COME WITH A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!
I suppose the issue is less to do with salary, than the fact that the salary is determined by the ruling party themselves. I wonder why they never let the citizens decide it for them. I think Singaporeans are by and large reasonable people. Hell, if the ministers ask nicely, we might all agree to give them more even!
What I can’t stand is that while all our cookies are in the same jar, the ministers insist because they work the hardest, to stick their grubby hands into the cookie jar and decide for themselves how much they are worth.
I mean, think about it for a moment, the difference between us Singaporeans telling our foreign visitors proudly, “we pay our leaders well because they did a good job” and us telling the same visitors in embarassment, “our leaders pay themselves well because they think they did a good job.”
Hi Gilbert Goh;
there are indeed people who join the Cabinet and lose out in income. Other than those You mentioned, there are few others co-opted in that suffer similar ‘income losses’. BUT to respect them for the so-called monetary losses is to miss the Essence of the Issue of political offices.
A politician should only be respected for his/her understandings of their people states of wellbeing and the security of the Country they ruled. I would rather have those lecturers in Sociology, Political Sciences, Human Relations and other people related professionals coming into politics by ways of voluntary participations or co-opted.
Hope You realized that those handpicked into the PAP Cabinet are likely diehard party members or supporters that are loyal and devoted only to PAP the Party and not the Citizenry at large. AND THIS IS A (THE) PROBLEM. What the people wish for in a politician is one that swore allegiance to the people not to a party or other superior cabinet members.
Btw, equating remunerations(incomes) for different jobs is itself murky business. What if a patient is willing to pay a doctor 10 million US Dollars thinking that the doctor has saved his life and the whole process of healing took only six month(hypothetical). Please do not forget that within that six months, the doctor got paid anothe few millions b other patients. Note here that the doctor is doing a totally different duty.
As it is, I feel that Singapore is already plagued by blind loyalty and hero worshippings, especially to some of those Senior PAP Party Members. I will state here as I have done elsewhere many times, that the Independence of Singapore was a given as the British Empire was not able to hold on to their colonies anymore. Before Singapore, India and Malaysia were given independence, none of these three countries had to fight for their independences. India had a little wrangling with the Colonial Master, but Singapore was assured protection by the Colonial Master who roped in other nations(Anzuk Forces) to help.
Singapore, as it is today and based on the opinions in the Socio-political Blogs and the coffee shop talks, is a much less happy country than the 50s and 60s. And it is simply because the people and the Local Ruler are not seeing eyes to eyes on top of the many divides resulting from policy implementations, especially in the last two decades or so.
patriot
Telling one who does not know what greed and shame are is like performing piano recitals to cows or akin to having ducklings listening to the roars of thunder- but then some breeds like to cow or quack about…………..but, at times, deafening quiet when situation(s) calls for.
Bloody #%@^, pay rise in Jan still not enough? Haven’t sucked the people dry, have you?
Good times – raise pay
Doom times – pay remains constant
This is so similar to:
Oil price rise – increase transport / electricity
Oil price decrease – transport / electricity remains constant
Everyone do your part to decrease expenditure – since our voting rights aren’t very existent anymore.
guys, like i said, appreciate them or they will disappear. you don’t want your wifes to become maids, and you go clean toilets do you?
they will remind you again that their pay has nothing to do with the economy, whether they get 1 million or 10 million or not will not improve your lives, and that Singaporeans are just stupid and jealous because decreasing their pay or not will have no effect on anything, so why not just shut up, let them enjoy their pay and let them feel richer every month?
After reading so many comments here, I now understand WHY the garment needs so many MPs and still needing more to come, its not about work load nor about talents actually, they are recruited not to protect the country, they are here to protect the ruling party to cast votes for them, indeed a very clever move!
We should ask our ministers to make yearly declaration of their wealth! Why is it not done here when such declaration of wealth is done in Thailand?
77) pumpkin on November 23rd, 2008 12.08 am We should ask our ministers to make yearly declaration of their wealth! Why is it not done here when such declaration of wealth is done in Thailand?
They can’t and someone will not allow that to happen to protect himself from being investigated resulting in many more to surface later.
These blood suckers deserved high pay cos they need to spend all these money for future longer term hospitalisation fee. So i agreed with them that they need the next pay hike.
what can you expect from a one party rule ? Spore at this phase must have at least 2 parties to do check and balance, ministers pay themselves so sky high now with taxpayer money are a sin when yo see so many poor people are struggling to meet ends meet.
Spore moving this way by a few self-interest leaders is sadly a sure way to go down hill as a nation.
u should allow them their par increase as this was planned in the past. whats happened now is just bad timing. dun begrudge your beloved ministers their increase. they are counting on it to pay their investments and mortgages etc……
sorry for the poor singaporeans who have to suffer. after all this is an elitist society and we have no sympathy or place for others…………. :P
This thing of paying our ministers top private sector salaries is simply crapshit. Most (if not all) our ministers would not even draw half of their present salaries if they were in the private sector AFTER we stripped them of all their political connections.
Government and citizens of the world want CEO pay to be cut.
Shouldn’t ministerial pay pegged to private sector pay take a leaf from the lessons of the economic crisis?
Singapore is really a yoke. Whole world know we pay millions & millions to JOKERS who self-claim they are the 1st class leader, yet they lose BILLIONS to foreigners.
3rd pay hike for minister? f*ck the hell PAP … you really think you can do whatever you like? People are losing job and some even need to struggle for daily meals, yet you want PAY HIKES?
The Pupy ministers and mps tot that they are 1st class leaders and dreaming of pay hike, my foot if they are dumped and out of favourite by the old lee king he will be like the former minister who is now working for an Indon corp and getting less than 10% of what he was paid as a minister.
The people are already suffering like mad and these scoundrels are all in to rob the citizens big this time, knowing that their party is going to lose badly soon.
They have just announced that thanks to their poor performance in the only KPI that counts in the system they created – GDP, they will “only get” a three month bonus while the rest of the civil service gets a one month bonus. Then they have the cheek to call that a pay cut!!!
Wow!!! Amazing chutzpah!!
If on the eve of polling day, they decided to do something like cash handouts, rebates here and there, tax breaks etc, assuming the economy still in the gloom..They are going to win it big time. For the simple reasons..
1) People are have goldfish memory when it comes to minding money and neccessities. People forgets when money dangles in front of them in times of need..
carrot + donkey = run faster
2) The salary hike will happen but so does civil service pay. Civil servants will enjoy increment and variable bonus +++.
Again..carrot+ donkey = run faster..
3) The earlier budget announcement is to douse the people’s notion that the government doesn’t care. The budget aims to also to silence mismanagement of town council funds, gastronomic spending on overseas investments and also the fallout of structured products. With projected lower GDP and higher inflation plus rising deficit, another sure thing is financial assistance and more cash to be given out..
donkey + more carrots = well fed, sleepy donkey
4) Singaporeans don’t need freedom of speech or basically human whatever rights we just want our problems to be settled by our government..and after more than 50 years of rule..I think they can read exactly how to keep majority submissive and satisfied.
smart master + well fed sleepy donkey = more hard work tomorrow for donkey
Absolutely lost all respect and decency for all of them.
Singaporeans really have short memories. There was strong opposition when they started this madness of high salaries. They basically shot themsleves in the foot and lost face.
aiyoyo
pay hike?
what’s the economy outlook like for 2009?
The standard of singapore medical clinics is very good now. But of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Do you know that you can make a private person’s complaint to the UN Human Rights Council that the PAP since 1994 has increased its own salaries as Parliamentarians to absurd heights of at least six fold more than that of any other comparable office holders in the world. Their salaries top by several orders of magnitude the salaries of even the office holders of Governments of major powers like the UK and US. I think a case can be made that the PAP has systematically over a period of 50 years criminally wiped out and wasted individuals who protest and dissent against it, clearing the stage for the coup in 1994 when it first initiated the startling salary scales of Parliamentarians and has been increasing the payout exponentially till today.
We will wait and see what the WP will do about this once Parlaiment sits. If nothing happens we will find a way to report the matter of absurdly high salaries of Parliamentarians as a crime against Singapore citizen in the category of a Human Rights violation. We will seek for a fair repayment of the excess paid out to each individual Parliamentarian over his or her tenure. My fellow citizens, you do see that the millions paid out per annum topped by a lifelong pension is unsustainable. If we take no action now when these Parliamentarians are still alive and able to make good their excess takings, we cannot find no excuse to future generations of Singaporeans. We can say that we are scared of the PAP’s control of the legal system but that will be the lame excuse of the coward. This is a sacred trust we hold for the present citizens most of whom do not understand the enormity of the issue and are incapable of dealing with the heist. It is even more sacred a trust to future citizens as the exorbitantly rich pensions will be paid out to all who pass through the doors of the PAP in their self renewal program.And this will tie us up for quite some years for seriously large sums of money.
I think that we shall have to revisit this issue soon and make preparations for the complaint to the UN Human Rights Council.
I first heard of the reason given by the PAP why the Ministers have to be paid their present enormous salaries back in 1994. The gist of it was that if you do not pay them that well they will be corrupted. Holy Cow! What a fragile moral backbone these noble office holders are deemed to have
Then a few weeks ago, the PM gave on TV another reason which is even more fantastic. The gist of it was that the Ministers must be paid their astronomical sums because they will not have the opportunity to attract lucrative fees for talks and book royalties once their tenure ends. I thought to myself as soon as I heard this reasoning by the PM himself. Should the citizenry compensate these Parliamentarians for their mediocrity on the world stage?
The PAP obviously pamper themselves covertly and overtly, so much so that the PM must have heard this reasoning very often from the horses’ mouths and he may have just blurted out this inane syllogism without conscious thought. How else can I explain to myself how a well educated Cambridge Mathematician can justify a reward for being unexceptional; such a massive reward of millions of dollars per annum at that.
I have to record these two pieces of PAP reasoning for the basis of the Ministerial salaries so that the Salaries Committee does not use the same again on us. It may provoke mass insanity among Singaporeans.
Ministerial salaries are a sham and a shame on us. It reflects our cowardly nature that we allowed the PAP to push such a heist through Parliament without fighting it out with them. I think that we should report this heist to the UN Human Rights Department. It is not Genocide, murder, assassination, rape of course, but. in keeping the salaries at that grotesque eminence does impoverish us and a standing challenge to our sense of the absurd. Now the PAP have installed a committee made up of their own connected people to review their salaries. The PAP has also got to maintain the machinery of fear now well oiled in the legal and police apparatus of the country in the way judges comply to the requirements of their political masters The faceless police, ISD, has transferred their focus from going after the Enemies of the State to enemies of their friends in high places.The AG and ISD now work for Elite Lawyers who are connected with individuals of the Ruling Party. They will threaten and harass and humiliate any citizen when called upon by the elite lawyers to do so even when that citizen is involved only in domestic conflict ( with their friends) with no elements of National security or criminality.
In 5 years time they have managed to get into Singapore one million foreigners into the country.. The PAP has changed the genotype of our people in a fast and furious deluge of people. All this is done without going back to the citizenry for consultation.. Why, they wasted so many opposition candidates in their 50 year rule that comes time for them to increase their own pay, there were only 2 opposition members as against 87 PAP members in Parliament. Naturally there was also no effective countervailing voice in Parliament when they started 5 years ago to pump prime the economy by pushing in one million foreign bodies.
Nowadays you have to be suicidal to protest, as Singapore is fast becoming a rogue police state. I have come to know that elite lawyers and their firms can commandeer the whole panoply of State Institutions to help them fight their cases. I have written to the competent authorities on this for my own case but they just disregard me for the most part. In two or three instances when their underlings gave me replies, those seem to come out from their mission statement or party manifesto.
You will also find another trait of the Singapore official. He is not allowed to talk without the permission from his superiors and as his superiors are not readily to hand and the day to day issues are too numerous to handle, it turns out that all these officials cannot talk with their own mouths. Non response is their way of life. They become the imaginary people whom you write to without replies.. Yet at election time they appear like magic before you at your home , at the food centres, markets, bowing and scraping and kissing your babies.
First order of business is to get the Ministerial salaries scaled down several orders of magnitude to levels like any other country..Otherwise we would have to account to future generations of Singaporeans as to how we have been fooled so badly: to believe that the Singapore Cabinet is so special that they have to be paid several fold more than their counterparts in other developed countries, even world powers.Because they wont be offered lucrative speaking appointments or book royalties, said the PM. Should we compensate them for their mediocrity on the World stage? The other oft repeated argument by the Ruling Party’s spokesperson for paying them over the moon is that it would prevent them from corruption. I think this must be the real reason, an innate greedy predisposition.
If a man or woman is paid a fair wage, even at the Ministerial level, s/he will be normal. If overpaid, and overpaid so grossly, madness will overtake her/him. The things that happened to us especially the last five years is a phantasmagoria of a mad screwing of the populace to get more and more money, at all costs, by any means. Look at how one million foreigners gain work in Singapore during the last five years and how more than a hundred thousand people are made citizen each year. The mad dogs are bent on erasing the Singaporean from the face of the Earth.If we miss this window of opportunity to make them less mad for money, we will have to fight them like in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya five years down the road.