Middle class Singaporean no more.....Sigh

[kiko]

Bro : I think there are 2 option for you.

1) Sell off the car, if your job does not require cars , why need it. I had seen Singaporeans travel with their kids and wife taking bus and MRT .

2) If you have extra money , why not go upgrade , see yourself in future be more employable, and salary increase when you have a extra certificates.

Perhaps, like what the other bro say if you can cut down on restaurants is better to do so. I had seen almost every weekends , Singaporeans spending in restaurants like those in Long Beach , Sushi Teh . Almost every weekends is full house for Japanese restaurants and seafood.

Thanks

[kuasimi]

THE rising cost of living will be high on the agenda when Parliament sits on Monday.

Two MPs have tabled questions that reflect their concern on how fast-rising food prices are causing a dent in the Singaporean's wallet.

Wheat prices, for example, are at global historic highs owing to droughts in Australia and crop failures in the United States. They have, in turn, caused animal feed, and hence meat, to become more costly.

MP for Jurong GRC Halimah Yacob, who will ask Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang how the Government is tackling the situation, said more can be done to educate people on eating less-costly alternatives.

'For example, the price of chicken may be rising fast, but we can encourage Singaporeans to turn to alternative sources of protein, such as fish,' she told The Straits Times yesterday.

Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim wants to know, among other things, the impact of the hike in the goods and services tax in July on rising consumer prices.

On the property market, Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) will ask National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan for an update on the impact of the recent withdrawal of the deferred payment scheme.

The scheme allowed home buyers to pay upfront as little as 10 per cent of a property's price, with the rest paid only when the property is ready. The Government scrapped it last month to curb speculation.

Issues on the MediShield insurance scheme are also expected to receive an airing, with three questions filed.

One is from MP for Jalan Besar GRC Denise Phua, who wants Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan to clarify whether the new move to give children automatic MediShield cover will include those with special needs.

From next month, children will start to have such cover, which is for hospital stay. Insurance premiums will be paid from their parents' Medisave fund.

'As I understand it, those born with pre-existing illnesses are not included,' Ms Phua said yesterday. 'I hope these children can enjoy the same kind of medical coverage, just like normal Singaporean children.'


Five new Bills will be introduced, while another five introduced earlier are up for debate. One slated for debate is the National Registry of Diseases Bill, which calls for the setting up of a national disease database to collate data on common illnesses.

[kuasimi]

Ministers need to be paid highest in the world is because they risk losing their jobs every 5 years instead of every year.



https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!...type=1&theater

http://alexbinich.blogspot.sg/2007/04/what-it-says.html

http://siewkumhong.blogspot.sg/2007/...tement-on.html

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PDS dispels myths on ministers, civil servants pay

It responds to public's misperceptions of civil service salaries, perks and pensions



http://www.singapolitics.sg/news/aud...vt-procurement

http://theindependent.sg/govt-audits...ry-every-year/

This was revealed in the report released by Auditor-General Lim Soo Ping on Monday, that revealed significant lapses in the public sector.

Other problem areas in contract management and financial administration were also highlighted. They included an instance in which the Ministry of Finance had double-paid for goods and services worth more than $18 million through its Vital department, set up to process payments for purchases made by ministries.

In his comments, the Auditor-General criticised the way agencies treated the role of the approving authorities that have the power to award contracts. Saying that it is not a perfunctory role, he urged approving authorities to exercise scepticism in its scrutiny of bids.

[kuasimi]

http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=4237

Said Mr Lee: “The PAP makes promises they deliver. The Opposition cannot deliver.”

“If you have a flood, just carefully think who is more likely to get the drainage put right and have the flood alleviated as quickly as possible: A PAP candidate with links to the ministers and Prime Minister, or a non-PAP candidate who has become an MP, like in Potong Pasir or Hougang, and who has to manage on his own?”

“That’s a fact of life.”

Source: Today newspaper, “MM Lee explains his tough stance against Opposition, throws a challenge“, 29 April 2006.

[kuasimi]

http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.sg/2012...signation.html

Grace Fu Should Consider Resignation

Singapore has the world's most highly-paid ministers. If I recall correctly, they have held this world record for about the past 20 years. It is a record that has caused a huge amount of public unhappiness. Especially in the past decade, during which the government didn't ever seem to be particularly impressive or outstanding.

Now, finally, ministerial salaries are going to be cut. Mind you, after these cuts (which are quite substantial in percentage terms - about 36%), the ministers will STILL hold their world record. Which must surely suggest to any half-intelligent person how grossly overpaid the ministers have been all along.

But then you get the likes of Grace Fu (who is our Minister of State for something or the other). Writing on her own Facebook wall, Fu says:

“When I made the decision to join politics in 2006, pay was not a key factor. Loss of privacy, public scrutiny on myself and my family and loss of personal time were. The disruption to my career was also an important consideration. I had some ground to believe that my family would not suffer a drastic change in the standard of living even though I experienced a drop in my income. So it is with this recent pay cut. If the balance is tilted further in the future, it will make it harder for any one [sic] considering political office.” Grace Fu.
Now, lots of Singaporeans are angry with Grace Fu. The comments have come thick, fast and furious. As of right now, her Facebook post has drawn about 1,300 comments (that's about 650 times the average number of comments on her other Facebook postings). And of course, there is plenty of negative media attention, online and in the newspapers too.

Putting aside the other issues for now, I'm startled at Grace Fu's lack of political sensitivity. It was really, really stupid and unnecessary of her to write such a thing. Fu wasn't even under pressure. It wasn't as if she was at a press conference, and a belligerent journalist had just thrown an unexpected and difficult question at her, and she couldn't think fast enough about what best to say.

Instead - we can imagine it - there she was, relaxing in her living room, playing with her iPad, sipping a nice cup of tea, logging in to check her messages. And then suddenly, Fu decided to write what she wrote. On Facebook. Not in a private journal, not in a personal memo, but on Facebook.

She must have totally failed to foresee what would happen next.

What poor judgment! What a severe lack of foresight. And she's a minister, for goodness sakes. Who knows what other horrible errors she might have spoken or written, on other past occasions.

Now, of course Fu is backpedalling and she has made a statement that she had been "misunderstood". This is damage control .... for completely self-inflicted damage. LOL, that is funny.

Imagine this - you are a minister, and you say something, the public is shocked and angry. And then you say, "Oh, all of you tens of thousands of people, you've misunderstood me. I am the poor, unfortunate, misunderstood one." Sing me another song, birdie.

"Me talk nonsense. Also can sing song.

How much you pay me?"

If Grace Fu can be so badly misunderstood, then that surely says something about Grace Fu's communication skills. It is extremely difficult to get thousands of people to misunderstand you. I am sure that I could not possibly succeed in pulling off such a feat. (But then I am not a PAP minister, I lack such talent).

However - and this will surprise many of my own readers - I am not actually angry about the content, the actual substance, of Grace Fu's statement.

Why am I not angry?

Look - this woman is merely a product of the system. And what is the system that I speak of? It is the PAP recruitment system that Lee Kuan Yew decided to create, 20 years ago. A system that deliberately entices job applicants with world-record-setting amounts of money.

The inevitable result - the PAP attracts many talented political wannabes whose main interest is in the money. (Meanwhile, talented political wannabes who just hope to serve the nation can join the Workers' Party - like Chen Show Mao did).

And when the money gets cut, well, you can naturally expect the PAP ministers (at least, the more money-minded ones) to get upset. Isn't that logical? If you had come for the money, then you WOULD be upset by a pay cut, surely.

My blog post is entitled "Grace Fu Should Consider Resignation". Sounds sensationalist, doesn't it? But it isn't really. (I'm not that kind of blogger, lah). Let me just explain my thinking.

It goes like this - if any minister is really very unhappy with his or her pay, then he or she can always quit. It's not like they are being forced to be ministers.

Unhappy employees don't perform well - we know that from our own experiences in working life. It is better for the company if they quit. It is better for themselves too, for they can go elsewhere and find another job that is more satisfying for them.

Why would we expect things to be any different for our ministers? If they are not happy with their pay, they won't perform well. They should just quit and get a more lucrative job elsewhere (if they can, of course). After they resign as ministers, Singapore can replace them with new ministers who care less about the money, and care more about serving the nation.

So I say this to all the ministers - if you're not happy with your pay, please quit. Now, rather than five years later. Do yourself a favour, and do the country a favour. Just get out.

[kuasimi]

One-Third Revenue from GST Increase goes to Minister Pay Increment

How well is well-paid?

By Tan Hui Leng and Jasmie Yen, TODAY | Posted: 10 April 2007 1028

They expressed support for the need to pay top dollar for top talent in the public sector.

But Members of Parliament (MPs) who took part in yesterday's parliamentary debate on the pay hike also spoke passionately about what many Singaporeans believe to be the heart of the issue: The benchmarking formula used to determine ministerial pay.

Ang Mo Kio MP Inderjit Singh noted that Singaporeans could not expect their leaders to serve based on altruism alone. "Are we willing to leave the future of the country to chance, that we will get good people who will give up their competence without caring about their salary?" he asked.

Some MPs, however, saw problems in benchmarking ministers' pay to the private sector, pointing out to disparities in the risks taken by company chief executives and ministers and top civil servants.

Marine Parade MP Lim Biow Chuan said: "I struggle to understand what a top Admin Officer aged 32 at grade SR9 has to worry about that will justify him receiving $363,000 a year … From many people's perspectives, they take no personal risk and are at best, paid employees."

Opposition MPs Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir) and Hougang's Low Thia Khiang took issue with the fact that Singapore's ministers are paid more than their counterparts in developed countries.

MPs like Bishan-Toa Payoh's Mrs Josephine Teo, however, pointed out that ministers in other countries may make more money after their term in office ends, such as through public speaking.

Some MPs voiced concerns about the timing of announcing the pay revisions, especially with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) due to rise to 7 per cent in July.

Mr Singh said: "How do we answer the man-in-the-street when we're told that about one-quarter to one-third of the expected revenue increase this year from the GST is going to be for the proposed ministerial and civil service salary increases, about $240 million, I was told?"

Mr Low also referred to the recent debate on increasing the amounts for public assistance. "It's also ironic that we are consuming taxpayers' money and … discussing how much more of a fraction of a million to pay civil servants and ministers while we haggle over additional tens of dollars to hand out to our needy and disadvantaged citizens," he said.

Some MPs who supported the pay hike also suggested that the salary benchmarking could be finetuned, such as pegging ministers' salaries to more realistic markers such as top men in private equity firms and top companies based on market capitalisation.

[kuasimi]

‘Reasonable pay will help to maintain a bit of dignity’

Member of Parliament Lim Wee Kiak of the Nee Soon group representation constituency (GRC) defended ministerial salaries by saying a reasonable payout helped maintain "dignity" for politicians.

He was quickly slammed by netizens, many of whom pointed out in various posts on the Web that "dignity" should not be justified by salary alone.

The multi-million dollar pay of ministers was a hot-button issue in Singapore's recent General Election, which saw the ruling People's Action Party win 81 out of 87 seats but at a significantly lower share of the total votes.

Following the results, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the formation of a committee to review the "basis and level of political salaries". Any pay changes would take effect from 21 May this year.

"If the annual salary of the Minister of Information, Communication and Arts is only $500,000, it may pose some problems when he discuss policies with media CEOs who earn millions of dollars because they need not listen to the minister's ideas and proposals. Hence, a reasonable payout will help to maintain a bit of dignity," Dr Lim told LianHe ZaoBao in Chinese.

In reaction, Francis Oen postedon Facebook: "Hi Wee Kiat.. Suggest you clarify your statement. Does it mean that only $ talks?! ... And if someone earns less, does it mean he cannot have dignity?"

Winnie Lim tweeted: "So according to Dr Lim Wee Kiak's theory, our ministers will ignore Obama because he earns less than all of them."

On his Facebook page, Dr Lim said that his quote was taken out of context.
"Minister's pay issue is a sensitive one. There must be a balance. After all, capable individuals who are willing to come forward to serve should not so because of pay and perks," he replied to a user's question about his quote.

He added, "On the other hand, they do have families and dependents and need to consider for retirement, etc."

[kuasimi]

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew called for a sense of proportion yesterday, pointing out that the annual wage bill for ministers and all office holders is $46 million - or just 0.022 per cent of Singapore's total economic output.

It was an ' absurdity', he said, for Singaporeans to quarrel over whether ministers collectively should be paid $10 million or $20 million more, when an economy worth $210 billion was at stake

'The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government,' he said in his first comments on impending salary increases for ministers and top civil servants. 'You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again.'

Singaporeans' asset values would also disappear, he warned, adding that 'your apartment will be worth a fraction of what it is, your jobs will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries'.

He said the present system of benchmarking ministers' pay to top private sector salaries was 'completely above board' and allowed the Government to recruit 'some of the very best' to lead the country

When it was put to him that people hoped for leaders who were willing to make sacrifices and who were not there for the money, he replied that these were 'admirable sentiments'. But he added that 'we live in the real world'.

His bottom line: if the Government could not pay competitive salaries, Singapore would not be able to compete and 'we're not going to live well'.

[kuasimi]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/wo...ref=leekuanyew


Singapore’s Highly Paid Officials Get Richer



By SETH MYDANS

Published: April 10, 2007


Correction Appended

SINGAPORE, April 9 — How much money does it take to keep a government minister in Singapore happy?

The government says a million dollars is not enough, and on Monday it announced a 60 percent increase in ministers’ salaries, to an average of $1.9 million Singapore dollars, or about $1.3 million, by next year.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s pay will jump to about $2 million — five times the $400,000 earned by President Bush.

In this nation where the bottom line truly is the bottom line, the argument goes, you have to pay to get them and you have to pay to keep them clean.

“If we don’t do that, in the long term the government system will slowly crumble and collapse,” Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean told reporters last month. “Corruption will set in, and we will become like many other countries, and face the problems that many other countries face,” The Straits Times, Singapore’s largest-circulation newspaper, quoted him as saying.

In announcing the pay increases on Monday, Mr. Teo, who also oversees the civil service, said: “We don’t want pay to be the reason for people to join us. But we also don’t want pay to be the reason for them not to join us, or to leave after joining us.”

Singapore’s pay system was created in 1994 by the nation’s founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. It pegged the salaries of government ministers and top civil servants to the money they might earn at the top of the private sector.

Under that formula, ministers are to be paid two-thirds of the median of the top eight earners in each of six professions: accounting, law, banking, engineering, multinational companies and local manufacturing.

There has been no public sign of discontent among the men and women who run Singapore, but last month the prime minister noted that they were earning just 55 percent of that benchmark. Hence the raise for the three dozen men and women who run Singapore.

Defending the system against an unusual public yelp of pain, Mr. Lee, whose title is minister mentor, painted a horrifying picture of a Singapore governed by ministers who earn no more than ministers elsewhere.

“Your apartment will be worth a fraction of what it is,” he said. “Your jobs will be in peril, your security will be at risk, and our women will become maids in other people’s countries.”

It is true that Singapore has one of the most efficient and corruption-free governments in the world. Transparency International, a private monitoring agency, recently listed it as the fifth most corruption-free nation of 163 surveyed.

It is Asia’s second-richest country after Japan, with a gross domestic product per capita of about $31,000. The first Prime Minister Lee said it could well afford to pay its leaders top dollar.

The average Singaporean earns roughly $3,000 a month, and the government has voiced concern over a widening gap between rich and poor. The ministers’ pay was approved three months before the sales tax is to be increased by 2 percent.

Talk of the pay raise drew criticism here that included letters to newspapers and an online petition that has more than 800 signatures.

“I am sure Enron and Worldcom paid more than top dollar for their top executives, and look where their companies are now — six feet under,” Mohamad Rosle Ahmad wrote to the editor of The Straits Times.

The elder Mr. Lee said naysayers needed a reality check. “I say you have no sense of proportion; you don’t know what life is about,” he said.

“The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government,” he added. “You get that alternative, and you’ll never put Singapore together again.”

The Straits Times quoted him as saying his current salary as minister mentor was about $1.8 million.

Some Singaporeans suggested that other motivations should also come into play for government jobs.

“What about other redeeming intangibles such as honor and sense of duty, dedication, passion and commitment, loyalty and service?” asked Hussin Mutalib, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore, in a Straits Times online forum.

Carolyn Lim, a prominent writer, suggested in an essay that Singapore needed a little more heart to go along with its hard head.

“To see a potential prime minister as no different from a potential top lawyer, and likely to be enticed by the same stupendous salary, would be to blur the lines between two very different domains,” she wrote.

The minister mentor brushed aside such concerns. “Those are admirable sentiments,” he said. “But we live in a real world.”

Correction: April 13, 2007



An article on Tuesday about the high salaries of Singapore government officials misstated the given name of a prominent writer who suggested in an essay that comparability with the private sector should not be the only consideration in setting government salaries. She is Catherine Lim, not Carolyn.

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by kuasimi

[kuasimi]

http://forums.$$$$$$$$$$$$.com.sg/cu...e-1284659.html

http://forums.$$$$$$$$$$$$.com.sg/ea...d-4583285.html


Dr Balaji Sadasivan promises lower healthcare costs if PAP given strong mandate

SINGAPORE : Dr Balaji Sadasivan, who is a member of the People's Action Party (PAP) team contesting Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency, addressed concerns over healthcare costs at a PAP rally on Saturday.

He said given a strong mandate, the PAP would continue to find ways to make healthcare affordable for older Singaporeans.

Dr Balaji said, "Everyone is concerned about the cost of healthcare. When you go to neighbouring countries, in public hospitals, the care is very cheap. But whenever Singaporeans go there, the first thing they want to do is to transfer to a hospital in Singapore, cause the quality of healthcare is excellent, which is why the life expectancy of Singaporeans is so much longer than those of citizens of neighbouring countries.

"But in the next five years, if you give us a strong mandate, we will find ways to make healthcare affordable and more convenient for more Singaporeans. You have heard Minister Khaw Boon Wan on the new CPF rules that allow you to use CPF or Medisave account for outpatient care. This will help many older Singaporeans. We will also reorganise care for elderly, so that your many illnesses can be looked after by one doctor, bringing down the cost of your healthcare, but (to) do this, we need a strong mandate from you."

Meanwhile, PAP candidate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Inderjit Singh, said there is no need for the opposition to be represented in Parliament.

He told the crowd at a PAP rally that the party is able to provide its checks and balances in governance.

"Now you must have seen in Parliament...that there are MPs from the PAP who were...willing to challenge the government to question their policies, and more importantly to provide constructive criticisms in parliament. And unfortunately, those MPs are not the opposition MPs, those are the PAP MPs, like myself.

"In fact, if you listen carefully in Parliament, sometimes the opposition MPs look like they are PAP MPs, and the PAP MPs, like the few that I mentioned, including myself, look like opposition MPs." - CNA/ms

[kuasimi]

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...ner-pap-member


http://therealsingapore.com/content/...ex-pap-members

http://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/04/...pport-the-pap/

I thought past 30 years Singapore had cheap labour from Third World nations so why are food prices still increasing and why is cost of living increasing? Why every year inflation is record 6% ?
Cheap labour is useless when against greedy landlords, high rentals and high utilities ??

Why standards of Singapore Street Food have fallen greatly and disappearing over the last 10 years? The root causes are PAP Government policies.

Government stopped building cheaper rentals Hawker Centres 10-15 years ago and started buidling food courts and shifting burden of street food to private commercial Food Courts and coffeeshops run by mostly PAP members and RC members. All are SMEs.

Rents are exploding at most Food Courts and coffeeshops run by landlords Kopitiam, Food Republic, Banquet, NTUC Food, Coffeeshop Companies etc thus driving genuine Hawkers out of business.

In the past, rents are very low at Hawker Centres and good hawkers are rewarded for their good food by making huge profits each day. Some went on to become millionaires.

Today, the private food court groups and coffeeshop groups as landlords are increasing rental every year. Even if the hawkers serve fantastic food with lots of customers, the hawkers earn little profit margin.

As most profits go to rentals, the hawkers find little incentives to remain as hawkers and to improve the food quality. This is why today, most food courts and coffeeshop stalls are run by foreigners from China, India, ASEAN on a fixed pay. They sell 10 or 100 plates per hour also same pay so no motivation to improve the food. Profiteering replaces serving better food.

The recent news about a HDB coffeeshop at Ang Mo Kio change hands for $28 million struck fear in many consumers. Where does it end? Hawkers like taxi drivers are no longer working for themselves but working for private food operators.

Even a new Hawker Centre at Sengkang was sold to Kopitiam by government. Privatising hawker centres was a disaster. The Sengkang Hawker Centre has few hawkers. Many stalls are not rented out as rents can hit 5 digits. The stalls that remained are run by foreigners like PRC cooking Char Kway Teow.

PAP plans to privatise all Hawker Centres left remaining. If this policy continues, sooner or later, Singapore Street Food will disappear for good. These days, want to find a good Mee Siam or Mee Rebus is also very tough.


In 20 years time, if PAP remains as government, there will not be any Singapore left for Singaporeans. Yu Sheng will no longer be available in Singapore as Chinese from China set up more China eateries and China restaurants and China Chinese become majority in Singapore. By then the PAP MPs, PAP Ministers and Civil Servants responsible for the ultra liberal immigration and ultra liberal labour policies would have cash out,empty the coffers and left Singapore.

Street Food prices kept increasing each year but food quality kept on declining each year. Vote PAP out to vote out PAP policies.

[jacky43]

I forgive myself for having a flu bec had plans to visit PT this pm. My payday lah! You guys allreally saw it.

Thats the way it is the people in office need new comers. Actually other countries does not practice this and the ruling party still hold on to power. Serious the most powerful man should come out with better plans. Not that he bury somethings into a hole, 50 yrs later after his passing not his problems we had no jobs no biz and our girls had to work at Ocean hotel.

All born locals should tighten our belts. Downgrade to smaller cars I advice my nephew to take public transport. He said he could borrow $ and 1/2 later purchase a new car. I chide him he is driving petrol car daily he should have enough driving then to drive to and from work. But he said he wants to show off thats he is doing well.

Again as his uncle I had to support him so I keep my mouth shut.

[kuasimi]

[Herus]

How come the thread become so political?