COMPETENT CONSTRUCTIVE COMPASSIONATE
The Truth About:
Ministers' Pay
25 March 2009
AS A MATTER of transparency and public interest, cabinet ministers are
duty-bound to declare their incomes and assets. The Singapore Democrats
have been calling, and do so again here, for the Government to make
public such information. Unfortunately the demands have met with silence
that a cemetery would be proud of.
In 1994, ministerial salaries were amended. They were calculated based
on a formula that pegged with the ministers’ pay to the highest paid
professions in the country.
The Elections
25 March 2009
IN THE ABSENCE of genuinely free and fair elections, the act of voting becomes a treacherous impostor of democracy. In Singapore, the Elections Department is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Office. Because it conducts its business largely away from public scrutiny, many are as convinced of its impartiality as they would be the act of a ventriloquist over the radio.
The Media
25 March 2009
SOON AFTER IT CAME into power in 1959, the PAP started its campaign to rid Singapore of a free media. One of the first victims was the Straits Times, the country’s only morning broadsheet. Then-editor Lesley Hoffman had been critical of the PAP and knew that his days as a journalist in Singapore were numbered when Lee Kuan Yew became the prime minister. For his own safety, Hoffman eventually left the country after which the newspaper was reconstituted. Today, the publication functions primarily to echo the government’s stance.
The CPF System
25 March 2009
WHEN THE PAP became the government in 1959, it increased the CPF
contributions through the years, raising them to as much as 50 percent
in 1984 and 1985 before the 1985 recession forced the government to
bring the rates back down.
The original intent of the CPF was to help workers save for their old
age and for them to be less dependent on the state when they are no
longer economically productive. Few quarrelled with this notion. Since
then, however, the system has allowed members to use their savings to
finance their homes, pay medical bills, service insurance policies and
even punt on the stock market.
Poverty in Singapore
25 March 2009
THERE IS THIS MYTH that Singapore is a rich country and its citizens are
well-taken care of. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 1998
United Nations Human Development Index showed that Singapore ranked 28
on the list behind countries like Barbados and Malta.
In fact
many households earn so little that they cannot afford to give their
children pocket-money for school, resulting in the students going hungry
for the day.
Labour
25 March 2009
SINCE THE 1960s when the government used the ISA to imprison trade
unionists, the PAP has launched a relentless campaign against trade
unions. In 1966, the government passed the Trade Unions (Amendment) Act,
making strikes and other industrial actions illegal unless approved
through secret ballot by a majority of a union’s members. Sympathy
strikes were also outlawed, as was the formation of a federation of
unions for workers in essential services.
