The relentless rising cost of living in Singapore

[LimaLipa]

Originally Posted by kuasimi

Necessary for their pockets, those fucking bastards!

[BushTracker]

The last time PAP raise GST from 5% to 7%. 2 months later (or there about) they increased their own salaries.

Let's see if this will happen again.

[sbwow]

Originally Posted by BushTracker

The last time PAP raise GST from 5% to 7%. 2 months later (or there about) they increased their own salaries.

Let's see if this will happen again.

Clown: Fuck these lowlifers working so hard so I can get better benefits. HAHA. The more you whine, the more I tax you.

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by BushTracker

The last time PAP raise GST from 5% to 7%. 2 months later (or there about) they increased their own salaries.

Let's see if this will happen again.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ministers-...043024792.html

Staff Writer, Singapore·Editorial Team
8 August 2018

'Ministers are not paid enough', says Goh Chok Tong: reports




Cut ministerial pay and the government will end up recruiting “very, very mediocre people” as office-holders, said Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong in a dialogue with South East District residents last Thursday (2 August).

“I am telling you the ministers are not paid enough, and down the road, we are going to get a problem with getting people to join the government, because civil servants now earn more than ministers,” said Goh. “Now we dare not pay ministers a good wage.”

“To any one of us here, $1 million is a lot of money. So where do you want to get your ministers from? From people who earn only $500,000 a year, whose capacity is $500,000 a year? So (when) I look for ministers, anybody who wants to be paid more than half a million, I won’t take him. You are going to end up with very very mediocre people, who can’t even earn a million dollars outside to be our minister. Think about that. Is it good for you, or is it worse for us in the end?”

The 77-year-old added that he had asked two potential candidates who were earning $5-10 million to stand in the 2015 General Election but they declined.

According to The Online Citizen (TOC) and The Straits Times, Goh was responding to a suggestion by Braddell Heights resident Abdul Aziz, 70, that ministerial salaries be cut to fund pensions for elderly people. A recording of the conversation was posted by social news site MustShareNews.com, and Goh’s staffers later provided TOC with a transcript of the exchange.

The former Prime Minister went on to cite the example of Senior Minister of State for Law and Health Edwin Tong, 48, who was a senior partner at law firm Allen and Gledhill when approached to take up his current position. Tong was earning more than $2 million annually as a senior counsel and now earns $500,000 per year, said Goh.

According to the ESM, “(Tong) said, at this stage of his life, he has got a house, he has got a mother-in-law to support, a father-in-law to support, his own parents and so on, what should he do?

“So I asked him, ‘Edwin, what are you in politics for?’ He said, ‘Here to serve.’ So I said, ‘Well, you know between $2 million and perhaps half a million, later on you hopefully become a full minister, $1 million, you have to decide which is more important.’

“He said, ‘Yes, I will take it on.’ And he felt very strongly that he could do the job.”

A controversial issue

The annual pay of political appointment-holders consists of five components: Monthly salary, 13th month bonus, Annual Variable Component (AVC) based on Singapore’s economic performance, performance bonus and a national bonus based on four socio-economic indicators.

The latter bonus can range from zero to six months, with good performers typically given three months.

Currently, the annual salary of an MR4 grade (entry level) minister stands at $1.1 million, while the Prime Minister earns $2.2 million. This is based on the assumption of an AVC of one month, good individual performance and the national bonus indicators being met.

In March, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament that the government would maintain ministerial salaries at their current level.

“The economy is going through a period of transition and the government has decided to watch the changing economic conditions and outlook further, rather than making any refinements now,” said the 63-year-old, who is also Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service.

In 2017, a committee formed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong found that the existing salary framework remains “relevant and sound”. It did, however, recommended a pay rise of 9 per cent along with “fine-tuning of the national bonus conditions” to take into consideration changing economic conditions and national outlook, said Teo.

The recommended increase was to match the respective rise in the salary benchmark for an MR4-grade minister, which is currently set as the median income of the top 1,000 earners who are Singapore citizens.

The current total annual salary of an entry level Minister (i.e. MR4) is benchmarked to 60% of the median income of the top 1,000 earners who are Singapore Citizens.

In 2007, ministerial salaries were increased by some 60 per cent.

Related stories

Yahoo Poll: Are Singapore ministers paid enough?
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/yahoo-poll...054706692.html

No change to ministerial salaries, says DPM Teo Chee Hean
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/budget-deb...061251917.html

MP Lim Wee Kiak apologises for comments on pay
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sing...084833549.html

[kuasimi]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/comment-fu...131941715.html

COMMENT: The furore over ministerial pay is gaining currency again


Nicholas Yong·Assistant News Editor
12 August 2018




It was a jaw-dropping moment, akin to a bolt of lightning from the blue. A first glance at Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong’s comments in a dialogue with South East District residents on 2 August elicited the instinctive response: is this fake news? Did he really say that?

Yes, he really did. “I am telling you the ministers are not paid enough, and down the road, we are going to get a problem with getting people to join the government…now we dare not pay ministers a good wage,” said Goh in a conversation with Braddell Heights resident Abdul Aziz, 70.

And the former Prime Minister (1990-2004) went further, “You are going to end up with very, very mediocre people, who can’t even earn a million dollars outside to be our ministers. Think about that. Is it good for you, or is it worse for us in the end?”

And just like that, the 77-year-old revived the perennial, and always contentious, issue of ministerial pay: just how much is enough? For “very, very mediocre” Singaporeans like myself who do not earn anywhere close to a million dollars, his comments also presented a false equivalence: that high pay somehow equates to a high level of competence.

Goh has since come out to say that he did not mean to call Singaporeans mediocre and that salaries are not the “starting point” in recruiting for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). But the damage had already been done.

Singapore exceptionalism





While Goh was presumably unaware that he was being recorded, it feels baffling that a politician as seasoned and popular as him would treat a controversial issue in such a seemingly blase manner.

Eleven years after ministerial salaries were last increased – by a whopping 60 per cent – it was a reminder of the late Lee Kuan Yew’s infamous claim at the time that “our women will become maids in other countries” if their pay did not go up. Teo Chee Hean, who was then Defence Minister, added, “If we don’t do that, in the long term, the government system will slowly crumble and collapse.”

It was Lee who, in 1994, advocated pegging the salaries of government ministers and top civil servants to that of the private sector. Today, Singapore has the highest paid ministers in the world, with an entry-level minister paid $1.1 million annually and the Prime Minister earning $2.2 million (including conditional bonuses).

But besides averting the destruction of Singapore, the issue has also become a political liability for the PAP, arguably even more so than hot-button topics such as train breakdowns and the influx of immigrants.

Ownself reward ownself?


It is safe to say that most Singaporeans do not begrudge our political appointment-holders being well compensated – what is in dispute is the exact amount they should be paid.

But what rankles is the seemingly arbitrary manner in which the government can raise its own salaries – an apparent case of ownself reward ownself, to paraphrase the popular saying. And while Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in March that ministerial pay would remain unchanged for now, Goh’s remarks suggest that the PAP’s mindset on the matter has not changed.

The government has often benchmarked Singapore’s performance in a wide range of areas, ranging from the economy to education, against global indicators to underscore how far the country has progressed under their rule. Yet when it comes to ministerial pay, it has noticeably shunned using the same benchmarking practice to push its case.

So what are the arguments for the exceptionalism of Singapore – and the ministers – that they can muster to justify the massive disparity between their salaries and that of their peers elsewhere? Are the responsibilities of Singapore’s ministers more demanding relative to leaders from other countries? Is the Republic a far more complex nation to govern relative to others? Do some leaders from other countries not get a significant pay cut before entering public service?


An emotive issue

This issue has assumed greater resonance in light of the rapid ascension of the 4G leadership to positions of responsibility. For instance, just three years after being elected, Ong Ye Kung is already a full minister and a contender to succeed PM Lee. One cannot help but ask: what exactly has he – and his 4G peers – done to deserve to be paid millions? Who among the 4G leaders would be bold enough to address the issue, especially when their millions are at stake?

Then there is the manner in which office-holders are often talked up as exceptional individuals who could be earning much more outside of government – ESM Goh noted that Senior Minister of State for Law and Health Edwin Tong took a hefty pay cut to take up his current appointment.

But while ministers like Tong, K Shanmugam and Ng Eng Hen indeed sacrificed much financially to work in government, this is nevertheless a fallacious argument. Consider this: a significant number of the current ministers came from the civil service and the military and have never been tested in the private sector. For some, their current salaries are likely to be the most they have ever been paid.

The arguments can carry on all day, but ministerial pay will always be an emotive issue. With a General Election due in just two years, the PAP should be wary of reviving it. Otherwise, they may well find themselves paying a political price for paying their ministers so dearly.


Related stories

Ministerial pay debate: ‘Singaporeans know quality costs money’- Goh Chok Tong
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ministeria...122652830.html

Yahoo Poll: Are Singapore ministers paid enough?
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‘Ministers are not paid enough’, says Goh Chok Tong: reports
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ministers-...043024792.html

COMMENT: Can Singapore’s elite circle turn around growing social divide?
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/comment-ca...124724650.html

COMMENT: Is Singapore becoming a catch-up nation?
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/comment-si...063112601.html

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by BushTracker

The last time PAP raise GST from 5% to 7%. 2 months later (or there about) they increased their own salaries.

Let's see if this will happen again.

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by BushTracker

The last time PAP raise GST from 5% to 7%. 2 months later (or there about) they increased their own salaries.

Let's see if this will happen again.

https://sbf.net.nz/showthread.php?t=642656&page=23


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.

[jacky43]

This April no payment of electricity bills. Include biz owners and pte properties. There is going to be big increase in May and Jun. The ruling party took back the grants with interests.

Past 3 yrs we have SG green plans. Commercial building with SG green and costs saving. Still. Bills go up. How come?

[loneyheart]

But electricity charge rate already up by 20%
What's upped will never go down
So what they dive u 1 mth free

GST going up by 1% only from next year but living expense already up by 20% to 50% ... just buy any food from yr house coffee shop

[jacky43]

The producer of crime watch cannot go straight to the point. SCAM! Past 20 yrs SCAM is easy here. Because of PR and new citizens. Eg. A Myanmar new citizen. His back ground. Junta. Good for him he gets to hid behind the ruling party.

An oversea call inform him two members of his family arrested by UN police. Pay US$1m they return home. If not? 10 yrs jailed. This guy will try to contact his family and friends. What if his 2 family members remain uncontactable?

Report to police? He has to report his back grounds and, people here will know. Ex Junta hid in Spore. No! No choice. Pay up. Sell off his property and borrow from friends.

That easy. ABC.

[sbwow]

Sadist: Let's see if anyone shall be the first one to appear on the streets begging for food. Good Luck!

May the Poorest Guy Wins! Who wants to win this?

[chasted]

Originally Posted by sbwow

Sadist: Let's see if anyone shall be the first one to appear on the streets begging for food. Good Luck!

May the Poorest Guy Wins! Who wants to win this?

Why need to beg for food? Just say things that the fucking whites don't like to hear and they'll sue until you have free food in Changi chalet

[sbwow]

Originally Posted by chasted

Why need to beg for food? Just say things that the fucking whites don't like to hear and they'll sue until you have free food in Changi chalet

haha free food, but loses freedom

[vincix12]

very indeedddd..

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by chasted

Why need to beg for food? Just say things that the fucking whites don't like to hear and they'll sue until you have free food in Changi chalet