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some jarring figures

i read this somewhere online...very disturbed by it. please read it.
too bad i can't vote at this GE.
singaporeans need to wake up. behind all those smiles and reassurance, u know they are sitting on their big fat paycheck dressed in those all white uniforms saying that they know how hard life is for singaporeans. yeah we know...life is very hard if u are not working for the parliment. how can we belive that the pap knows? what they get a month is more than annual take home pay of 80% of singaporeans? is this acceptable? so do u think they are in politics for the love of people? with just under S$100,000 a month, think again.


Singapore Ministers Pay, Legitimised Corruption
Singapore Review, 2 May 2003 (updated May 2005)

By Mellanie Hewlitt

The headlines blared loudly in the 2 May 2003 issues of the Straits Times and usiness Times "Pay cut? Ministers ready to lead by example: DPM", announcing to the entire world this selfless act of leadership by Singapore's Ruling Elite.

In what appeared to be an initial move to reduce severely inflated salaries, to more reasonable industry standards, Singapore's Ruling Elite have bowed to public pressure and hinted at accepting a pay cut.

Or have they?

What exactly does "Leading By Example" mean? Lets try to put some substance behind those brave words. As of last count, average take home pay of a Singapore minister was well in excess of SGD100,000/- a month.

The below table puts things back in proper perspective: (these are basic figures as of July 2000 and did not include last year's pay hikes or other benefits. Otherwise the updated numbers may well be much larger)

1. Singapore President's Basic Salary US$1,483,000 (SGD$2,373,100)*a year Singapore Prime Minister's Basic Salary US$1,100,000 (SGD1,958,000) a year

Minister's Basic: US$655,530 to US$819,124 (SGD1,166,844 to SGD1,458,040) a year

2. United States of America President: US$200,000 Vice President: US$181,400 Cabinet Secretaries: US$157,000

3. United Kingdom Prime Minister: US$170,556 Ministers: US$146,299 Senior Civil Servants: US$262,438

4. Australia Prime Minister: US$137,060 Deputy Prime Minister: US$111,439 Treasurer: US$102,682

5. Hong Kong Chief Executive : US$416,615 Top Civil Servant: US$278,538 Financial Sec: US$315,077


Source: Asian Wall Street Journal July 10 2000 *Singapore President's salary which was updated in 2005 from the Singapore Straits Times

In relative terms, less then 20% of Singaporeans here have take home salaries

exceeding SGD100,000/- A YEAR.

In stark contrast, BASIC SALARY FOR A MINISTER STARTS AT SGD1,166,844 A YEAR,OR JUST UNDER SGD100,000 A MONTH.

What these ministers earns in just ONE MONTH exceeds the ANNUAL TAKE HOME

salary of 80% of Singapore's income earning population. Lets not even begin to compare annual packages which will exceed SGD1 million easily.

With the above numbers and figures now in perspective, it is easier to give substance to the words "leading by example". Several facts are noteworthy here;

a) That the ministerial salaries are grossly out of proportion, even when compared with their counterparts in much larger countries (US and UK) who have far heavier responsibilities.

b) That these salary reductions were long overdue. In the past, such handsome remuneration were "justified" on the back of resounding performance. However, Singapore's economy has been in the doldrums of a recession for several years now (with beginnings reaching as far back as the 1997 Asian economic crisis). This economic barometer is a rough measure of performance and implies that ministerial salaries were due for review at least 3-4 years ago.

c) That adjustments should be made to bring them back within the industry benchmarks. Taking the salary of US vice president as a rule of thumb, the percentage for reductions should start at 50% of current pay. Even if a Singapore minister takes a 50% pay-cut, he would still be earning much more then the US vice president.

d) The percentage reductions should greater then 50% if the intent is to bring the salaries within the perspective of Singapore's domestic scene.

With such inflated figures, it is understandable why the local government controlled media (Singapore Press Holdings) have taken pains to exclude mention of actual numbers for the world to see. The numbers would be too glaring and no amount of window dressing or creative writing could have reconciled these numbers with a sane figure and restored credibility.

Also relevant is the question whether such highly paid million dollar ministers can ever relate to the plight of the average man on the street. The remarks of Mrs Goh Chok Tong, that a SGD600,000/- per annum salary (of NKF CEO) is PEANUTS, is a harsh reflection of the real mind-sets, priorities and values of Singapore's million dollar ministers. And it is these same million dollar elitist bureucrats who will shape and determine public policies which will touch on the daily lifelihoods of every Singaporean.

It is unlikely that Singapore's Ruling Elite will accept such huge salary cuts. Exactly How much and when the ministerial pay-cuts takes effect is not revealed. Ask any man on the street and 9 out of 10 responses indicate many agree the current ministerial salaries are grossly inflated, especially in these lean and difficult times.

Said a long time forumer from an internet political chat group:

"First of all the Ministers are NOT leading on pay cut. Workers' salaries have been drastically reduced since the beginning of the recession while thousands have been unemployed. so the Ministers are NOT LEADING. they are only CATCHING UP. And they have several decades to catch up on."

"Secondly, how much of a pay cut will Ministers take? 10%? 20%? unless its a cut that will affect their lifestyles, it is merely symbolic and they would still not know what it feels like to be a normal worker. as such, this is not Leading by Example. Its just another bogus political propaganda stunt"

A 29 yr old executive who requested to remain anonymous admitted sheepishly ; "The numbers (ministerial salaries) are a national embarrassment really, because it reflects the underlying materialistic value systems of Singapore Ministers. No matter how you look at it, the fact remains that our ministers are money faced, and these are supposed to be Singapore's leaders, with value systems that Singaporeans should follow." "It (the ministerial salaries) puts Singapore in a bad light in the eyes of the world. The rest of Singaporeans really put in an honest days work for every penny they earn. And the process for review and approval of the ministerial salaries is also a joke. Imagine sitting on the board and approving (on White Paper)your own salary increments! Its all a wayang show".

This also raises the question as to the authenticity of the actual process for review and approval of cabinet minister's salaries. Who decides on these numbers? Is there independence and transparency?

Veteran opposition figure J.B. Jeyaretnam on Wednesday, Nov 20, 2002 challenged Singapore government ministers to take a pay cut to show they understand the economic hardships faced by the public. And the over-riding concern is that Singapore's Ruling Elite are unable to appreciate the economic hardship that the masses face in these tough times.

The growing public resentment comes afew months after PM Goh's careless comments that "lay-offs were not all bad", drew a backlash from the public with a flood of e-mails being sent to the foreign press to register public indignation.

It is a revelation that when the "paycuts" were finally effected they amounted to a miniscule 10% haircut from the massively bloated ministerial salaries.

It is also a revelation that barely a year later (in June 2004) the bloated ministerial salaries were restored and increased beyond their original levels even as the rest of Singapore was still struggling in the throes of a recession. (There were no CPF restorations for the rest of working Singaporeans).

Source Sg_Review group

i'm spending alot more time on this place compared to the time i should be spending on my reading for this saturday's paper...

excuse me, is this a free country?

i think sooner or later, we need to ask this question. do we have the freedom of expression? the freedom to question and doubt? the freedom to disagree? the freedom to stand up again stronger forces? freedom to criticise authourity openly? freedom to say no to death penalty? freedom to demand things for the better? once in a while, someone brave enough will step up and question this, and straight away he lost his rights of freedom. and that person will help us see what are the real problems we are facing now. sometimes we try to achieve something really far, and high, we became blind to what is happening ard us, happening to the people at the bottom...
although he will not be sucessful (at least this time round) in achieving his goals, he did made some ppl question about our freedom and democracy. his harsh and honest words pierce right through the polished and "always let u feel damn good about this place" speeches. although nothing he said reduced the amount of respect i have for our forefathers and their governement, the implication of listening to the real side of the story from real people changed my perspective in this whole whirpool of ideologies and promises.

wasted

had a bad day...stupid evening...made me feel like an idiot.
everything is so wasted...stupid decision... anyways, i just :

1) switchoff the lights
2)lie down on my sofabed
3)switch on my laptop with Thievery Corporation playing from iTunes (Thank God for them to comfort my wasted mind)
4)do nothing...tried to drain all things that require thinking out of my body
5)decided to drop the idea of studying tonight
6)chill and relax...wrote this after making a playlist of chill and comfort songs on itunes.
7)enjoy the night, by not studying and not thinking about what happened.

i love myself.

a moment of still and silence

i was studying (or rather trying to ) for my archi construction exams coming up this friday, and my mind just took off from all the notes and diagrams to somewhere far...and i stayed there, still and silent, in my thoughts. it was a silent night, and the tick tocks of my clock was louder than usual. i was thinking...thinking about many things. things which i use to be passionate about. things i always day dreamt about. things random, things close to my heart.

1) insecurities

after this very difficult sem, i've seen many ppl fall and break apart in studio. some sailed thru, and most struggled in my studio. i remembered not being able to sit in frnt of my workstation for more than 15 mins cos ppl are asking questions about design, detailing, revit, autocad, viz...and i was walking here and there the entire night eve of submission. i tried to help as much as possible, with patience and sincerity. i wasn't anymuch better than them. its just that i explored the computer progs more than them and eariler than them, and had extra coaching from david. i was just passing knowledge ard. most of the time, i couldn;t help them...lingwei should know this better than anyone else. anyways, i just thought at the end of the submission, will our friendship be more than studiomates and a helpdesk relationship? i have this awful feelin it will. maybe after the sem ends, no one will call my help line anymore...
why am i feeling like this? its nothing much actually. its not affecting me...just a random thought that came to me while insch earlier to submit my portfolio. submission is at 10 and everyone disappeared after that. its like...u rush to sch, to hand in ur stuff, and rush back to study. i rushed back too...thats why i was wondering if we are just studio mates. we only relate to each other because of work.
but again, its the exams period, and everyone should be rushing home to study. so...whatever...

i think i am insecure. thats why i'm having these thoughts. i dun exactly know if it is really insecurity, but i can never survive in an environment where ppl ard me are not my friends. i need friends whom i can connect with and have some relationship with, other than sch stuff and a helpdesk relationship. Maybe ppl dun talk to each other like they care anymore. i dun think i can survive archi if everyone is everyone's competition. i dun perform under stress and competition.

so do u call that insecurity? or overexpectation of ur friends? or a naive belief of human relationship in sch still works? maybe i read too much in friendship, placed too much emphasis on relationhips between people.

2) relationships

as far as i want to believe i've established some kind of relationship with friends from archi, my relationship with di is getting weird. sometimes i really feel so close to her...to a point where i can say 2 words, and she can read my mind from that 2 words ( it usually happen one way. she needs to say 200 words to get a 2 word idea across to me ). or even reading each other's tone from a phonecall, or even the look on each other's face. but there are times i feel really far away from her. it usually happen ard 3am in the morning. thats why i usually try to sleep b4 3am. its my saddest time of the day, or night, or day...whatever. at 3am, i'll be normally doing models, drawing, or studying, and definately missing di. i feel most lonely ard that time, and i miss her an awful lot at that time. i can't call her and hear her voice because she sleeps at 11 plus, and we dont even call each other before sleeping. most of the time she will call me, cos i dun remember when is the last time i slept earlier than her.

3) spiritual health

i feel thankful for so many blessed things in my life. just feel really bad that i didn't use them to glorify god at all. i'm not even shining for god in my sch, or telling my friends about God's wonderful love. i feel that i'm this selfish kid who is holding on to something very percious and refusing to share. i should really be thankful and stop complaning. should improve my spiritual health and get closer to God. need to pass these blessings to ppl i love too...

4) studies

i'n really bad at studying. never a mugger or a smart kid. always been so average in my studies. my archi contruct notes are actually 1 inch thick. i'm way too slow and way too relaxed.

i no longer have the interest to write here anymore. i have no more interest in asking myself what to record and what to share.i basically lost interest in myself. so good bye, so long and good night.

i no longer have the interest to write here anymore. i have no more interest in asking myself what to record and what to share.i basically lost interest in myself. so good bye, so long and good night.