During a dialogue session yesterday with the PAP’s
“feedback” unit REACH, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tried to
downplay the significance of Singapore’s widening income gap when
asked by one of the participants.
He claimed that what’s really “important” is not the “absolute
gap”, but whether those at the bottom are being helped to move
up.
“Supposing the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, comes to
live in Singapore. The Gini coefficient will get worse. But I think
Singapore will be better off. Even for the lower-income
Singaporeans, it will be better. This is because people like Mr
Slim, a businessman and philanthropist, could start businesses here
and create more jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans,” PM Lee
was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
The Gini coefficient measures the income gap between the poor
and the rich within a country. Saved for a slight dip in 2008,
Singapore’s income gap has widened in the last ten years due to the
PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies which have
brought an relentless influx of foreign workers into Singapore.
Singapore has the largest income gap between the rich and the
poor among the 30 most developed economies in the world after Hong
Kong.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, the easy
availability of foreign workers in Singapore has depressed the
wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and
led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
Singapore’s remarkable GDP growth in the last decade or so was
fueled largely by foreign workers which help keep labor costs low
thereby inflating the GDP output artificially in the process.
An unknown percentage of PAP ministers’ multi-million dollar pay
package is pegged to GDP growth – the higher the growth, the more
money they bring home.
Prime Minister Lee earns about $3 million dollars annually or
more than 6 times that of U.S. President Barack Obama. He is
expected to get a 8.8 percent pay rise this year even as the real
earnings of Singaporeans continue to decline by 3.2 percent.
Like his father PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew, PM Lee does not
appear to be too worried by Singapore’s widening income gap.
“What really matters is whether we can benefit the low
income Singaporeans so that they have a decent standard of living,
and hope for a better future, for themselves and their
children,” he explained.
He also proclaimed that the PAP has done “a lot” for the
poor:
“We are not doing badly. We do a lot for
them.”
During a ministerial dialogue at NUS last year, the elder Lee
said that the income gap matters “little” so long the government
continues to create jobs for Singaporeans.
With no alternative news source to counter PM Lee’s arguments,
many Singaporeans will continue to believe PM Lee’s assertion that
the PAP has indeed done “a lot” for poor and needy
Singaporeans.
Perhaps the state media should consider interviewing Madam Zheng
below and hear her views:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwmVcb9cyFA&feature=player_embedded
TR March 28, 2010
