March 19, 2010 by admin
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Written by Our Correspondent
Despite the best of attempts by the state media to hide the
truth by censoring critical reports of the PAP and to obfuscate
matters by providing dodgy statistics, an increasing number of
Singaporeans are seeing through the propaganda it has been churning
out on a daily basis.
Both Finance Minister Tharman and PAP MP Halimah Yacob denied
patently in Parliament two weeks ago that the wages of Singaporeans
have declined over the last few years no thanks to the relentless
influx of cheap foreign workers.
One does not need to be an economist to understand the simple
fact that wages can never increase when there is an abundance of
cheap foreign labor.
For example, it is relatively easy for fresh engineering
graduates to command a monthly starting salary of $2,500 and above
ten years ago, but with cheap China and Indian engineers flooding
the labor market now, they will consider themselves lucky if they
can land a job which pays over $2,000.
A UBS report published last year revealed that the real earnings
of Singaporeans have declined by 8 percent between the years 2006
and 2009.
Its findings were corroborated by a Wall Street Journal
editorial months later which showed that the relentless influx of
foreigners over the years has depressed the wages of ordinary
Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and led to an overall
decline in the standards of living.
Neither article was published or highlighted by the mainstream
media which continues to espouse the official view that the wages
of Singaporeans are increasing till an authoritative report from
the Manpower Ministry demolished its lies once and for all:
“Nominal earnings decreased over the year by 1.6% in the
fourth quarter of 2009, easing from the 3.0% decline in the
preceding quarter. Earnings in 2009 declined by 2.6%, after rising
by 5.4% in 2008. After adjusting for inflation (2009: 0.6%, 2008:
6.6%), the decline in real
earnings was 3.2% in 2009, deeper than the
contraction of 1.2% in 2008.”
[Source:
Ministry of
Manpower]
As we can see from the above figures which lumps both PRs and
citizens together as one single category, the real earnings of
local workers have declined since 2008, but this is only half the
picture.
If we plot the real earnings together with the population of
foreigners in Singapore, we will get the graph below, courtesy of
Kojakbt, moderator of 3in1 kopitiam:
All the figures were obtained from Singstat. As we can see
for ourselves, the plummet in the real earnings of Singaporeans
occur after 2007 when the inflow of foreigners started to shoot
up.
In 2008 alone, there were more than 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new
citizens, not to mention the number of foreigners on WP, E and S
passes.
With so many competitors in a limited job market, will we expect
the wages to go up?
In other countries, the government will take active measures to
protect the interests and livelihoods of its citizens first and
only then will they accept foreign workers in sectors where there
is a dearth of local workers such as the practice in Australia, New
Zealand and Canada.
Any government which dares to replicate what the PAP has done
will either trigger mass street protests from the people or get
voted out of office in the next general election.
The PAP is able trample on Singaporeans with impunity because
there is no opposition in Parliament to check on it and there is no
way it will lose power through the ballot box as it controls all
institutions of the state.
Unless Singaporeans realize the importance of regaining their
own political rights, they will forever be on the losing end with
no bargaining power.
- Temasek Review
RElated:
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/18/declining-wages-of-singaporeans-and-the-continued-denial-of-pap-leaders/