MM LKY was dis-ingenious to claim
that without high paying salaries, top talents will not be
attracted into Government, and that questionable persons will end
up being recruited to lead the government, resulting in
mis-management of the economy, mis-management of our cash reserves,
CPF, and resulting in capital flight, unemployment, and worst of
all the scenario of our properties losing values.
These are certainly worrisome events, but are we not already
experiencing all these events since 1987, when property values,
unemployment, capital flight, reduction in CPF amounts, all having
been affected by the boom and bust of 1987, 1997, 2002, and 2005
?
Were we not paying our Singapore Ministers MILLION DOLLAR SALARY
that are already comparable to that paid to CEOs in the Private
Sector since at least before the 1997 bust ?
Singaporeans are now subjected to an uncertain future as a result
of this Ruling Political Party aka the Government and its symbiotic
self in the NTUC accepting the recommendations from the Singapore
Employers' and Singapore Manufacturers' Associations - that
Singapore Workers should be employed only on short term renewable
contracts, resulting in the Employers being given the flexibility
to trim and increase workers according to economic
conditions.
Are Singaporean Workers better off with such an uncertain
employment future ?
This can hardly happen at a worst time, when the Government had
also implemented a decision that the HDB will no longer provide any
loans for the home purchases but will pass this social contract to
the Commercial Banks to conduct these subsidised home purchase with
loans on commercial terms.
Are Singaporeans better off today then 20 years ago in 1987 ?
In 1987, Singapore experienced a sudden economic crash, and was
floundering for the next five years.
Today, in 2007, Singaporeans are still floundering from the 2002
economic bust up, with many not seeing the income levels that they
lost with wage and CPF cuts. Many Singaporeans remain unemployed or
under employed, especially those who are over 40s and into their
late 50s.
With higher wages to attract talents into politics, is MM LKY
certain that it will also not help the Alternative Parties to
attract more candidates into politics, with the prize of a Well
Paying Ministerial Post ?
It is simply sheer arrogance on MM LKY's part to think that only
those chosen by his political party will remain incorruptible,
while anyone else joining the other side are of questionable
material.
Over the last forty years, there were already three major cases of
corruption during his term as Prime Minister, two were Ministers,
and one a senior Party Member entrusted to lead a labor
union.
Those Ministers were already remunerated with wages that were
already above the average of any Singaporean Executive at that
time; and yet some Ministers could not overcome their greed but to
succumb to the privileges of their high office, and open themselves
to the larger lucrative opportunities available to them.
Will more money dull the taste for more of it, or will it simply
create an insatiable demand for more - as is happening now ?
Is this no different from those corrupt government raiding the
Nation's Reserves to pay themselves better than the citizens whom
they lead ?
It will seem that Singapore being reputed to be a law abiding
country, will legalize the atrocious scheme of raiding our
reserves, so as to make the Singapore Ministers the Highest Paid
Ministers in the World.
MM LKY proudly boasted that his government today incur a salary
bill of S$42 MILLION for a Gross Domestic Product that is in excess
of S$240 BILLION - as if the Gross Domestic Product is the result
of the hard work of management of the economy by his
Government.
If at all, the S$240 BILLION GDP is the hard work of all
Singaporean Workers - including those in the secondary supporting
roles as housewives, hawkers, retailers, transport operators,
etc.
What have the Politicians and the Government Ministers done to
ensure that such results are achieveable ?
All that it ever does is merely to spout out skeletal schemes for
the Civil Servants to flesh out, which the Ministers will
subsequently sell the concept; leaving the Singaporean Workers to
work and see to its successful outcome.
Some of the grand schemes that fell flat include the Swiss Standard
of Living for Singaporeans declared by GCT to be achieved by the
end of his Term as PM. Unfortunately, nothing much came out of it,
while we are definitely saddled with a Swiss Cost of Living, and
with the Swiss Standard of Living nowhere in sight.
