Monday December 18, 3:04 PM Reuters
Income gap tears at Singapore social fabric
By Geert De Clercq
SINGAPORE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - When Wee Shu Min, the teenage
daughter of a Singapore member of parliament stumbled across the
blog of a Singaporean who wrote that he was worried about losing
his job, she thought she'd give him a piece of her mind.
She called him "one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming
leeches in our country" on her own blog and signed off with
"please, get out of my elite uncaring face".
Wee was flamed by hundreds of fellow bloggers, but when her father
Wee Siew Kim -- an MP in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's
constituency -- told a Singapore newspaper that "her basic point is
reasonable", the row moved well beyond the blogosphere.
The episode highlighted a deep rift in Singapore society and was an
embarrassment for the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) and prime
minister Lee, who has made the reduction of the income gap one of
the priorities of his new government.
"Coming from an MP in the prime minister's constituency, these
comments really were political dynamite," political commentator
Seah Chiang Nee told Reuters.
"If the political arrogance and elitism get any worse, the PAP will
lose more electoral ground," he added.
Singapore is Asia's second-richest country after Japan with a gross
domestic product per capita of about $27,000, ranking between EU
member Italy and Spain. But in terms of income disparity, Singapore
is in altogether different company.
Singapore's Gini index -- which measures inequality of income
distribution among households -- of 42.5 puts it between Burundi
and Kenya, the UN Human Development Report 2006 shows.
"Yes, the gini coefficient is very high. Through housing, health
care and education, we have tried to narrow the income gap, but not
through wages," National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told
Reuters in an interview last month.
"WELFARE AS A DIRTY WORD"
Singapore pays no employment benefits, no pensions and has no legal
minimum wage, but education is cheap and excellent, health care is
subsidised and the government gives subsidies to first-time buyers
of government-built flats.
Last month, Singapore's first parliament session since the May 6
poll was dominated by the inequality theme.
PM Lee ruled out the introduction of old-age pensions, a minimum
wage or European-style welfare.
"We have treated welfare as a dirty word. The opposition, I think
the Workers' Party, has called for a 'permanent unconditional
needs-based welfare system'. I think that is an even dirtier five
words," he said in a speech on Nov. 13.
But he acknowledged that since the Asian financial crisis in 1997,
the income gap had widened, and said that his government plans to
"tilt the balance in favour of the lower-income groups".
While Lee's ruling PAP is in no danger of losing its stranglehold
on parliament -- where it has 82 out of 84 elected seats -- the
growing income disparity has hurt its credibility.
In the May 6 poll, the Workers' Party scored its best result in
years, with chairwoman Sylvia Lim winning 44 percent of the votes
in a multi-seat ward. Lee lost 34 percent in his ward to a group of
unknown candidates in their early thirties.
"They (the PAP) are concerned about the fallout if they don't do
anything about the income gap," Lim, who entered parliament as a
non-voting MP under a best-loser provision, told Reuters.
In parliament, Lee said he plans to improve healthcare and boost
housing subsidies for low-income families. He added that he wants
more "workfare" schemes, under which the state tops up low-income
workers' pay.
On May 1 -- five days before the election -- the government paid
out S$150 million to about 330,000 low-income workers, and Lee
promised a similar package for next year. Details would be released
in the 2007 budget on February 15.
"MARIE ANTOINETTES"
Critics say that much of the outrage about the teenage blogger's
comments is due to a perception that Singapore is ruled by a
privileged elite that's out of touch with the people.
The road to a top job in the Singapore government or civil service
leads through elite junior colleges and prestigious government
scholarships for university studies abroad.
While access to these schools and scholarships is open to all and
based on academic grades, critics say the children of the elite are
well represented. Wee Shu Min attends a top school, Raffles Junior
College, as did her father, an MP and a top executive at
state-owned arms maker ST Engineering.
In a report about "elite envy", the Straits Times daily quoted
official data showing that in the last five years, one in three
students on government scholarships came from families with incomes
of more than $$10,000 ($6,500) a month, while such families make up
just 13 per cent of all Singapore households.
Students from households on incomes of less than $2,000 made up
only 7 per cent of scholarship winners, the paper added.
Colin Goh, founder of satirical website TalkingCock.com, said that
while the first generation of post-independence PAP leaders was
seen as close to the people, this is no longer the case.
"The source for much invective in the Wee Shu Min case is that
there is a real sense the PAP is composed of people in ivory
towers; that they are a bunch of Marie Antoinettes," he said.
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