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| Did we stipulate one representative from each party? |
PAP's Michael Palmer was practically begging National Solidarity Party (NSP)'s Goh Meng Seng to play nice when latter charged that it was doubtful the present Government could meet its stated target in raising Singaporeans' real income. Palmer said it was a work in progress, "We've been consistently doing that... So I think that if Mr Goh gives us a chance, we can raise that income level."
Goh was talking about raising the real income by 5 per cent of the households in the 20th percentile. While Palmer asked for more time to look into that, his own MP allowance was hiked one year after the last General Elections in 2006.
In April 2007, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a new set of numbers for his team. The greedy buggers wanted more padding in their bulging wallets:
President – $3,187,100 (up 24.9%),
Prime Minister – $3,091,200 (up 25.5%),
Senior Minister – $3,043,300 (up 13.5%),
Minister Mentor – $3,043,300 (up 13.5%),
Deputy Prime Minister – $2,452,500 (up 18.8%),
Minister and Senior Perm Sec – $1,593,500 (up 32.5%),
Entry Superscale Grade – $384,000 (up 3.3%),
Member of Parliament – $216,300 (up 23.2%).
Reformed Party's Kenneth Jeyaratnam, undistracted by Indranee Rajah's Little Black Dress (seems like the incumbents are pulling out all stops for this Battle Royale), claimed that the Government plagiarised its stance on productivity. In a recent speech, Goh Chok Tong "seems to be talking about exactly what I've been saying - the need to raise productivity of our workforce, rather than relying on cheap labour from abroad." Ms Rajah countered that they had the productivity and standards board that was some 30 years or more ago... before the RP came up with its recent statement."
Man, 30 odd years and they are still asking for more time. Wait, we get it. The longer they drag their complacent feet, the bigger their bank accounts get to grow.
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After 30 years, we finally get the PAP's productivity axiom
ReplyDelete"We can get rich, and solve the GDP growth as a side effect" is louder & clearer than "We can solve the GDP growth and get rich as a side effect".
Cheap foreign talents, new citizens, low wages, service jobs in casinos to bring in tourists and money laundering, tax haven for rich/famous etc..All these variables with no "long term, sustainable" cure to the real growth in productivity.
Did it serve the world well that bankers and brokers sold an unprecedented number of mortgages during the years of the housing boom, with minimal background checks, or that they created all kinds of new financial instruments that generated huge profits before everyone crashed and burned in 2008?
We need a better way of working that is not about squeezing people to their limits. Rather, it recognize that more is not always better, and that renewal, reflection, and a long-term perspective are also critical to fueling value that lasts.
However, my guess however GE, leaders will say since you want to slow down, then we will have to increase FT to replace the lost work hours in order for you to make babies! After all, if it has taken them 30 years to sing the same old tune over and again, that's not much of a track record to prove that they will get us to cross that finish line is it?
Instead, they crossed the line first with million dollars expensive fuel and used "fear" (of being left behind) as a source of long term fuel for the people.
Yalor only want the money but not the hard work.
ReplyDeleteTwo PAP Representatives versus 3(Three) Opposition Members, so PAP was given 40% representation in a Nationally Broadcasted(television) Debate.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the Best Political Debater from Singapore Democratic Party; Chee Soon Juan was not invited, according to online information.
Even the biases in the Medias are glaring and unashamedly shown.
I say Fxxk the PAP and their gerrymandering.
ReplyDeleteindeed, the greedy PAP buggers have crossed the line.
ReplyDeletemy PRC friends were astonished when i mentioned the humongous multi million $ salaries the PAP govt under LKY and son were giving themselves.
i put it to my PRC friends, whether China's leadership will ever have such audacity to do the same as LKY and son, paying themselves millions of RMB ?
unanimously they voiced out, "no way! it is the quickest and surest way to lose all moral authority to lead by example"
and in Chinese it is expressed as "tai guo fen "
besides that, my PRC friends were well aware Spore's leadership has lost all sense of proportion in comparison to huge nations such as China, USA, Japan, Germany, etc.
ps: i absolutely concur with anon @ 10.01am
Our PM decided for himself that he should be paid a salary that is 500% to 600% that of the US President and that is excluding his bonuses and a host of other intangible benefits like the S$8 bypass surgery should he need one.
ReplyDeleteI just wonder whether his IQ is higher than Obama by 5~6 times or that he is so full of charisma to deserve that kind of obscene pay.
How come there is no displinary committee to investicate whether there was any conflict of interests when he demanded that kind of mark-up for himself ?
And as if that is not enough, they even have Susan Lim investigated for such similar mark-ups when all Susan Lim did was merely charging a very famous and rich client who did not bother to ask how much ?
Did our PM ask us for our agreement when he demanded to be paid his revised obscene salary ? To me if he did not, that is definitely crossing the line.
My guess is that the PM wanted the return of the money he was "forced" to give to charity in the past four years. His pledge was to end in 2011 (so make it five years.)
ReplyDeleteNew pledge anyone?