Gov

[Andylkkg]

By Elena Torrijos | SingaporeScene

[Sgnick]

Sigh, this is Singapore, accept or migrate. Since few years back I already faced with $1 for a bowl of plain white rice at takashimaya foodcourt. And it's not Japanese rice or Indian Basmati rice hor, just normal rice everybody eats in Singapore. I miss the 20cents bowl of rice era.....

[Csnewbie]

 

 

 

Dirt-minded constant number one standing is to blame lah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Best_ctzn]

Sigh, this is Singapore, accept or migrate. Since few years back I already faced with $1 for a bowl of plain white rice at takashimaya foodcourt. And it's not Japanese rice or Indian Basmati rice hor, just normal rice everybody eats in Singapore. I miss the 20cents bowl of rice era.....

Sorry your whine is misplaced. takashiyama confirm is expensive since it is for richer people. If bedok interchange mix-vegetable stall charge $1 for plain rice, then is something to whine about. I not sure, now is 50cts or 30cts? Not too much from the 20cts you so nostalgic about lah...

[Kiadaw]

Whether governmrnt is to be blame for the increase cost of living is for another debate,

 

However, they do not bother much action to counter the high inflation & housing price are big concern.

 

If iirc, the inflation this year is about 5 percent, & average income increase like 3%. They didn't seems to talk much about it, but brat about the high GDP, & how their "great leadership" make this possible.

I am no economist, but a 12% or so GDP increase, but average pay only increase 3%? Isn't there something not adding up here, so someone can explain. maybe ypou can said people also made money from investment, house sale, or money spend at casino, but id GDP a good gauge of the quality of life.

 

Yet, to add salt to injury, they are annocing big pay riase & a very fat bonus. & if that is not enough, the 2 pensioners keep taking shots at Singaporeans & one particular, even make demeaning remarks to our fellow malay race, only to blush off easily after many backlah.

 

have anyone slap you in your face, then tell you, he is sorry that your face feel painful (not same as sorry for slapping you).

 

Talking about quality of life. It seems an obvious thing to most people. After all its not meaningful (unles you travel) if you earn a lot of money, but price is equally, or more high!

Yet, this term is hardly heard from the government.

 

Most Singaporeans, I believed, not really wanted to take pot shots at our government, I think most can forgive Selamat escape, or the blown YOG budget.

 

But many just wanted their voice to be heard, & their pledges to be answered.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Kiadaw

[Andylkkg]

Sorry your whine is misplaced. takashiyama confirm is expensive since it is for richer people. If bedok interchange mix-vegetable stall charge $1 for plain rice, then is something to whine about. I not sure, now is 50cts or 30cts? Not too much from the 20cts you so nostalgic about lah...

 

Bro, close to $1 already, AMK central S11 chicken rice stall next to Mac, charge 80cts for additional bowl of rice, super inflation!

[SimonTan]

The cascading effect also apply to food industries.

 

The boss has to have the highest salary, then the cooks and the service staff, and lastly the table wipers.

If the food price dont increase, then the toilet/table cleaner might be paid only $300 due to the dressing down effect.

So if you want to pay the lowest level workers high salary, then the boss must have the Highest possible profit!

 

This is the system that works for Singapore ok!

 

 

 

Why Obama makes less than S'pore minister

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/i...MAGES_CROWD.jpg

 

PM: Ex-US presidents enjoy lucrative options, but low pay at top level affects all public wages

By Jeremy Au Yong

Mr Lee's speech captured the attention of the students at the forum yesterday. Participants later peppered him with questions ranging from fielding new citizens as election candidates to social mobility and the relevance of GRCs. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE

 

UNITED States President Barack Obama may earn less than a Singaporean minister, but the American system is not without its flaws, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

 

For instance, he said the low salary of the president had suppressed salaries down the line. He also noted that the US system had different ways of rewarding its presidents.

 

The hot-button topic of ministerial salaries came midway through the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum last night when a Nanyang Technological University accountancy student tossed up the oft-cited US-Singapore comparison.

 

He timed his question cleverly, jumping in, after the Prime Minister spoke about how the tough jobs of the ministers here warranted the high pay, to say: 'The US president is actually paid less than a Cabinet minister in Singapore. I'm sure we agree his job is a lot tougher than our Cabinet ministers'...'

 

Mr Lee, clearly prepared for his riposte, replied without missing a beat, citing two arguments against the US way.

 

The first involved the money-spinning book and lecture tours which are almost a tradition for former US presidents.

 

He said: 'Retired US presidents go on book tours, they write books, they are paid US$10 million (S$13 million) advance, they get somebody to help them write a tome and they make a lecture tour... Every lecture (by former US president) Bill Clinton: US$100,000 to US$200,000 for half an hour.

 

'That's the system. I think that's not a good system for us. We don't want ministers to retire and go on lecture tours.'

 

The second point was the impact of such a low ceiling on the rest of the civil service.

 

Said Mr Lee: 'Because of the president's pay being set at a level which is not quite right, all the rest of the civil service and government pay in the US system has to take dressing from there and come down... and come down.

 

'As a result of this, their judges are underpaid, their civil servants are underpaid and one year, Chief Justice (William) Rehnquist wrote his annual judicial report to Congress and he said, 'You are going to have a very serious constitutional problem because the senior judge sitting on the bench hearing the case with junior lawyers arguing in front of him is paid less than the junior lawyer on Wall Street. Where do you think the talent will go and what do you think the consequences will be for our system?''

 

Mr Lee stressed that Singapore's ministerial pay system was one that works.

 

Asked whether pay should still be pegged to the private sector given the many candidates taken from the civil service and unions, he replied: 'The reason I can get good people from the Government and the unions is that I have a pay system which is working properly. People do not enter politics to get rich but neither will they enter politics and as a result, they and their family will become poor.'

 

He added: 'It is something which is not easy to accept emotionally but is the right thing for Singapore. If you want the system to work for the long term, you must be honest about it. What do I pay for? I pay for the importance of the job, and how difficult it is to do...'

 

He was also asked later if the relative success of the opposition in recruiting from the private sector meant a failing in the pay system.

 

Mr Lee replied that the PAP and the task of a PAP MP and an opposition one may be different.

 

'I'm not sure whether we're looking for exactly the same people. There are a lot of people in the private sector.

 

'We're looking for a certain type of person, certain job specifications, and not just job specifications, but also commitment, integrity, purpose. And when you're going into the opposition, when you're going into the Government, I'm not sure the job specs are the same.'

 

[email protected]

 

HELP ENSURE THINGS STAY RIGHT

 

'Some people will want to join the opposition. Yes, they will want to propound alternative policies or they will want to be a check on the Government. That's valid. By all means join the opposition, especially if the Government is wrong or incompetent.

 

But so long as the Government is competent and doing a good job for Singaporeans, I hope you will make common cause with it and help us to ensure that things stay right.'

PM Lee, on the desire among some to join the opposition

 

BENEFITS OF HAVING A GOOD REPUTATION

 

'The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) is the policy-steering committee of the International Monetary Fund... And the new chairman of the IMFC, I'm not sure how many of you can name him, but he is Tharman Shanmugaratnam, our Finance Minister.

 

He was elected last month to chair the IMFC and it's not because we campaigned for the position. We didn't campaign for the position, but Tharman was elected because Singapore has a high reputation as a state which works, as a successful economy and Tharman himself personally is held in very high regard internationally.

 

They know the quality of the person, they know the contribution he can make. They didn't do this just out of a politeness to us. So our reputation and the reality of our good government is of great value to Singapore. It gives us influence in the world, it gives you standing in the world, it opens the door for our businesses and it creates many opportunities for Singaporeans.'

 

PM Lee, on how Singapore's reputation and that of its ministers opens doors

 

[Kangadrool]

With this reasoning, we also must pay our cleaners top $$$ to ensure...... cooks top $$$ to ensure............ bus drivers top $$$$ to ensure......... What the hell is happening to our society?

[Csnewbie]

With this reasoning, we also must pay our cleaners top $$$ to ensure...... cooks top $$$ to ensure............ bus drivers top $$$$ to ensure......... What the hell is happening to our society?

 

N hookers top money to ensure....?

[Karu]

I can see clearly now the rain is gone....

[Best_ctzn]

Bro, close to $1 already, AMK central S11 chicken rice stall next to Mac, charge 80cts for additional bowl of rice, super inflation!

Chicken rice is not really plain rice, as normally cooked in chicken stock? Used to be 50cts per plate? If it is in 1 of those newly renovated multi-million dollars coffeeshop, then could be higher as rental will be much higher. Not to brush this issue, London that I just returned from charges 1 pound for a plate of plain rice. One bird of roasted duck cost 17pounds takeaway, 20 pounds dine-in.

[SimonTan]

Essential coffee and chicken...no matter how much they increase price....consumers lan lan pay to eat.

 

[Joseph22]

Essential Luxerity coffee and chicken...no matter how much they increase price....consumers lan lan pay to eat.

 

you dont need to have coffee and chicken to be alive. so they are not essential.

[Maroon5]

Chicken rice is not really plain rice, as normally cooked in chicken stock? Used to be 50cts per plate? If it is in 1 of those newly renovated multi-million dollars coffeeshop, then could be higher as rental will be much higher. Not to brush this issue, London that I just returned from charges 1 pound for a plate of plain rice. One bird of roasted duck cost 17pounds takeaway, 20 pounds dine-in.

 

wats the point in your bringing london prices in?

[Jman888]

you dont need to have coffee and chicken to be alive. so they are not essential.

 

 

it is essential in 21st century, you want to go back time when you only get to eat chicken on chinese new year!

 

the so-call poor can have LCD TV and people who claim low income received assistant from CDAC get to go on holiday.....

[Joseph22]

it is essential in 21st century, you want to go back time when you only get to eat chicken on chinese new year!

 

the so-call poor can have LCD TV and people who claim low income received assistant from CDAC get to go on holiday.....

 

this show how far we had improve. in S.Korea, they dont get to eat meat so often.

[Maroon5]

you dont need to have coffee and chicken to be alive. so they are not essential.

 

isnt this decreasing standard of living? u know like coffee increase 10cents, too exp, pple start drinking 3-in-1 until tat becomes too exp too and pple subsist on water. frankly, the grouses on the ground on price increase has a good reason - the salaries are not matching tat kind of inflation and wealth (thk bank deposits) are decreasing in value. wat they dun wan u to know is, GDP growth will only benefit the top level of pple, jus like everywhere, how much act trickle down to the man on the streets. this is where the gahmen comes in, manage the public moneys, distribute, grow the nation and its pple, not jus the magical GDP figures.

 

anyw jus borrowing ur post, reply not targetted at u.

[Jman888]

HK is worst, here should consider comfortable

 

 

Hong Kong youths becoming alienated

China Daily/Asia News Network

Wed, Apr 06, 2011

 

According to a report just released by the Census and Statistics Department, about 1,000 university graduates are currently living on CSSA welfare payments. With an unemployment rate below 4 per cent, this is quite incredible. Even more shocking is the fact that this figure almost doubled from 2008 to 2009. It is clear that these highly educated people, most of them young are well able to find a job and earn a living. They simply do not want to.

 

To these people, enjoying welfare is their entitlement, and they have every right to take public money. This can be clearly reflected by the growing number of undergraduates, by the tens of thousands lining up for government low-rent housing.

 

This is in fact part of an alarming trend in this direction. People aged below 30 receiving CSSA rose from around 5,000 in 2009, and the figure now is over 6,000; a 20 per cent rise in just a year. Traditionally Chinese people are supposed to be self-reliant, and living on welfare is generally regarded as a shame. To a growing number of our youth, this is no longer applicable.

 

This very recent attitude shift can partly be attributed to Western influence and partly due to frustration leading to a general loss of will among the younger generation. Many find there is no way to move upwards, no matter how hard they try, until they finally give up trying. Some quit the effort to save and buy their own flats because such aspiration is way beyond their horizon, and they resort to renting low-rent flats from the government instead.

 

It is how some of our youths are fighting back against the society they deem to be unjust. If we let this attitude carry on fermenting, we will soon get into deep trouble. Omens are already there, and public confrontations are getting more violent. Polls indicate that the public is becoming increasingly sympathetic toward such attitudes and the resulting antisocial behaviors.

 

All in all our society and our values are changing, a pattern is gradually emerging, and we need to adopt a new paradigm to cope with it. We badly need political leadership to guide us through troubled waters ahead.

 

The author is a member of the Commission on Strategic Development.

 

-China Daily/Asia News Network