I'm so disappointed with the government of my country

[geeko]

hi yeah...i've got to rant it out...

I'm very disillusioned with the ruling party of my country..(out of 84 seats, only 2 seats are occupied by the opposition...what kind of democracy is that)

Anyway, i'm not happy that they are always raising the goods and services taxes (to "help the needy") AFTER the election, raising the transport fares AFTER the election...and now they are going to give themselves a pay rise.

Read this article and u will get the gist..all i can say is that there's lack of freedom of speech in my country ...

This will be a bit long...but i kind of had it with this country. We can't go on strikes, we can't go on protests/demonstrations, we only can say yes to whatever the government does...

and there's only one newspaper in my country...which is owned by the government

I'm disillusioned....

Here are the articles.

Ministers’ pay

How Singapore tops the world

Before planned hike, leaders already earn far more than those in the richest nations. By Rana.

Mar 25, 2007

Singapore ministers are currently paid S$1.2 million (US$790,000) a year, but that's not enough. They have to be paid more to close a 55 per cent gap with the private sector, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.
Ministers' salaries have remained unchanged since 2000, he added. The Straits Times in Singapore explained:
A minister should be drawing S$2.2 million a year or more, according to benchmarks approved by Parliament in 1994 to ensure competitive salaries for a competent and honest government.
The prime minister didn't specify how much the salaries would be raised, but said details will be disclosed on April 9 in Parliament.
I wanted to find out how much leaders in other countries are paid. Here are some figures:
USA (All in US dollars):
President: $400,000
Vice President: $208,100
Senator: $162,100
Representative: $162,100
Majority and Minority Leaders: $188,100
Speaker of the House: $208,100
Supreme Court Chief Justice: $208,100
Supreme Court Associate Justice: $199,200
(Source: 2005 figures from Infoplease)
UK
Prime Minister - £187,611 (US%368,655)
Cabinet Minister - £136,677 (US$268,570)
Minister of State - £99,908 (US$196,320)
Leader of the opposition: £130,312 (US$256,063)
Member of Parliament: £60,277 (US$118,444)
Speaker - £136,677 (US$268,570)
Solicitor General - £126,846 (US$248,860)
(Source: Nov 2006, UK parliament)
Australia
Prime Minister: $309,270
(Source: Since Nov 2006, Wikipedia)
Hong Kong
Chief Executive: $420,000
(Source: Jan 2003, New York Times)
Japan
Prime Minister: $300,000
(Source: April 2004, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

 

[geeko]

and another one

SINGAPORE, April 9 (Reuters) - Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, will earn five times more than U.S. President George Bush this year after a pay hike on Monday boosted his annual salary to S$3.1 million ($2.05 million).
A minister told parliament on Monday that other Singapore government ministers -- who are already among the best paid in the world -- will also see their salaries jump by about 60 percent to an average of S$1.9 million ($1.26 million).

"For the public service to remain an attractive employer, our terms must keep pace with the private sector," Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also minister in charge of the civil service, said in parliament.

The ministerial salary increase -- which will take effect in two steps by the end of next year -- is slightly smaller than the government had originally proposed.

Lee said last month the salaries of Singapore ministers and top civil servants might have to rise by as much as S$1 million ($660,000) to S$2.2 million ($1.45 million) because they had fallen way below benchmark top salaries in the private sector.

Lee's announcement sparked an outcry, with hundreds of Singaporeans signing an online petition and writing to newspapers to protest against the move.

Some Singaporeans said the ministerial salaries did not reflect the country's economy or the government's performance, adding that the government was tactless to raise ministers' salaries now given Singapore's widening income gap.

Since 1994, the salaries of Singapore ministers have been set at two-thirds the median pay of the 48 best-paid bankers, lawyers, accountants, engineers and executives in multinationals and manufacturing firms.

Under the wage revision, the bonuses that Singapore ministers receive will depend on their performance, to be assessed by Lee, and the rate of Singapore's economic growth, Teo said.

He said ministers can get a maximum "gross domestic product bonus" of four months worth of salary if the Singapore economy grows by 8 percent or more.

Lee, who is estimated to have earned S$2 million previously, will earn six times more than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the pay hike. The last pay hike was in 2000.

The government has defended the salary increase as necessary to attract the brightest people and to prevent corruption.

Lee Kuan Yew, modern Singapore's first prime minister and father of Lee, told parliament on Monday that resource-poor Singapore needed an "extraordinary government" to support it.

"If you fail here, you go back to a Southeast Asian situation," Lee senior said. "Just look around you."

 

[geeko]

what i'm not happy is they are telling us to acccept pay cuts or no pay rise or pay rise with very little bonuses for the sacrifice of our country's economy but at the same time they increase their salary. What the hell is this?

they have double standards when it comes to paying themselves money. But we can't protest or do anything about it...

We only can keep quiet. Sorry i just needed to rant it out.

It's more of an autocracy in my country rather than a democracy as the government likes to proclaim itself to be. BOO.

anyway here are what my fellow countrywomen think of this issue
http://forums.cozycot.com/showthread.php?t=24385
most of us are against the pay rise. but we can't protest...we only can complain

it's illegal to protest or go on demo in my country...

 

[silverblackened]

Usually, I like to keep out of local political discussions, because I'm one of the few "younger generation" Singaporeans who don't actually mind the currently ruling party remaining in power. Whatever works best, however imperfectly - IMHO the opposition parties aren't ready to completely take over just yet; their promises and avenues of focus just don't seem, if I may use the word, mature enough yet. Of course, if this changes, then more power to them, and they may get my vote yet.

That said, geeko, ITA with you on the pay raises in tandem with the constant calls to us, the general populace (as they say!) to accept minimal pay raises, as you mentioned. I may be being idealistic here, but I still believe that the best leaders are those who serve and lead by example. In this case, that would be accepting their existing (already very high) pay levels and pumping what seems like an excess of government funds into things that benefit everyone, whether it be health services, education schemes, transport subsidies, and so on.

For the rest of you who might not be in the know, this news comes hot on the heels of an increase in goods/services taxes in February (which began at 3%, then became 5%, and is now 7% - twice what we started with less than 2 decades ago), increased public transport fees (debatable, since not all the transport companies are government-owned), and the recent Budget in which the "increased contributions towards caring for the needy in our country" and the resultant millions of dollars it would supposedly cost the government. Millions of dollars which come from us, the taxpayers and consumers, not from some private wallet-fund of each minister. It costs them nothing; it is a redirection of the money that we give them for the arguable privilege of being citizens of the country.

Just to put things in perspective, S$2.2mil is the equivalent of about US$1.375mil at the current exchange rates. It is enough to buy several public housing apartments, or a penthouse in most condominium developments, or full college education and board in the US/UK for at least 6 international students.

Wow, I didn't mean for this to get so long, but I guess my buttons were really pushed too, LOL.

 

[blueyedlady87]

Geeko- thank you for those eye opening articles! Sometimes in the US we don't here about issues like this in other countries. We either bomb them if we disagree, or don't care. Ridiculous. I'm so sorry. Free speech is something many take for granted.

 

[Dark_Phoenix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbie_doll_713 Geeko- thank you for those eye opening articles! Sometimes in the US we don't here about issues like this in other countries. We either bomb them if we disagree, or don't care. Ridiculous. I'm so sorry. Free speech is something many take for granted.

America never cares unless they have an economic interest in the region. Meh, I think it's best they keep their nose out of some things. What's best for the US isn't best for the rest of the world.

Anyways, Bahrain (for comparison) has been having some nasty transitional government issues. Like freedom of speech being regulated by the government, which blocks access to websites like Google Earth for example. They've also been known to arrest liberal website admins for publishing information that's anti-government. The judges are all corrupted, imo. They side almost never with the liberal government reforms. And I just think the government hasn't been making much progress lately (see Bandargate Scandal in October).

I know how you feel about the government owning the media, but it was only with broadcasting where I lived. Not the newspapers.

 

[blueyedlady87]

Government can be a very scary thing. Stuff like this reminds me of George Orwell's 1984 (Thought Police, anyone??) Great book.