TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the Secretary-General of the Reform Party has written a comprehensive response to Finance Minister Tharman's recent Budget speech, demolishing his assertion that the government's foreigner policy has raised the wages of Singaporeans. Mr Tharman substantiated his claim by quoting the rise in median income per household member, after adjusting for inflation, of 20 per cent in the period 2005 - 2008, using it to demonstrate the "success of the government's policies." Kenneth, who graduated with double first class honors in Economics from Cambridge University, argued that "this could have occurred without any rise in the living standards of median Singaporean citizen." He explained that the discrepancy can be attributed to two reasons: 1. The use of "residents" to compute figures in all official data used by the government which includes both citizens and PRs. Over the past decade, the resident population grew by 15 per cent due to the influx of new citizens and PRs and as the majority of them do not have dependents, the proportion of working adults in the resident household would have risen thereby contributing to the increase in real median income per household member. 2. The figure excludes households consisting solely of non-working persons over 60 years of age which would have decreased due to the depressing of wages of senior citizens caused by the government's pro-foreigner policy. Kenneth added that Mr Tharman has painted an "exaggeratedly rosy picture of the government's failed economic policies of the past decade while at the same time not even beginning to grasp the enormity of the transformation necessary in the economy." He also offered his own recommendations in the following areas of continuing education and training, growing globally competitive companies, boosting productivity and managing the inflow of foreign workers. As expected, though the press release was made on 23 February 2010, it did not receive any coverage by the mainstream media which has been heaping generous praises on the Budget to give the false impression that Singaporeans are supportive of it. Channel News Asia quoted a few PAP MPs singing in unison to lend their support to the Budget while the Straits Times put up a misleading article on Singaporeans posting comments supporting it on REACH forum when the majority of them are critical of it. Though Kenneth's initiatives are sound and good, they will never be highlighted by the pro-PAP media out of fear of putting its political master in a bad light. Despite the lack of publicity, some of Kenneth's suggestions may turn out "repackaged" in a different form a few months later as what happened to his call to boost productivity last year which is finally given due attention by the PAP now. Read rest of Kenneth's press release here  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent According to a report in the Herald Sun, the average weekly wage in Australia is now AUD$1226.70, after rising by 5.9 per cent in the year to November. The quarterly seasonally-adjusted pace of average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) rose two per cent in the three months to November, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released today showed. In contrast, the median monthly wages of ordinary Singaporeans have remained stagnant at $2,600 while the median household income of Singaporeans decreased by 2.5 per cent after adjusting for inflation from $4,950 in 2008 to $4,850 last year. [Source: Singapore Department of Statistics] At the same time, the cost of living in Singapore has sky-rocketed, especially that of public housing which hit a record high last year despite the economy being mired in recession, fueled by rising demand from immigration in the face of limited supply of new flats. While life for the average Singaporean has not improved, the PAP ministers, already the richest in the entire world, found fit to raise their salaries by 8.8 per cent this year on the back of an expected improvement in the economy. A certain percentage of their salaries is pegged to GDP growth figures - the higher the growth, the more money they bring home, but GDP growth is hardly an appropriate or accurate indicator to measure the economic performance and quality of life in a country, as pointed out by many prominent economists including Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stilgitz. Singaporeans will not begrudge their ministers a pay hike if they perform half as well as the Australian ministers who earn much less than them. A minister of Singapore earns more than 5 times the annual salary of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Despite widespread unhappiness and discontent on the ground, there is little Singaporeans can do as the ruling party controls 82 out of 84 seats in Parliament, enabling its lawmakers to pass legislation as it wishes often with no consultation with the people.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent The Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) appeared to be played out by its Romanian counterparts again after its attempts to get Romanian diplomat Dr Silviu Ionescu back to Singapore to testified at a Coroner's Inquiry was rebuffed. Dr Silviu Ionescu was implicated in the double hit and run traffic accident at Bukit Panjang in December which robbed the life of a 31 year old man Mr Tong Kok Wai. Though he was the prime suspect, he was allowed to leave Singapore three days later by the Singapore authorities which attracted widespread criticisms from angry citizens. There were no official comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until a few weeks later when Foreign Minister George Yeo made a forgettable faux paus to the media that "what happened was very bad." Quoting diplomatic immunity, MFA claimed that there is not much it can do to prevent Dr Silviu from leaving. It is finally "spurred" into action after Dr Silviu Ionescu went on Romanian TV and accused the Singapore government of "framing" him which greatly embarrassed Singapore. For some strange reasons, it failed to take legal action against Dr Silviu Ionescu and sue him for defamation which it usually does against political opponents back home. The Romanian Ambassador Neagu was summoned instead and three diplomatic notes were passed to him, one of which requesting Dr Silviu Ionescu to be present at the Coroner's Inquiry. Now, Romanian claimd that "it could not force Dr Ionescu to return as he was no longer a diplomat." In a phone interview with Straits times, Dr Silviu Ionescu insisted that he is not the culprit and said he is unable to return to Singapore due to "failing health": "It has been very painful. It is much more serious than I thought it was. Most probably, I will not be able to see the end of the trial here," he added. He also downplayed the media publicity given to the accident: "Though it was 'very tragic', it had been blown out of proportion......Someone died. It's not something solitary, but happens all over the world. There are bigger stories out there." Mr George Yeo admitted in Parliament lately that there is nothing much he can do except to “expect” the Romanian authorities to take action against Dr Silviu Ionescu: “What we do next will depend on the outcome of our coroner’s inquiry and the Romanian government’s response to our requests. We are closely monitoring what the Romanian authorities are doing. We expect their actions to match the words of the Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman and the assurances that the Romanian Ambassador has given us. But I must stress that whatever we do in Singapore must always be in conformity with our legal system and our international law obligations.” With no extradition treaties between Singapore and Romania, it is highly unlikely that Dr Silviu Ionescu will ever return to Singapore again.  Read More →