Archive for April, 2007

{ April 25, 2007 @ 12:23 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Govt cannot make up its mind
23 Apr 07

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew questions homosexuality ban
Reuters
23 Apr 07

Singapore’s powerful former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, acknowledging the view that some people are genetically destined to be homosexual, has questioned the city-state’s ban on sex between men.

“If in fact it is true, and I have asked doctors this, that you are genetically born a homosexual – because that’s the nature of the genetic random transmission of genes – you can’t help it. So why should we criminalise it?” Monday’s Straits Times, a pro-government daily, quoted Lee as saying.

Under Singapore law, a man who is found to have committed an act of “gross indecency” with another man can be jailed for up to two years, though prosecutions are rare.

But Lee – who remains the most powerful minister in the cabinet of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – said Singapore should not actively pursue homosexuals who engage in sex.

Lee said that while homosexuality was not widely accepted in Singapore, authorities must take a pragmatic approach.

“Let’s not go around like this moral police … barging into people’s rooms. That’s not our business,” he told a weekend meeting with the youth wing of the People’s Action Party, Singapore’s ruling political party.

In November, the Ministry of Home Affairs said it was considering decriminalising oral and anal sex between consenting heterosexual adults, but not between homosexuals.

The authorities have banned gay festivals and censored gay films, saying homosexuality should not be advocated as a lifestyle. But, despite the official ban on gay sex, Singapore has a thriving gay scene.

Lee’s comments come at a time when many groups, such as Singapore’s Law Society, are clamouring for a review of the laws against homosexual sex, which they view as outdated and archaic.

{ April 12, 2007 @ 2:07 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Singapore PM’s salary stuns White House official
AFP
10 Apr 07

A senior White House official on Tuesday admitted he was floored by the news that Singapore’s prime minister earned five times more than US President George W. Bush.

“I’m going to emigrate and run for office in Singapore,” the official said on condition he be identified only as “a senior administration official who sits in disbelief after reading that story.”

On Monday, the Singapore government had announced a fresh 25.5 percent pay hike for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, boosting his salary to 2.05 million dollars per year.

Bush gets paid 400,000 dollars per year for doing his job, according to the White House.

Combined with personal investment income, he and his wife Laura reported 618,694 dollars in taxable income in the 2005 fiscal year. They had to pay 187,768 dollars in federal taxes.

But maybe Bush shouldn’t feel so bad. The Singaporean’s paycheck is eight times fatter than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s.

Step Down MINISTERS of SINGAPORE

{ April 10, 2007 @ 5:21 am } · { Uncategorized }
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The news is already out… Our big fat greedy ministers will be fattening their big fat pockets! $1.2 million per year is not enough for them, and what’s worse, an old man of this LEEgime even says that he’s current salary before the hike is not enough, and for goodness sake, he’s receiving $2.7 million per year!!! So what is enough for you, greedy Ministers?

For goodness sake, don’t you ministers know that some of our old folks are just getting $290 per month to get by? Where is your sense of proportions ministers? Of course, i forgot, all of you are living and ruling from your ivory tower, so there’s no poor or needy or homeless people in Singapore in your eyes right? Even if there are the homeless, you will say that they are homeless by choice! Well done!!!

In my eyes, you have no more moral authority to lead Singapore. You have lost whatever mandate you have from the people ( as if you have any at all!). You have lost MY respect. I am truly ashame living in a country where the ministers are more concern about their own pockets rather than the pockets of the people they are suppose to lead. Shouldn’t the ministers be leading by example?

Singaporeans are suffering. The increase to the cost of living is unbearable and unjustified for many of us. How many of us, ordinary people, are getting $1.2 or $2.7 million per year like you are getting? Stop threatening the people or looking down at other countries just to justify your increase! To me, you are just being plain arrogant and shameless! You are getting too proud of yourselves, of your successes. This is the end of Singapore…

Ministers, i’m totally and deeply disappointed with all of you. If what you care more is to serve your own interest or enriching yourselves while the people are still suffering and in need of help, then i feel that its best that all of you step down. The people have always been told to make sacrifices and accept whatever pay there is, no matter how low we we are getting paid, but i want to question each and everyone of you now, how about yourselves? Isn’t this a sign of hypocrisy?  We make sacrifices, you increase your pay! Is this justified?

Ministers, i urge you one more time to search your own heart and soul. What is your main purpose of entering politics? Isn’t it suppose to be serving the public interest than your own? Ask your conscience. If you feel that you are not making enough, then please step down honourably…

Prime Minister of Spore to have salary five times more than US President

{ April 10, 2007 @ 5:17 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Prime minister of S’pore to have salary five times more than U.S. President
Associated Press
09 Apr 07
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/09-04-2007/89337-singapore_salary-0

The salaries of Singapore ministers will raise be more that 60 percent by the end of 2008 and the Prime Minister’s pay packet will be boosted to a level that’s five times that of the U.S. president, the officials said Monday.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last month that government ministers should be earning much more than their $1.2 million Singapore dollars (US$790,000; EUR590,000) salaries to bring them in line with a standard domestic benchmark. His remarks caused much public debate about ministerial pay, which many see as already being too high.

Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also the minister in charge of the civil service, told Parliament on Monday that the salary adjustment would come in two steps. The first would raise salaries to S$1.6 million (US$1.06 million; EUR790,000) by the end of this year. In 2008, the salaries will jump again to S$1.92 million (US$1.27 million; EUR0.95 million), an increase of 60 percent over the current salaries.

“For the public service to remain an attractive employer, our terms must keep pace with the private sector,” Teo said. “We do not seek to lead the market, but to keep pace with it.”

The high salaries for ministers have caused grumbling in this wealthy, tightly controlled city-state. The ruling People’s Action Party has said ministers’ and civil servants’ pay must be high enough to attract the best talent and prevent corruption.

The prime minister said last month that the salaries were just 55 percent of the Parliament-approved benchmark for ministers and top civil servants, which is pegged at two-thirds of the median income of the top eight earners in six private sector professions, including bankers, lawyers and engineers.

The increase will bring the salaries to 88 percent of the benchmark by the end of 2008, Teo said.

The prime minister and president’s incomes will increase by a total of 25 percent after the two-step increase, Teo said.

Lee’s salary will be S$3.1 million (US$2.05 million; EUR1.53 million), or about five times more than U.S. President George W. Bush, who currently takes home US$400,000 (EUR197,000).

Teo said high salaries were necessary to recruit civil servants.

“We don’t want pay to be the reason for people to join (the government),” Teo said. “But we also don’t want pay to be the reason for them not to join us, or to leave after joining us.”

Does PM Lee Hsien Loong deserve it?

{ April 7, 2007 @ 4:09 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong makes the claim that the PAP Government performs so well that he and his ministers must be paid salaries that most Singaporeans fight outrageous and unacceptable. Here’s some facts and figures on what the PAP does for (some people argue, to) the people.

7,340 households were not able to pay their utility bills as of Sept 2005. (Channel News Asia, 20 Sep 05)

31,570 Singaporeans sought financial aid from the government in 2003. This was an increase of 40 percent from 2002 where 22,500 people sought assistance and 120 percent from 2001 (14,300). (Straits Times, 29 Jan 05)

17,000 families or individuals sought help from Family Service Centres due mainly to retrenchment and debt problems in 2003 – up 32 percent from 2002. (Straits Times, Jan 3, 2005)

37,823 households could not afford to buy their own flats or rent homes as of the end of 2004. (Straits Times, 29 Jan 05)

18 divorces take place on average in Singapore every single day in 2003! In 1993 there were only 2,313 divorces, in 2003 there were 6,561 cases – an increase of 180 percent. (http://www.getforme.com/previous2004/240704_statisticsondivorces2003.htm)

22,540 This is the number of un-discharged bankrupts as of August 2005 (Straits Times, 7 Nov 05)

150,000 credit cards were in default as of the end of 2003. (Straits Times, 7 Nov 05)

46 percent. This was the increase in the number of young people below 35 who were issued writs for overdue debt – from 5,019 in 2000 to 7,328 in 2003. (The New Paper, 24 Sep 03)

21,434 Singaporeans went bankrupt as of 31 December 2004 – the highest in Singapore’s history. (Straits Times, 19 Jan 05) 4,190 people were made bankrupt in the first 11 months of 2004 – the highest number in 19 years. (Straits Times, 5 Jan 05)

1 Singaporean commits suicide everyday on the average. (AFP, 8 Sep 03)

70 percent of those who commit suicide in Singapore are between 20 and 49 years of age. They kill themselves mainly because of “financial commitments, having stress at work, caring for the elderly and the children at home.” (AFP, 8 Sep 03)

1,692 dollars is the average monthly retirement income an average retired Singaporean will have – one of the lowest among 15 countries (including Australia, Canada, USA, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan) surveyed by AXA Insurance Group. Canada ranked first with $4,216. Yet, Singaporeans contribute the most to savings plans, that is, the CPF. (Today, 25 Feb 05)

85 percent of elderly Singaporeans feel that their lives would be worse five years down the road. This is up by 14 percent in 2000. (Today, 21 Jun 05)

54 percent of nearly 3,000 laid-off workers in the first quarter of 2004 were aged 40 and above. Those of you who are younger better think about this: 53 percent of Singapore’s workforce will be 40 or older in five years’ time. (The Star, 27 Feb 05)

14,000 children were seen by psychiatrists at the Institute of Mental Health, of which 2,233 were new cases. (Straits Times, Apr 02)