Is our Government the least caring one in the world?

I refer to the articles “Why HDB flat dwellers have the best of both worlds” and “HDB resale market to stabilise with more clarity on older flats” (Sunday Times, Sep 9).

My friends said “aiyah, the 2 titles are so obvious – propaganda lah!

Heh, are our media paid as much as our Ministers?”

I understand that our media may be one of the highest paid in the world.

I understand that for example, the President/CEO was paid a few million dollars a year and the Chief Editor more than a million.

Should our media be ashamed of the propaganda that it has spewed over the years?

In this connection, we have a shameless Government which pays itself the highest salaries in the world

… in spite of making it the most expensive city in the world for the 5th consecutive year

.. with the highest pension contribution rate (implicit tax) in the world

… and eats up the highest proportion of the pension returns in the world

… and pays the lowest real rate of return among all national pension funds in the world, since 1999

… which has the most expensive public housing (ratio of price to income) in the world

.. that wipes out your pension contributions and cash utilised at the end of the 99-year lease

… which has the most expensive public transport fares (ratio of monthly travel pass to 20th percentile income) in the world

… which changes the fare formula when it results in its highest decrease ever (deferring part of the decrease) to a new formula which increases fares to help the transport operators to make more money

.. which makes money from a cashflow perspective (inflows exceed outflows annually) on healthcare, national medical and long-term care schemes, and national pension scheme

… and spends the lowest percentage  (over 2%) of public healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP in the world

… which has the most liberal foreign labour policies in the world, resulting in about 47% of the workforce being non-Singaporean (excluding an average of 20,000 new citizens per year)

.. which has no minimum wage and the lowest 10th percentile wages among all the developed countries in the world

… with employment growth which goes mostly to non-Singaporeans (including new citizens) almost every year in the last 15 years or so

… which has the lowest social welfare spending (less than 1%) as a percentage of GDP among all the developed countries in the world

… with the starting salaries of the Institute of Technical Education’s (ITE) graduates decreasing by a real -22% in the last 18 years

… and is ranked 151st for Press Freedom and 173rd for Electoral Freedom

My fellow Singaporeans – aren’t you ashamed to allow the above to continue?

Uniquely Singapore!

Leong Sze Hian