As I had also said in part 1, I will guide you through the charts, so that they will be easy to read and understand, so please take some time and come along with me. This article will only take about 10 to 15 minutes to read.

Part 1 of the article can be read here. I believe that if you could read this article from the top (from part 1), it would give you a fuller picture as to the financial circumstance of Singaporeans.

(3) Medisave Financing (Charts 19a to 22c)

In Chart 19a, you can see that the government had made us pay more and more into this thing called the Medisave Minimum Sum. According to the Central Provident Fund (CPF), “The Medisave Minimum Sum is the amount you need to retain in your Medisave Account, before any excess Medisave savings can be withdrawn.”

Chart 19a: Central Provident Fund

And in Chart 19b, the government had made us pay more and more into this thing they call the Medisave Required Amount – “The Medisave Required Amount refers to the amount you need to set aside in your Medisave Account after meeting the CPF Minimum Sum requirement.”

Chart 19b: Central Provident Fund

So, in Chart 19c, this is how much the government had made us pay more and more into this thing called the CPF Minimum Sum.

Chart 19c: Central Provident Fund

Confused? Don’t worry. I am too. What you need to know is that, in all of these, we are made to pay more and more. Where is the government’s contributions, you ask (or lack thereof)? We will explore this in just a bit.

According to Dan Ariely, if people are given too many choices or too complex a structure to understand, this will put them off and they would be more likely to simply stick to not acting on their choices, or perhaps even not use something given to them. The Singapore government has used this psychology to good effect – make the schemes so complex that people would find it so difficult to understand that they would abide by it unquestionably, and to make the schemes so complex that people would be put off from accessing it, and thus the government would be able to save on their expenditure.

Do you also know that according to the Ministry of Health, Medisave and Medishield covers mainly hospitalisation and has limited coverage for outpatient treatment, such as when you visit a doctor. According to a study, “Private General Practitioners dominate Public Healthcare in Singapore, providing around 80% of consultations and acting as gatekeepers. They receive no government subsidies and dispense their own medicines, with patients paying the full cost.” Also, the ministry says that, “if you have insufficient funds in your Medisave, you can use the Medisave of your spouse, child and parent to pay for your treatment”. But what if the whole family is poor? Does the government care?

The next few charts (Charts 20a to 21b) will look complex but let me take you through them – it’s easy to understand.

In Chart 20a, look at the purple line. This is the inflation rate – you can see that this growth is the lowest in the chart.

The government had kept telling us that they have to increase the Medisave Minimum Sum, Medisave Required Amount and CPF Minimum Sum because of inflation, right?

But actually, whatever they are forcing us to pay is increasing by a lot more than inflation. The yellow line shows you the growth in Medisave Minimum Sum and the orange line shows you the growth in CPF Minimum Sum in the orange line. You can see that they are both increasing at a much faster rate than inflation, right?

Chart 20a: Central Provident Fund, Department of Statistics Singapore Prices

In Chart 20b, again, the purple line represents the inflation rate. The orange line represents the change in Medisave Required Amount. You can see that the Medisave Required Amount is increasing by several times more than inflation rate!

Chart 20b: Central Provident Fund, Department of Statistics Singapore Prices

The government wants us to think that they are increasing these CPF and Medisave minimum amounts because of inflation. But why do they need to increase these amounts by so much more than inflation?

What is it that they are not telling us? Or what is the real reason that they are increasing these amounts for?

What do they need this money for? Are we subsidising for the low healthcare costs of the rich medical tourists, on top of having to pay for our own healthcare bills? Or are they using the money for something else?

Now, compare this to our wages again.

In Chart 21a, the pink line is the growth rate of our wages. Again, you can see that the Medisave Minimum Sum and CPF Minimum Sum are both increasing at a much faster rate than our wages.

Chart 21a: Central Provident Fund, Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income

So, the government wants us to pay more into our CPF and Medisave. But our real wages are not growing! Where do we get the additional money to pay? Not only that, the government says that we need to put more into our CPF and Medisave, because we need to have enough to see the doctor.

But the increase that they want us to put into CPF and Medisave is several times more the increase of our wages and inflation! If they indeed want us to put more into CPF and Medisave to top up for inflation, why do they make us top up so much more over and above the inflation rate? What is the money really for?

Chart 21b shows you that the Medisave Required Amount is also increasing at a significantly much faster rate than our wages.

Chart 21b: Central Provident Fund, Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income

So, all this while the government tells us – healthcare costs are increasing. You need to be self-reliant. You need to pay more for your own healthcare. So, you have to put in more money into your CPF and Medisave – this is even though the government had allowed our wages to be depressed.

But the government had allowed healthcare prices to increase, our wages to be depressed and yet, forced us to put in more money into the Medisave and CPF.

Two questions:

• Why doesn’t the government help us at all?
• Where does all the money we put into go?

In Chart 22a, you can see how the government doesn’t help us at all. While we are made to fork out our own money from our stagnant and depressed wages to pay for increasing prices, the government’s contribution to our Medisave has remained at 4%. It hasn’t increased and would be more likely to decrease in future.

Yet, all this while, the government is asking the people to put in more, while the government doesn’t also do so? Why? Self-reliance? Nah, read on.

Chart 22a: CPF Interest Rates

But where is the money going? Our CPF is borrowed by the government to invest in Temasek Holdings and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). In this discussion, I will focus on Temasek Holdings.

You can see in Chart 22b that Temasek Holding’s returns are very high.

Chart 22b: Temasek Review 2012

And how is this compared to the interest rate our Medisave earns? You can see this in Chart 22c.

Chart 22c: Temasek Review 2012, CPF Interest Rates

So, Temasek Holdings can borrow our CPF and earn interest rates of 10% to 15% (green lines) but only 4% is returned to our Medisave (yellow line)?

Where has all the interest earned from our CPF go to?

Granted that the interest earned is due to the diligence of the investors at the Temasek Holdings, why isn’t the government channeling more back into our Medisave – by even just another 1% or 2%? They can fully afford to do so! Why make the people shoulder the full burden, while the government, in this country which has become one of the richest in the world, cannot transfer some of the wealth back to the people?

In fact, when “the Economic Review Committee (ERC) was convened in December 2001 to review Singapore’s development strategy and formulate a blueprint to restructure the economy”, the committee had made some good recommendations to protect Singaporeans’ wealth, such as “to increase the contribution rate to the Special Account by an additional 1%-point as we restore the CPF contribution rate. This will increase members’ Special Account balances by about 20%, and enable an additional 10% of all members to reach the Minimum Sum by 55.” But was this taken up? It has been more than 10 years since the recommendations, and now what? You can read the recommendations here. I note that this committee was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and where Speaker Halimah Yacob is onboard as well. It is clear who my vote will go for.

And in totally unrelated news,

Credit: Demon-cratic Singapore’s Page

So, why is the government making us pay more and more into the CPF and Medisave when our wages are already depressed and when they don’t even increase their contributions? How fair or responsible is this government?

Not only that, the government tells us that the amounts in CPF and Medisave have to be increased because of inflation but these amounts are increasing by several times more than inflation!

It is too much to summarise at this point, but I think you get the gist so far:

• Our wages are depressed. I’ve explained why this is so in a previous article.
• Healthcare costs are increasing. The government spends lesser and lesser and we are made to pay from our own pockets for ever-increasing prices. We are squeezed here.
• The government forces us to pay more for the Medisave Minimum Sum, Medisave Required Amount and CPF Minimum Sum, even though these amounts are increasing over and above inflation and our wages are depressed, so we are squeezed here.
• The government wants us to increase our contributions but they do not increase theirs. We are made to shoulder the full burden of increasing prices and depressed wages, but which are caused by the government. We are squeezed here.
• It’s not too much of a stretch to say that we are being squeezed left, right and centre and left high and dry.

(4) Can The Poor and Elderly Afford Healthcare in Singapore? (Charts 23 to 26b)

In the next few charts, I will show you how what the government does actually hurt Singaporeans.

In Chart 23, you can see that the majority of the people who are admitted to the hospitals are our elderly.

Chart 23: Ministry of Health Singapore Hospital Admission Rates by Age and Sex 2011

But do our elderly have enough to use or see the doctor with?

Do you know that many of our elderly work because they need the money? – 62% of them work because they need the money (Chart 24a).

Chart 24a: State of the Elderly in Singapore 2008/2009

The government keeps telling us that the older Singaporeans want to work because they want to stay active. Truth is most of them simply do not have enough money and are forced to work. The government knows this. They were the ones who had conducted a study on this, but yet, what have they chosen to tell us?

In fact, do you know that in 1995, only 39% of the elderly had said that they had wanted to work because they needed the money. But in 2005, this increased to 62%! 62% of them were forced to work because they needed the money (Chart 24b)!

That was 2005. You can expect that in another 8 years – in today’s time, this would have risen to 80% or 90%.

Chart 24b: State of the Elderly in Singapore 2008/2009

Also, for the elderly who were looking for a job, 66% or two-thirds of them had said that they were doing so because they needed the money (Chart 24c).

Chart 24c: Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports Singapore National Survey of Senior Citizens 2005

Can our elderly afford to see the doctor? You saw in the charts above that if you need to see the doctor, you have to fork out a lot of money – more than our peers in the other developed countries. And if you were to see a doctor at any clinic, you hardly receive any support.

Do you think our elderly can afford to see the doctor? When we hear of stories of how many elderly choose to fall sick and not see a doctor, until they absolutely have to, is there much truth to it? I think there is.

Our per capita expenditure may be low, but is it because many of our poor and elderly are not accessing care because they cannot afford to and have chosen not to seek care and treatment? Unfortunately, I do not have the statistics.

To give you more information, do you know that among our elderly, many of them work in jobs that we would classify as “blue-collar” jobs? Is this how we treat our elderly?

You can see this in Chart 25a. Among those who work as cleaners, labourers and related workers, 66% of them are the elderly. Among the plant and machine operators and assemblers, the elderly make up 56% of these workers.

Chart 25a: The Heart Truths (link which statistics was obtained from is broken)

If we look at how much the low-income earners, such as what the cleaners, labourers and related workers are earning, you can see that their wages have grown at a slower rate than the general population.

In Chart 25b, the red line is how much the cleaners’ wages have grown and the pink line shows how much the wages of the average Singaporean have grown. You can see that the red line is flatter – which also means that if our median wages, in real terms, have remained stagnant, that theirs would have declined over the years!

Chart 25b: Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income, Ministry of Manpower Singapore Report on Wages in Singapore 2011: Statistical Tables

Now, if we turn our attention to the low-income earners in general – do you know that the lower-income earners have to shoulder even more burden for healthcare, out of their expenditure?

You can see this in Chart 26a, where the poorest 20% of Singaporeans (red bars) fork out more from their monthly expenses to pay for healthcare. This has remained so over the years, even as the country grows richer.

Chart 26a: Ministry of Health Consumer Price Indices (CPI) & Household healthcare Expenditure

What’s more, if we look at how much the low-income earners earn in their lifetime, things look very bleak for them as well.

Not only are they paid low wages but across their lifetimes, if they work in a “blue-collar” job, their wages actually decrease as they grow older! You can this in Chart 26b.

Chart 26b: Ministry of Manpower Singapore Report on Wages, 2011

What this means is that for our low-income earners and elderly workers, they are stuck in a state of chronic poverty. The system simply doesn’t allow them to climb out of the poverty and entraps them in a state of poverty!

Already, healthcare costs are increasing and the government isn’t doing much to help us. Yet, the government is forcing us to put in more money into our CPF and Medisave, where if we don’t achieve the “minimum amount”, we would not be able to take the money out or use it.

Can you imagine how much worse it is for the poor and elderly, who cannot even put in enough into their CPF and Medisave? For whatever they are earning, they do not have enough to use, yet they have to put in money into the CPF and Medisave, which they cannot take out to use. They are losing money even faster than we are. I will show you more statistics on this later.

(5) Are We Paid Enough to Afford Healthcare in Singapore? (Charts 27a to 30d)

But first, I had shown you Chart 27a in a previous article. Do you know that even though we are among the richest cities, Singaporeans are paid the lowest wages as compared to the others? This is even so that Singapore’s GDP per capita is comparable to that of New York and Paris, but we are paid less than half or even only one-third of their wages! (Note: This chart shows a comparison of the cities as the report does not compare wages among countries.)

Chart 27a: UBS Prices and Earnings 2011

However, some readers weren’t previously convinced and had debated that Singaporeans aren’t paid the lowest wages in the developed world.

But there are more statistics. In the Global Wage Report 2012/2013 by the International Labour Organisation, you can see that the hourly rate of pay for time worked in manufacturing for Singaporeans is also the lowest among the developed countries. So, we have two reports here already which are saying the same thing.

Chart 27b: International Labour Organisation Global Wage Report 2012/2013 

And now for a third report. In the Global MetroMonitor 2011 report, Singapore was ranked the city with the lowest income growth rate, among 200 cities. In the 2012 report, this indicator was taken out and not reported anymore.

Just like in the 2012 version of the UBS Prices and Earnings 2011 report, Singapore was suddenly omitted from comparison as well.

Why are we hiding from? Singaporeans?

Chart 27c: Global MetroMonitor 2011

So, you can see that there are 3 reports all saying the same thing – the wages of Singaporeans are decreasing and are one of the lowest, if not the lowest among the developed countries and top cities. In the UBS report, Singapore was shown to have a similar purchasing power as Kuala Lumpur, even though we are several times richer than them, in terms of GDP per capita.

So, our wages have grown the slowest and are the lowest, yet we are made to pay the fastest rising healthcare costs. All this while, the government is forcing us to not only pay more for the healthcare bills, they are also making us pay more into our pension fund – CPF, which they then use to invest in Temasek Holdings and GIC, of which the returns are not shared in proportionate ways.

And mind you, this is from a country which is very rich and one of the richest in the world, and yet, this government cannot do more for the people!

So, for us lay people, our wages have remained stagnant and it has become increasingly painful for us to afford to live an acceptable standard of living. But what of our politicians?

I am sure that they are trying their best to do what they can for us. I am sure that they are suffering, like we all are. Afterall, I am sure we have capable and empathetic politicians who will stand side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder with the people, right?

In Chart 28a, you can see how much the politicians are earning. Chart 28a shows their annual salaries by each grade level.

Chart 28a: White Paper for Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government

High right? Wait, there’s more. In Chart 28b, you can see the change in their salaries over the years. Poor things. Even though they are obtaining million-dollar salaries, in some years, their salaries actually dropped below $1 million! It must be painful for them. Well, read further.

Chart 28b: White Paper for Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government

In Chart 28c, you can see the proportionate change in their salaries over the years. Wow, increases of more than 30% in some years!

Chart 28c: White Paper for Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government

Now compare this to us lay people. Look at the blue line in Chart 28d – this is how much our salaries have been changing. On average, the PAP ministers’ nominal salaries have been increasing by 5.64%, whereas for us lay Singaporeans, our nominal incomes have only grown by a lesser 3.82%.

Chart 28d: White Paper for Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government, Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income

So, while us lay Singaporeans become poorer and poorer, our PAP ministers who are paying themselves very handsomely continue to enjoy themselves. All this while, they devise policies to cut us down, while telling us to suck it in, that things will be fine – because sure, things are pretty fine for them!

Have you noticed the title of the white paper – Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government? I literally felt very uncomfortable when I saw the title – I kid you not.

So, after all the discussion, do Singaporeans have enough to save or retire? In Chart 29a, you can see that because the government has been increasing the Medisave Minimum Sum that we need to set aside, the proportion of Singaporeans who are able to meet the minimum sum at age 55 have grown slower and stagnated.

Chart29a: CPF Trends Medisave Scheme

In fact, over the past few years, there is actually a drop in the proportion of Singaporeans who are able to meet the minimum sum (Chart 29b).

Chart 29b: CPF Trends Medisave Minimum Sum

How about for the CPF Minimum Sum? Worse still, there has been a decrease in the number of Singaporeans who are able to meet the minimum sum (Chart 29c)!

Chart 29c: CPF Trends Minimum Sum Scheme

So, what does this mean for our retirement funds? Would we have enough to retire with?

In Chart 30a, you can see that among the developed countries compared in the Global Pension Index 2013, Singapore has the least adequate pension.

Chart 30a: Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index 2013

In another report, you can see that in terms of the gross replacement rates of our pension, which is the “share of individual lifestime average earnings”, you can see that Singapore scored the lowest among all the countries compared, and even lower than the developing countries (Chart 30b). This is even so that Singapore is the richest country among them all!

Not only that, you can see that the pensions for citizens of both genders are equal for most countries, but in Singapore, the men receive a higher pension than the women, even if both are very low.

 Chart 30b: Pensions at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2011

The previous chart had showed the pension funds for the average earner. How about for the “low earners”. You can see that in the other countries, their governments would do more to protect the low-income earners. Already, the low income earners are earning low wages and so their governments would step in to help them have more to retire.

But in Singapore? Our poor earn possibly the lowest wages as compared to anyone in the developed countries. Yet, their wages have been decreasing over their lifetimes. They are thus very much worse off not only compared to other Singaporeans, but as compared to the poor in the other countries as well. But when they retire, the government does not do anything for them. Their pension gross replacement rates are the same as the average earner (Chart 30c), whereas in other countries, the replacement rates are higher for the poor than the average earner.

Chart 30c: Pensions at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2011

If you look at the other comparisons (Chart 30d), you can see that in the second column block, the replacement rates for someone who is 30 now is even lower – which means we will have lesser retirement funds than the elderly today – and the gross pension wealth, which is the “size of the lump sum that would be needed to buy a flow of pension payments equivalent to that promised by the mandatory pension system in each country”, it is very low as well.

In all of these comparisons, Singapore fares the worse off, even when compared to developing countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. Our pension is useless.

Chart 30d: Pensions at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2011

(6) Where Is Our Money Really Going? (Charts 31a to 31e)

But the question is, if our pension is so low, then where is all our money going? Very good question.

In Chart 31a, you can see that Singapore is one of the largest debt nations in the world. The government borrows the money from Singaporeans – via our CPF.

Chart 31a: The Economist The global debt clock

This means that, as shown in Chart 31b, Singapore also has one of the highest public debt per person – the government “borrows” one of the highest amounts from the people.

Chart 31b: The Economist The global debt clock

Now, where does the money borrowed go to? The government borrows our CPF and invests it in Temasek Holdings and GIC.

And how much money does Temasek Holdings and GIC has? A lot of money. Temasek Holdings is ranked 11th among the soverign wealth funds in the world. And GIC is ranked 8th in the world! You can see the ranking in Chart 31c.

GIC has assets of US$247.5 billion and Temasek has assets of US$157.5 billion!

Chart 31c: Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute Soverign Wealth Fund Rankings

In fact, the official foreign reserves in Singapore has been rising rapidly, on the contributions of Singaporeans’ CPF (Chart 31d) – all this while, while Singaporeans are having great difficulty trying to even achieve the minimum amounts required in our CPF and Medisave!

Can you see how the increase in this chart is similar to the increase in the CPF and Medisave minimum amounts that we are being forced to pay?

Chart 31d: Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

Finally, you can see in Chart 31e that Singapore has the highest reserves per capita – the money earned from Temasek Holdings and GIC goes into the reserves. But wait a minute, what about for Singaporeans??

Chart 31e: The World Bank Total reserves

Do you know what the government says about our reserves? According to the Ministry of Finance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) manages S$304 billion and the size of Temasek’s portfolio was S$198 billion. The “Government’s funds managed by GIC that are not published. What has been revealed is that GIC manages well over US$100 billion. Revealing the exact size of assets that GIC manages will, taken together with the published assets of MAS and Temasek, amount to publishing the full size of Singapore’s financial reserves.”

Most importantly, the ministry says that, “It is not in our national interest to publish the full size of our reserves. If we do so, it will make it easier for markets to mount speculative attacks on the Singapore dollar during periods of vulnerability.”

Yet, if you see above, it is clearly stated that the GIC has assets of US$247.5 billion, which is about S$310 billion.

Now, mind you, this information is not available on the Singapore government’s website but why is it freely on someone else’s website? Why does the government deem it fit to restrict information to its own people but would share information with outsiders? What is the government trying to hide from the people? If the government would hide an information as important as the amount of our reserves, and the largest one no less, do you think that they will not hide other important information relevant to the lives of Singaporeans?

This is what it is – the size of GIC’s assets are very big. If you can do simple mathematics, you would be able to calculate that assets managed by GIC, Temasek Holdings and MAS would be at least $800 billion. What does that mean for a government which has so much money but continue to force people to be so self-reliant that it does not want to increase its support for its people, whilst reducing what the people are earning while still forcing the people to pay even more? And for what? For the reserves? Which are not coming back? For Temasek Holdings and GIC? For who? For whose pockets?

The people cannot know that we are using their CPF to grow our own money and that we are forcing them to retire on increasingly smaller amounts. And that’s why we have to hide the truth from them. That’s why others can know how rich we are so that we can attract the rich to come here but Singaporeans cannot know how rich we are. Otherwise, we would need to give more to the people, and we really don’t want that.

You’ve been had, Singaporeans.

Now, when the government doesn’t want to release statistics to us, do you know why? Always think about what they are trying to hide from you.

• Smallest pension for the people but one of the highest wealth funds in the world.
• Lowest wages in the developed world but the people have to spend the most out-of-pocket for healthcare.
• Lowest and fastest dropping wages among the low income earners and the highest proportionate expenditure for them – the poor and elderly.
• Lowest wages of Singapore workers in the developed world but highest ministers’ salaries anywhere in the world!

Doesn’t quite make sense, does it?

And so, I ask to the naysayers who fearmonger us to think that if we spend even that little from our reserves for the poor, that we will deplete our reserves, then I ask – even if we spend $3 million out of the $800 billion for the poor and elderly, this will amount to only 0.000004% of the reserves. Is this too much to ask for to help our poor? Will our reserves deplete overnight?

And if we have so much money and we are keeping it and not giving back to the people, what really is the government keeping it for?

The Singapore government is very, very, very rich. And the people are tremendously poor, for a developed country which is one of the richest in the world! We’ve put in so much hard work but we earn such miserly wages – the lowest in the developed world while our ministers earn the highest salaries in the world. Now, do you know why Singaporeans question the purpose of working hard? We don’t see the real returns of our hard work because what should rightfully be our money is taken away from us.

It doesn’t come back to us. It goes to the government and never comes back.

So, to be very clear:

• Singapore is one of the richest country in the world, but our people are paid the lowest wages in the developed world
• Our healthcare costs have been rising and we are made to pay the highest per capita expenditure on healthcare.
• Not only that, our real wages have thus fallen and because we simply do not have enough to save as we keep paying to, and for the government
• When we retire, our pensions simply are not enough for our retirement. We are the richest country but we have the smallest pension.
• Our government does not and cannot be bothered to do more for Singaporeans, so much so that our poor are kept in a state of chronic poverty, they simply do not have enough to retire.
• And our old, who many are working in low-income jobs, simply cannot retire and have to work for as long as they can, on even lower wages.

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS SINGAPORE. This is the richest country in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the richest country in the world where the rich get richer – including our politicians and everyone else bites the dust.

(7) Do We Really Have Good Health? (Charts 32 to 38)

So, we might have very nice-looking health outcomes, but what what is our emotional and psychological health like?

In a survey (Chart 32) conducted this year by the Gallup Organization, only 58% of Singaporeans feel loved – just slightly ahead of South Korea.

Chart 32: Bloomberg Where Do You Stand in the Global Love Ranking?

And no wonder, when we do not feel that our government is taking care of us.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had calculated the work-life balance index of the OECD countries. According to the index, generally the countries which work the longest hours also have the lowest work-life balance. I do not know how to calculate the actual score for Singapore, but you would expect Singapore to have one of the lowest work-life balance, because we work the longest hours in the world (Chart 33).

Chart 33: OECD StatExtracts, Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2012

You can see the work-life balance index in Chart 34, with Singapore’s estimated index ranking, which would be very low – this means that we have very poor work-life balance.

Importantly, we are as rich as countries like Norway and Denmark, but our work-life balance is way off the mark.

Chart 34: OECD Better Life Index Work-Life Balance

When we are not treated right by our government and where we have one of the worse work-life balances in the developed countries, is it any wonder why our people are the least happy people in the world (Chart 35)?

Chart 35: Gallup Positive Emotions Worldwide

And in yet another completely unrelated news:

Credit: Demon-cratic Singapore’s Page

So what if on the surface, we might look like our health outcomes are good when Singaporeans’ emotional and psychological well-being would most probably be one of the poorest in the developed world, and in fact, in the whole world? So what, if our people might not be able to afford healthcare, and thus cannot access it?

Interestingly, Singapore has one of the highest morality rate for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, after the United States (Chart 36).

Chart 36: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

According to the World Health Organisation, “The most important behavioural risk factors of heart disease and stroke are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol.” Medical News Today had attributed cardiovascular disease to “a lack of sleep” and “stress” as well.

Is it any wonder there have been an increasing spate of Singaporeans suddenly dying from cardiovascular diseases?

Credit: Fabrications by Anntonii’s Facebook Page

You know, if you think that the government cares about you, think again. They don’t. Not even when you are dead. Look at Bukit Brown.

If you are not a big business, rich or a tourist with high spending power, you are as good as dead to the government.

Would you be able to see these charts or statistics put together in the way it had been in this article in our newspapers and TV? They wouldn’t be able to report on these, where otherwise the editors and journalists would lose their jobs. Which is no wonder why Singapore is ranked 149th in the World Press Freedom Index 2013, together with Bangladesh, Palestine, Iraq and Burma (Chart 37a).

Chart 37a: Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2013

And 153th in the Freedom of the Press 2013 report, below Iraq and just above Burma (Chart 37b). Our press is not independent. They are not allowed to report the truths about the government.

Chart 37b: Freedom House Freedom of the Press 2013

Two reports, same findings – In Singapore, our newspapers and TV are not able to speak the truth and the people are constantly kept in the dark on the truths. Welcome to The Heart Truths.

And why not? In the Freedom in the World 2013 report, Singapore is not even ranked within the top 90 democratically-freer countries – we are only a “partly free” country, where there “is limited respect for political rights and civil liberties”.

In The Economist’s Democracy Index 2012, we are ranked 81st in the world as a hybrid regime (Chart 38) – where there are “Serious weaknesses … in political culture, functioning of government and political participation. Corruption tends to be widespread and the rule of law is weak. Civil society is weak. Typically there is harassment of and pressure on journalists, and the judiciary is not independent.” We are ranked with countries that you would hardly have ever heard of.

Think there is no corruption in Singapore? It’s all about how to look clean, even when you are not.

Chart 38: The Economist Democracy Index 2012

Again, two reports, same findings. The Singapore government does not protect our basic and fundamental rights and freedom – point in case, look at how they have siphoned away our money and how we are left out to dry, unknowingly.

In another country which is democratic, we would be able to hold mass protests and demonstrations to demand for an answer from the government. Our newspapers and TV will investigate and report on the government, our judiciary will expose the government and hold them accountable and our academics will debate on these issues and expose the government of its corruption.

In another country, the government wouldn’t have dared to do what they do – they wouldn’t pay themselves so expensively, at the expanse of the people who earn so poorly, and all the while treating the people like “stupid”, while proclaiming themselves as patriots. Patriots, really? Perhaps – patriots to only the top 1% of rich individuals in Singapore.

But the government controls everything in Singapore – the media, judiciary, our educational institutions and civil service – they have every means and every way to cripple Singaporeans because who are our police, judges or lawyers?

This government has gone on a trajectory that no longer respects the people or treat the people right, beginning from 2000. It is also when a new batch of leaders had been inducted into the current parliament.

Do you feel sentimental about PAP politicians and the good that they have done for Singapore? Me too – I feel for the politicians who had watched and guided the transformation of Singapore from a “Third World” to “First World” country in the early days of Singapore.

But I have absolutely no sentimental feelings for this current batch of PAP politicians.

So what if they are also dress in the same frocks as the PAP politicians of fore when their white is tainted? None of them understand the ideals, values and beliefs that the forebearers of PAP had sculpted Singapore with. They can claim to represent Singapore and Singaporeans, and claim to care for the welfare of Singaporeans. But clearly, they don’t. Time and time again, everytime I look at the statistics, I am only shown with pristine clarity how the current batch of PAP politicians do not have Singapore and Singaporeans’ interests at heart.

I do not know who or what they care about. But clearly, it is not us. They have lost their moral leadership to govern in our country. Now, Singaporeans, if you are not still not convinced, then I will leave you your time to reflect and think about things for yourself. Some of you will try to take this article apart but no matter how you look at it, the statistics speak for themselves. And it’s not just one but several reports which are saying the same thing.

I do not care about this current batch of PAP politicians. I might be sentimental towards the PAP of the olden days but the PAP of now do not have the  honesty and heart of their predecessors. They do not at all.

Change is needed in Singapore. Change is needed so that we can protect our lives and the lives of our future generations. Change is needed to bring fore a new hope, new inspiration and new dynamism into Singapore, and allow us to make Singapore one that we can truly call our home. It’s time we stop calling ourselves workers in the Singapore factory and regain our rights as people in the nation of Singapore.

The current crop of PAP politicians are simply not capable to bring Singapore into the new era. And if you tell me that the opposition politicians do not seem to be capable as well, then do you think a group of PAP politicians who have mismanaged your incomes, pension and basically your life, deserve another chance at turning your life around when they haven’t done so after 3 elections?

For Singaporeans who fear a change in government, I say to you – it’s time you take up the responsibility to run your country as well. Our country is as much what we want to do with it as much as what we decide to not care about. No matter which government comes into place, it is our responsibility as the peoples of this country to create solutions for it. If we keep waiting for a “capable” government to take over, we can take another 3 elections with PAP and if the past 3 elections hasn’t shown themselves clearly to you, then by all means, go ahead.

But I know my choice is clear. I want a government that takes care of the people, that bows down to the people and protects the people. Not one that pays themselves so well while lying to the people about how good their lives are, while cutting down on their lives. It’s wrong. Plain wrong.

Key Points for Part 2:

• The government has been increasing the Medisave Minimum Sum, Medisave Required Amount and CPF Minimum Amount year-on-year, as they explained that this is due to increasing prices and inflation.
• However these amounts have been increasing by several times over inflation.
• Also, Singaporeans’ real wages have remained stagnant, and these amounts have been increasing by several times over the growth of our real wages.
• Yet, even as the government asks Singaporeans to increase their contributions to these amounts, the government maintains only a 4% interest rate on our Medisave account and hasn’t increased its contributions.
• Our CPF is borrowed by the government to invest in Temasek Holdings and GIC. However, even thoughTemasek Holdings earns 10% to 15% in interest but the interest returned on our Medisave is only 4%.
• Among the attendances to the hospital, most of them are the elderly. Healthcare is expensive for the elderly. 62% of the elderly work because they needed the money in 2005. This is as compared to in 1995, when only 39% of the elderly had to work because they needed to money.
• On top of that, the elderly workers form the largest bulk of the “blue-collar” occupations. And these occupations have seen their real wages decrease over the past few years.
• The poorest 20% households in Singapore spends the highest proportion of their incomes on healthcare.
• Across their lifetimes, the low-income earners also see their real wages drop as they grow older. Thus for the low-income and elderly, they are trapped in a state of chronic poverty.
• Singaporeans are paid the lowest wages in the developed world and we have seen the lowest (and negative) growth in our wages as compared to 200 top cities. Meanwhile, the ministers’ nominal salaries have grown by 5.6% since 2002 whereas the lay Singaporean has only seen their nominal incomes grow by 3.8%.
• Thus all in, even as the CPF and Medisave minimum amounts have been increasing, a smaller and smaller proportion of Singaporeans are able to meet the minimum amounts.
• This also means that Singaporeans have the smallest pension (CPF) amounts, as compared to the other developed countries, and also to other developing countries in the region. Women also have smaller pensions than the men and the poor are left with relatively smaller pensions that those of the other countries.
• Even though our pensions are the smallest in the world, GIC and Temasek Holdings, which uses the money borrowed from our CPF, is ranked 8th and 11th as the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. In fact, we have a rapidly growing reserves and the highest reserves per capita in the world. Yet, ironically, the people retire poorest in the world.
• Singaporeans are not protected by their government, we work the longest hours in the developed world and have possibly one of the worse work-life balances in the world. All in, this explains why we are also the unhappiest people on this planet.
• The reason why these issues have not been compiled and brought to our attention is because we have one of the lowest press freedom in the world and we are ranked lowly as a non-democratic country, where the people’s rights and civilities have been compromised.
• In Singapore, the government is not accountable to the people and has compromised the people’s livelihood and well-being. A change of government is necessary to bring Singaporeans’ livelihoods back to balance. Singaporeans need to play a stronger role in helping their future government shape the policy and future for Singapore.

In this article, I would show you the real statistics of Singapore’s healthcare financing, retirement funds and wages to show you the truth about how our money is being used, or actually, being taken away from us. I do not intend to pretend that this article is neutral. It is not, because as I found out more information, I needed to take a stand.

I had initially started writing this article as an article on our healthcare financing, but as I dug out more information and started piecing things together, it went beyond my original scope. Thus the article would start off with some healthcare statistics, but will eventually reveal other statistics on our retirement funds, wages and money.

It is very easy to read this article. I will guide you through each chart, so that you can understand at one glance what each is saying.

I promise that you will go away from this article with more insights about the monetary situation in Singapore. Please have some patience to read this. It will only take you 10 to 15 minutes to read this article.

I have split this article into two parts, so that in case you might find the article too long, you can take a break before proceeding onto the next part. But please come back and read it. Do not close your browser as there is very important information that you need to know in this article.

The article is structured into 7 sections:

1. Healthcare Outcomes
2. Health Expenditure
3. Medisave Financing
4. Can The Poor and Elderly Afford Healthcare in Singapore?
5. Are We Paid Enough to Afford Healthcare in Singapore?
6. Where Is Our Money Really Going?
7. Do We Really Have Good Health?

Here goes. First, I will show you very quickly the achievements that Singapore has made in our health outcomes. This is the (only) rosy part of this article. If you want to skip to the ‘real’ insights, you can jump to Section 2.

For charts in the first half of the article, you can quickly identify Singapore by the red bar, red line or red dot.

(1) Health Outcomes (Charts 1 to 4b)

In Chart 1, you can see that Singapore has one of the lowest, if not the lowest infant mortality in the world.

Chart 1: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

Chart 2 shows that we have a reasonably low maternal mortality rate, and one of the lowest in the world. According to the recently released ‘State of the World’s Mothers 2013′ report, Channel NewsAsia had reported that, “Singapore is the safest place to be born and the best place to be a mother in Asia … (as) Singapore has the lowest first-day mortality rate in Asia.”

Chart 2: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

In Chart 3a, you can see that we have one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Chart 3a: UNdata

In Chart 3b, you can see that our healthy life expectancy is lower-ranked than our life expectancy. The healthy life expectancy is the number of years we stay healthy.

Chart 3b: UNdata

You can see why this is so in Chart 3c – because we live slightly more unhealthy years than some of the other countries.

But more importantly, with more unhealthy years, is there affordable healthcare in Singapore to tide Singaporeans through these years? Read on to find out.

Chart 3c: UNdata, UNdata

In Chart 4a, you can see that the adult morality rate of Singaporeans is average and on par with the other developed countries.

Chart 4a: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

In Chart 4b, I had highlighted the morality rate for communicable diseases because it had stood out. This is perhaps not surprising because of our high population density.

The question then is that as the Singapore government plans for 6.9 million people by 2030, do we have adequate healthcare facilities to prepare for the high probability of an even higher morality rate for communicable diseases than we do now and do we have plans to structure the built environment to reduce this probability?

Chart 4b: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

So, generally, you can see that our health outcomes are quite good.

But things don’t look as good from here on.

(2) Health Expenditure (Charts 5a to 18c)

In Chart 5a, you can see that the number of hospital admissions had been increasing for the past 3 years.

(Note: I am not able to locate statistics for beyond the last 3 years on the Ministry of Health’s website. I am not sure why the government had chosen to only show statistics for the preceding 3 years and had chosen not to reveal the statistics prior to 2010. It does not allow Singaporeans to have a clear picture. It is in Singaporeans’ interest that the statistics are fully revealed. This is undemocratic and an intrusion into the rights of Singaporeans for free information.)

Chart 5a: Ministry of Health Singapore Admissions and Outpatient Attendances

In Chart 5b, you can also see that attendance to the accident and emergency (A&E) units had also increased.

Chart 5b: Ministry of Health Singapore Admissions and Outpatient Attendances

In Chart 5c, you can see that the hospital admissions and attendance to A&E had increased at a faster rate than the population growth in Singapore. This can be seen by how the blue bars are taller than the yellow-orange bars.

Chart 5c: Singapore Department of Statistics, Ministry of Health Singapore Admissions and Outpatient Attendances

This is where it starts to get interesting.

Even though there are more and more patients visiting the hospitals, the number of physicians per 10,000 population had remained the same (Chart 6a – data for 2011 and 2012 is unavailable).

Chart 6a: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

The number of hospital beds per 10,000 population had also remained the same (Chart 6b – data for 2012 is unavailable).

Chart 6b: World Health Organisation World Health Statistics

More importantly, if you look at Chart 6c, you will see that Singapore has the lowest number of physicians per 10,000 population.

Chart 6c: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Not only that, we also have one of the lowest number of hospital beds per 10,000 population (Chart 6d).

Chart 6d: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

But why do we have so few physicians and hospital beds per 10,000 population, when the number of patients to the hospitals are increasing at a faster rate than the population in Singapore? Shouldn’t we have more?

If you look at Chart 7, you can see that Singapore has the highest GDP per capita as compared to the other countries compared, and one of the highest in the world.

Chart 7: The World Bank Data

But when you look at Chart 8a, you can see that even though we are the richest (highest on the chart), we have the fewest number of physicians per 1,000 population (most left-to-the-side of the chart). By right, if a country is richer, shouldn’t it be able to provide for more physicians?

On the other end, you can see that Norway is similarly rich but have one of the highest number of physicians per 1,000 population. Even other countries which are less rich have more physicians per 1,000 population.

Chart 8a: UNDP International Human Development Indicators

But no wonder we have such a low number of physicians per 1,000 population (lowest on the chart) because even though the Singapore government is very rich, it spends the least proportion of GDP on healthcare (most left-to-the-side of the chart) (Chart 8b). This is why we do not have enough doctors and hospitals beds.

Chart 8b: UNDP International Human Development Indicators

(Note: From charts 9a to 16b, I would be showing dual-comparison charts of the (1) year with the latest information and the (2) trend from 1996 – so there would be two charts which will present the same information differently.)

Indeed, in Chart 9a, you can thus see that our government spends the lowest proportion of GDP on healthcare.

Chart 9a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

In fact, our government had consistently spent the lowest proportion of GDP on healthcare for the past two decades, at least (Chart 9b).

Chart 9b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

What’s more, even though Singapore is the richest (highest on the chart), our government spends the least on healthcare (most left-to-the-side of the chart) (Chart 9c).

Chart 9c: UNDP International Human Development Indicators

It is even more glaring when you look at Chart 9d – we have the largest amount of reserves (highest on the chart), but yet we spend the least on healthcare (most left-to-the-side of the chart).

Chart 9d: UNDP International Human Development Indicators

And for our healthcare bills, how much does the government contributes? – The government only spends 31% on our healthcare bills (Chart 10a) – the lowest among all the developed countries, and one of the lowest in the world.

Chart 10a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

In Chart 10b, you can see that not only does the Singapore government spends the lowest proportion on our healthcare bills, the proportion has fallen rapidly over the past two decades to the lowest ever in the past few years.

If you look at the other countries, most of them have maintained the same proportion since 1996 and some have even increased the government’s proportion of expenditure, but the Singapore government has chosen to go the other way and deny its support to the people.

Chart 10b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Again, you can see in Chart 10c that even though Singapore is the richest country (highest on the chart), our government spends the least for our own healthcare bills (most left-to-the-side of the chart).

Yet again, all the other countries which are less rich (lower on the chart) spends more on their people as well (more right-to-the-side of the chart).

The Singapore government had recently announced with fanfare and grandeur that they would increase the government’s proportion of healthcare spending to 40%. So, what, Singaporeans? So, what? It will still be the lowest.

Chart 10c: UNDP International Human Development Indicators

So, what does this mean for YOU and your own spending on your healthcare bills?

This means that Singaporeans spend the highest proportion on our healthcare among the developed countries (Chart 11a) – the Singapore people are faced with the highest burden on healthcare among peoples of the developed countries – even though our country is the richest!

Chart 11a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

You can also see that the burden on Singaporeans has been increasing drastically since 1996 in Chart 11b.

Yet, in other countries, their people need to fork out for a smaller proportion for their healthcare bills at a consistently low proportion, and for some, the proportion has fallen.

But our government is unable to do more for us – or rather, is unwilling to.

Chart 11b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

It gets even more glaring in Chart 12a. You can use insurance to pay for your healthcare bills. But you can see that even after deducting for insurance, Singaporeans have to pay the highest proportion of our healthcare bills out of our pockets, whereas the insurance would help to heavily reduce the bills for our peers in the other developed countries.

Chart 12a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

The picture becomes so much clearer in Chart 12b when we look at the trend over the past few years.

As the richest country in this comparison, the government cannot do more for its people but expect the people to shoulder the burden by themselves – and increasingly so over the years!

Chart 12b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Why then are we buying insurance if the insurance does not provide us with adequate coverage? What are the insurance companies really earning?

In Chart 12c, you can see that Singapore has one of the lowest growths in insurance claim payments among the developed countries.

Chart 12c: OECD Global Insurance Market Trends 2012

Now, let’s turn our attention from the proportionate expenditure to the actual amount of money spent.

In Chart 13a, you can see the per capita expenditure on healthcare. Apparently, Singapore has the second lowest per capita expenditure on healthcare. Sounds good, right? Healthcare must be really cheap in Singapore!

Chart 13a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

So, the per capita expenditure on healthcare might have remained low in Singapore over the past few years (Chart 13b).

Chart 13b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Yet, to be able to have a clear understanding of why per capita expenditure on healthcare is low, we would need other statistics such as whether people would see a doctor once they feel unwell or if they would delay seeing a doctor for other reasons (such as the inability to pay, for example). Unfortunately, I am not able to locate these statistics.

However, are Singaporeans fortunate that per capita expenditure on healthcare is low? And can people afford to pay to see a doctor in Singapore?

Read on to find out.

In Chart 14a, you can see that in terms of actual dollars and cents, our government spends the least among all developed countries on the per capita expenditure on healthcare. This is even so that we are the richest country and the government can afford to do more for the people.

Chart 14a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

In Chart 14b, you can see that whereas other governments had increased the actual amount that they spent on healthcare for their people faster, our government had increased their contributions at the slowest rate. You can see this from how much flatter the red line is, as compared to the others.

The governments of other countries have been providing more and more for their people, while the Singapore government had turned the other way and provided comparatively lesser and lesser for the people.

Chart 14b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

So, what does this mean as to how much Singaporeans have to pay? Obviously, if the government is paying lesser, we will have to pay more, right?

Then, you might say – thankfully we have a very low per capita expenditure on healthcare in Singapore, so even if we have to pay more, it won’t be that high an amount right?

That’s where we are so wrong. Because we pay the highest proportion on our own healthcare bills, even with the one of the lowest per capita expenditure on healthcare, we actually pay the highest amount on our healthcare!

You can see this in Chart 15a.

Chart 15a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Isn’t this shocking? We have one of the lowest per capita expenditure on healthcare but our people have to pay so much more than people in the other developed countries! How does this even work?

Not only that, if you see in Chart 15b, you can see that the increase in our private expenditure is very steep – the steepest amongst all the countries compared.

Chart 15b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

So, our government had allowed themselves to increase their contribution to our healthcare bills at the lowest rate, but they had forced us to pay more and more for our own healthcare bills at the fastest rate, so much so that from being comparable with the other nations, we have outstripped them.

This is from a country where the country is so rich that the government can afford to give back to the people but the government wouldn’t.

If you look back at Chart 7 again, you will see that Norway also has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world, so it is as rich as Singapore. And the Norwegian government also forks out the most to pay the people’s healthcare bills (Chart 10a and 14a). The Norwegian government is responsible and knows that it has to share what the country earns – because of the people’s efforts – with the people.

In Singapore, this is not the case. The government asks us to contribute to the(ir) economy, and then keeps the money for themselves. Well, is it coming back?

In Chart 16a, you can see that after deducting for insurance, again, it’s even more glaring. We fork out the most money out of our own pockets to pay for healthcare bills, almost twice that of the next country.

Chart 16a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Again, in Chart 16b, you can see how this has shot up dramatically. Dear Singaporeans, welcome to legalised daylight robbery.

Chart 16b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

Has our government taken self-reliance too far? According to a study, “Co-payments remain central to healthcare funding in Singapore in keeping with its philosophy of “shared responsibility” between government and the public, and there is evidence that Singapore’s funding model exacerbates inequity.”

Earlier, I had asked – is our healthcare affordable? What do you think of it now?

We are one of the richest countries in the world. Yet, our government spends the least on its people and even though on paper, we have one of the lowest per capita expenditure on healthcare, we are forced to fork out, out of our pockets, the highest amount among the other countries to pay for our own healthcare bills. So, even though initially, it looks like healthcare is affordable in Singapore (before we breakdown the bills), is it really?

Do you know why the per capita expenditure on healthcare is low? This is because the government wants to keep healthcare prices relatively low in Singapore to grow Singapore as a medical tourism destination. However, while we keep costs low for the rich who can afford to travel to Singapore for healthcare, our own people are then forced to take on the burden of shouldering the increasing healthcare costs in Singapore – are we subsidising the healthcare costs of the rich medical tourists?

Amidst all these, where is the government? It has conveniently thrown our market open to attract more tourists to earn from them – ‘Your Singapore(ans)’ are so “shiok” to take advantage of, and whilst they keep the money earned, very little comes back to us.

Why are we made to shoulder the burden, while the government cuts its support for Singaporeans, at the expense of rich tourists?

There’s even more. Can the government do more? It can but it doesn’t want to. Let me show you.

In Chart 17a, the blue line shows, as had been discussed, that the overall per capita expenditure on healthcare has risen steeply. The red line shows how little the government had increased its expenditure – the line is almost flat.

So, you can see that the per capita expenditure is rising steeply but the government’s contribution hasn’t risen as fast.

Chart 17a: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

In Chart 17b, the green line is how much we have to pay out of our own pockets. Again, as compared to what the government pays (red line), we are made to pay much more.

Chart 17b: World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

But do you know how much our wages have been increasing?

Chart 18a shows the growth of the median gross monthly income. (Note: Data from 2005 and 2006 is unavailable.)

Chart 18a: Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income

In Chart 18b, I compare the growth in our income (pink line) to the increase in per capita healthcare expenditure (blue line).

Chart 18b: Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income, World Health Organisation World Health Expenditure Database

You can see that healthcare expenditure is rising faster than our wages. In other words, what we need to pay for healthcare is increasing faster than our wages. This means that with the slow growth in our wages, we have to fork out more and more to pay for our healthcare bills, which means we would have lesser to save every year.

Now, do you know why it looks like our savings haven’t increased over the past few years? But this isn’t the only reason, as we will see later.

In Chart 18c, you can see that the proportionate change in the real median gross monthly income. This means that after accounting for inflation, our wages had remained stagnant.

Chart 18c: Ministry of Manpower Singapore Income

Why is this important? Read on.

In the next part, I would share with you where else we are forced to pay for rising healthcare costs. Also, we would see that our wages are not growing on par and then find out where our money is really going to.

You can read the next part of the article here.

Key Points for Part 1:

• On the overall, Singapore’s health outcomes are good.
• However, with an increase in the hospital attendances which is faster than population growth, this means that we would require more doctors and hospital beds.
• However, Singapore has the lowest number of doctors and one of the lowest number of hospital beds per 10,000 population among the developed countries.
• This is even so that Singapore has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world, but we spend one of the lowest proportion of GDP on healthcare, which explains the low number of doctors and hospital beds as well.
• For our healthcare expenditure, the government also spends the lowest proportion among the developed countries, which leads Singaporeans to spend the highest private and out-of-pocket expenditure on our healthcare bills.
• When we look at the actual dollar spent, Singapore has the second lowest per capita expenditure on healthcare among the developed countries compared.
• Yet, our government spends the lowest expenditure per capita on healthcare.
• Because Singaporeans pay the highest proportion on healthcare bills, this means that even though we have the second lowest per capita expenditure, Singaporeans spend the highest private expenditure and fork out the highest amount out of our pockets for our healthcare bills – which means Singaporeans pay the most for healthcare as compared to the developed countries.
• Per capita healthcare expenditure has risen rapidly over the past few years but the growth in the government’s per capita spending on healthcare has been significantly slower.
• Per capita healthcare expenditure has also been rising faster than the growth in the wages of Singaporeans, which means that Singaporeans have to fork out even more out of their stagnant wages to foot the growing healthcare bills.

Picture credit: Singapore Kindness Movement Singa Resigns

Subject: Open Letter to Singapore – I Quit

Dear Singapore,

I quit.

Do you know what a mascot is? Oxford defines me as, “a person or thing that is supposed to bring good luck, especially one linked to a particular organization or event.” Merriam-Webster calls me a “symbolic figure”.

You see, I need a long break, especially from the government. You know what a “symbolic figure” is? Fake one, fake! That means, I am a fake. You see, I’ve been doing this for 30 years. On the surface, it looks like I am your mascot for kindness. But really, I am just “supposed to bring good luck” to “a particular organization” – PAP. They had hoped that if I had pranced around enough and make you kind, or maybe make you their kind, or actually, make you kind to them, that you will feel that the problems that they create will disappear.

But, it’s been said that kindness shouldn’t be a campaign. That people in authority – the government – should lead by example. So, you had said, “fix my problems first, then we can talk about being kind.” So, that’s what they tried to do – they went around fixing the opposition. But now, the problem has come a full circle and now they tio “AIM-ed”.

It’s not that kindness is not innate in all of us. It is just that it’s not innate in our politicians because “gang rape, after all, is democracy in action”. When you say, “We have so many problems. How can we be kind?” I also say. Is kindness for the good times? Can we rise even in challenging times? But I understand how you feel – we have been in bad and challenging times for more than 10 years now. Singaporeans work the longest hours in the developed world and are also paid the lowest wages. Our wages have also remained stagnant and for low-salaried workers like me, wages have dropped. Yet, the government keeps telling me that they will increase my wages with the ‘Progressive Wage Structure’, ‘Workfare Income Supplement’ and the ‘Wage Credit Scheme’. Simi Lai eh?! Just increase my pay already, can?  Talk so much for so many years and my pay is still only as good as the Malayan tiger.

I know, might as well be a foreign talent, right? At least I get treated better than in my own home. You can just take a look at the parrot, I mean, “patriot” and you can see. So patriot that he asked me to retire in his home country. When we retire, we have the most kiam siap pension among the developed countries and even among the ASEAN countries. You might have heard that my resignation is just a joke and that I am “staging a comeback”. What comeback? Actually, I wasn’t joking but I just realised that if I retire now, I won’t have enough money to use, so no choice lor. The government just says that I have a lot of free time and don’t know what to do. They say what, say lor. I also lan lan.

If we can only be nice if other people are nice to us first, who will start the ball rolling? This is true, because the government will never roll their ball. I know – we have been asking them to increase our wages, reduce prices, reduce stress and give us more subsidies for healthcare and education, but they still don’t want to roll the ball, right? Nowadays, I don’t even dare to see the doctor because we have to pay the most for healthcare in Singapore. And so, I have decided to buy pants to wear so that I can keep warm. Thank you, mrbrown for noticing.

When they ask you to hold their balls, if not they will kick you in your balls, how to be kind, right?

A final word before I go. We can go online and be rude to others, but let’s not think it “doesn’t count” because it’s anonymous. Otherwise, learn from the PAP MPs – delete comments you think “doesn’t count”, or ban people from commenting. So gracious, right? Or you can be Like Lee Bee Wah – now her Facebook page looks like an advertisement for Dynamo.

Actually, let me tell you a secret. Do you know what the kindness campaign is for? We can let our anger and disagreement dictate the kind of people and society we want to be, or we can decide to be gracious, even when frustrated. That is why the PAP has decided to dictate the kind of people and society they want you to be. You cannot protest and when they say that they will let you, they will get their undercovers down with state-of-art cameras to film you.

We are responsible for the sort of society we encourage and create. It is our choices that determine who we are. I know what choice I will make at the next general elections.

All the best, Singapore. You really need it.

Your friend and fellow slave,

Singa

In Singapore, Where Is Our Soul?

As Singapore grew, we learnt to made functional things. We had converted our rivers into drains, but now we are converting them back into rivers. We’ve learnt to construct manicured gardens but now we are starting to realise that perhaps, we need to leave our greenery natural. When Singapore was growing in our early days, we have learnt to make things simple, useful and practical. But now, as we look back, we start to think – but where is the soul? So, we have a useful big drain that channels the water to the reservoir but where can the people go and sit by the river if they would want to? Slowly, we are beginning to realise how we can learn to find beauty in things. Slowly, we are realizing that we need to start being connected.

As Singaporeans grew, we’ve learnt to become detached from our emotions as we plow our time into work, so that we can help Singapore attain a First World living standard. And so, we’ve negated our emotions and we’ve focused on material wealth and living, so much so that into the new century, as Singapore has finally attained an enviable standard of living, our people look at one another and wonder to ourselves – where is his soul? Or where is her soul? Or indeed, where is our soul?

In our hurry to earn more and more, we’ve learnt to buy our children over with things. In our haste to grow our wealth, our children have learnt to follow our lead and believe that things in life can be defined by the money they have and the material goods that they are showered with. As our children grow up and become workers, they have learnt to think of the Gucci, the Prada and the Mercedes and Bukit Timah. Our lives start to become defined by what we have, rather than who we are. Our lives are defined by how far we go and how much we earn rather than how much I care or know. What is education but the ability to pass examinations? What is education but not to waste it on inquisitive thinking!

Singaporeans Lost: Finding Our Soul, Finding Meaning In Life

And so, in our money-minded driven-ness, we’ve finally reached a stage where with all the money that Singapore has, we are beginning to ask ourselves – so what? Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations have worked so hard to bring Singapore to where we are now. And now, in our generation, we are asking – so what? With all these money, so what? But the problem isn’t because we have reached a different generation. The problem is that in our years of economic pursuit, we have lost many years forgetting to grow ourselves as people, as individuals.

Our lost decades of social and psychological growth are finally catching up with us now.

Yet, unfortunately, because we have developed a sub-par social and psychological consciousness, and in our economic wealth, we have been led to believe that socially, we are affluent as well. But, how wrong we are! And so, on the roads, we honk at other drivers – get out of the way, you low-level being! Don’t you know how to drive? Gosh, I am even a better driver than you are!

In our social and psychological growth deficiency, we are unable to realise our social ineptness. We have learnt to think that because we are wealthy, that we are naturally socially as graceful. But yet, how we do not see ourselves. We honk at others on the road, thinking that we are better than others, only to have others honk back at us, them thinking the same way. We past by others in our way, turn around and stare at them, only to have others turn around and stare at us as well.

In our eagerness to grow Singapore to become wealthy, Singaporeans have learnt to forgo some of our social ways, just so we could get to the fore. As more and more of us do that, we’ve learnt to let our social development languish.

And so, a Singaporean who has become “angsty”, unhappy, snide, rude and quick to the temper, a Singaporean quick to judge, berate and shout nasty remarks at the waiter, thinking that we are better than they are, has developed. I earn more money than you, who are you, you lowly waiter on lowly wages who should be serving me with more courtesy!

The Side Effects of Meritocracy: I Am Better Than You

Yet, in our meritocratic system, as our people strive to do their best to get to the top, it has bred a pool of Singaporeans who believe themselves so mighty that we have learnt to demand things of others, because we’ve worked so hard to deserve this, and what have you done? Wait at tables? Did you spend as much money as I did to study for my medicine or law degree? Did you spend as much time as I did mugging in my exams to sit for my degree examination? Are you even better than half my level?

In our earnestness to build a system where we can allow Singaporeans to grow and propel themselves to the highest echelons of economic relevance, we have created a system so competitive that our people have learnt to push one another out of the way, so that they can get to the top, and once they are at the top, they’ve learnt to look down at others and smirk at others for not being good enough because you know what? – I am better than you.

It is perhaps unfortunate that Singapore has come to this stage. But yet, we should not judge ourselves for having become so. For it is precisely because of the sacrifices that our forefathers and foremothers have put in that have given us the life that Singapore can now respectably stand head and shoulders with the rest, that we can live a life that is at least comfortable, safe and respectable for most. And this is something that we can be and should be proud of.

Yet, in our eagerness to strive, we’ve become a hard-headed, cold-hearted, quick-tempered and emotionally-uneven Singaporean that because we don’t have time to even think for ourselves, we don’t even stop to think for others. It’s simply easier to hold on to thinking that I am better than you and keep hanging on to what we have achieved than to stop and look at the other and think about how we can also help him or her succeed or how we can perhaps step out of the way, so that he or she can move ahead and we can be happy that we have carved a path out for somebody else as well.

Finding Balance in Singapore Once Again

It is perhaps then true that Singapore is in a transition but not because we are into a new generation. Singapore is transiting because from a sole focus on economic growth, it is time our people learn to figure out how to understand our social, psychological and emotional selves. We have learnt to forgo and sacrifice the other parts of us – our soul – as we’ve learnt to put our faith in money. But it is perhaps time to find that balance.

Why is Singapore divided? Why are we unhappy? Why have we learnt to lose our patience or cool in front of someone else? Why have we learnt to bark at someone else? Why have we learnt to slight someone else?

Why do we think that we are better than us? Or do we really think that we are better than others?

But have we even stopped to think?

In Singapore, it’s not because we don’t care. It’s not because we don’t want to. Singaporeans have a heart and we are gentle, accommodating people. But we have forgotten that. In our yearning to strive, we’ve let that go, but it is perhaps time to face up to our inner selves once again.

Knowing That We All Believe In The Same Thing

It is perhaps not necessary to judge another Singaporean for being “elitist” or being too “comfortable”, for if we are able to see beyond and beneath what one says about us, or what we say about others, we will understand that in truth, we have learnt to see ourselves as better than the others so that we can protect ourselves – so that we can achieve a better life. And if we can understand how we snide at others only because of our fears and our want to protect it, perhaps if we step aside from our fears, we would realise that so is the person fearing and so is the person only reacting to that fear.

Singapore is in a good position. But we need to start letting our fears go and our egos down. We need to start realizing that if we were to stop shouting at one another but perhaps, listening to one another that we can perhaps finally hear what the other is saying and we would understand that we are saying the same thing.

It is not that we think that you are not good enough or that you think that we are not good enough. For we are all trying to be good enough, aren’t we? But if we come together and finally start listening to one another, we would realise that when we put our heads together, we would be able to find some many more solutions for Singapore to bring Singapore forward.

But we need to remember. And we need to forgive one another, and to accept one another.

The problem that Singapore faces now is not that we are in a transition. It is that we have forgotten. We have all forgotten.

On the one side, we have some who say to the others – “you are so ‘elitist’ and you care only for yourself”. On the other, we have Singaporeans who say – “you are too ‘comfortable’ that you no longer work hard enough for Singapore”. On both sides, we have Singaporeans calling out at each other, claiming that one has forgotten his roots, of Singapore’s struggles and that they are giving it all away. On both sides, we’ve relegated the other to ungrateful people who think only for themselves.

But yet, isn’t this what both sides say to the other. And if both sides are claiming the other selfish, who is right or who is wrong then? And if both sides are saying the same thing, then what are we bickering about?

It is perhaps sad that Singaporeans don’t realise that as we criticize the other, that we aren’t actually that different. On the surface of it, we’ve taken the symptoms to be the problem – so Singaporeans are too “comfortable” and we need to fix that. Or Singaporeans are too “elitist” and we need to fix that. But is that it?

Yet, perhaps what is most disconcerting is that we have learnt to point the finger at the other but we have forgotten to point the finger at ourselves – all of us are party to this.

We Think That We Are Better Than The Other

The problem in Singapore is this – we think that we are better than the other. Some might think – I have worked so hard for Singapore and now you are telling me that I am not doing enough for you. How dare you, you lazy bugger. And some might say – don’t you see what you are doing? Singaporeans are unhappy because you no longer care about them. At least I do! But who is right? Who is to say who has a better argument? Who has the better heart? The better argument is that which we choose to believe in, and for now, Singaporeans have drawn ourselves down the line – half of whom align themselves to one side and the other to the other side.

But our nation is divided. What good is there when in our bickering, we tear the nation apart?

The problem is we think that we are better than the other. We think that I have a better education and I have committed myself to Singapore – what have you done? We think that I care more for others and you do not – do you even care?

Yet, aren’t we saying one and the same thing – I am better than you. I know better than you.

So what if we might know what needs to be done for Singapore? So what if we think we care? So what, if amidst all these, what we really care about is ourselves and to pride ourselves? So what, if amidst all these, we want to protect our pride and take every offence at someone whom we think are trying to make us feel lesser?

But aren’t we all making each other lesser? Aren’t we all calling one another names and labeling another? It was an illegal protest. You don’t care. You just want our money. You are too comfortable. You are “lousy”. You have defamed me. You are slandering me. And this never ends. As we take potshots at one another, seeing who has the louder voice.

Amidst all these, we continue to think – it’s because I am better than you.

So, we might call our government elitist. And our government might think the people too comfortable? What is right? The truth is that the people in our government thinks that it’s better than the people. And the people think that they are better than those in government.

This battle of wits will never end if Singaporeans don’t realise this. This will not end if Singaporeans don’t stop and take a look at ourselves.

Singapore at the Crossroads: Economic Growth but Social and Psychological Growth?

The problem in Singapore isn’t that we are not contented, that we’ve learnt to let it all go to waste, that we don’t care about Singapore. No, it’s not.

The problem in Singapore is that as we’ve grown so fast economically, we have no time to stop and think about our lives and ourselves. We have learnt to keep pumping along that now, as we have reached a stage where we are wondering – where is all the money taking me to? – this is when we have finally stop to ask, what is it I want? What do I truly want?

This is why some Singaporeans have started to slow down to look at their lives and started to question – what is the life that I want? Is Singapore moving too fast ahead for me and for the people around me? Why are people so unhappy and angry? Why have we learnt to shout at one another?

Yet, the economy keeps chugging along, as those still chugging with it look at the others and ask – what are you guys doing derailing our economy? Have you started becoming too comfortable? We are doing this for you and you don’t want to come onboard with us?

So, who is right? Who cares for Singapore? One group might think – why are we moving so fast when we are leaving the rest behind? Look at our poor and elderly. The other group would say – but if we don’t move fast enough, we would not be able to take care of our poor and elderly! Beneath all the bickering, Singaporeans care for one another. We might believe differently about how to care. But we do.

The problem isn’t how we have decided to chart our ways differently. The beauty of life is that we are all different, isn’t it? The problem is that we’ve forgotten to look at ourselves.

For some, we have stopped and asked – but why are we unhappy? Why are we angry? Yet, we do not know the answer. For others, we haven’t stopped but keep going and we tell to the others – stop mopping around and being unhappy! Start doing something useful with your life and maybe you will become happier! What is common is that we know that Singaporeans are unhappy but we do not have the answer.

PAP: Acting On Its Insecurities

What the PAP needs to realise is that it cannot be too attached to its power. The problem is that because the PAP has been in power for nearly 50 years, as the “incumbent”, they fear losing this power. And thus, in their fear, they begin to grip at every strand of power that they have.

And this is why, they might have suddenly gone on another rampage of arresting people or using threats against people. In the past, if they had used these instruments of the law to target people from establishments, there is a sense that since the opposition politicians, academics and journalists have been attacked for decades already, that this is the norm and so even if what the government does against them is unacceptable, there is a quiet acknowledgement of the government’s snide ability to repress those from the establishment.

However, over the past one year and in the early part of 2013 especially, the government has started to shift its focus onto the people, which got people very uncomfortable. First, it has never been the norm to target individual Singaporeans who do not belong to any establishment (though the Internal Security Act was used to arrest individuals as well). The government’s actions now thus seem like a bully. Second, the people have found a new lease of life and voice through online bloggers, cartoonists, commenters and moderators – by hunting them down, the people perceive the attacks more personally. With attacks on the establishment, there is a certain distance between individual Singaporeans and such establishments. But attacking individuals is drawing it too close – it’s making it too personal. Taking it together, with the ability to speak out more, the people aren’t taking it sitting down. As disparate as they might seen, individual Singaporeans add on to the chorus of voices and in its disorganisation, become an organised voice that the government will be forced to back down from, as Budget 2013 had shown.

So, are the people tired of PAP? If the PAP thinks so, then it is taking it too personally. It might seem like the people are tired of PAP, but really, the people wouldn’t care less. Try replacing the government with another political party and if the party isn’t able to meet the people’s needs and come back on the people’s path, the people would similarly reject the party – this has been shown in countries all over the world. The people’s primary concern is this – come back onto my path, meet my needs and do your job. We don’t care who you are or where you are from, just do your job. And maybe if once in a while, the party gets someone popular in, the people might celebrate him or her – like Mdm Halimah Yacob who was perceived as humble – and thereafter, they will move on with their lives. Really, the PAP cannot take it so personally. If so, they have fallen into their own trappings of power and might be better off not in government, until they reflect and realise not to do so.

What can the PAP do then? Simple – let go of their attachment to their power and just do their job. Just get on with it already! As said, the people are simple – ensure that their basic needs are met, ensure that they are given equitable wages and ensure that they are able to exercise their stake in the country. When the people achieve the balance with how they can contribute and be part of their country, they will be happy with the government – simple as that.

The 2000s: New Politicians, New Climate, New Insecurities

But the question is – will the government do it? The problem is that this government continues to make up stories to scare itself like an insecure person, thinking that Singaporeans are out to get them. And so, they create policies to stifle Singaporeans, to repress them, in the hope that Singaporeans won’t pounce on them. If so, the government needs to regain its composure. It needs to realise that all the people want is balanced governance – you get your job right, you take care of their needs and they will have your back.

Over the past decade, we have new politicians who are newly introduced into their jobs who might feel that they would need to prove their worth and to stake a claim in their job. Perhaps they feel the need and pressure to perform, when comparing themselves with predecessors who have transformed Singapore. If so, they have to let it go – no one is interested in judging you.

It might perhaps be unfortunate that most of the current politicians have been introduced into the government from 2001, who have also solidified their insecurities in government around a time that the government had also shifted its trajectories. In the government’s inability to turn around to respond to the people, this might have gotten on the nerves of the PAP politicians who then judge themselves, or feel judged, perhaps believing in their own inadequacies. And so, in response, they have come out even more hard-hitting on Singaporeans, to defray the tension.

Perhaps it is time for all of us to have an honest conversation with one another – why am I angry with you? Why am I angry with myself? What do we really want, moving forward? Sure, Our National Conversation might have been intended to do that, but some questions abound – is the PAP sincere, since the PAP have put their own people to head the conversations? What will the PAP do – will they respond to what is said? The people are not yet convinced.

In Singapore, The Egos Are Clashing

In Singapore, the people in our country is coming into a head-on. For now, our institutions can hold us up – but for how long? The problem is with a people who feel vulnerable and who are scared that if they cannot trust their government to protect their rights, then who else would they be able to count on? For the government, it is insecure about its power, as the politicians who have entered mostly at the start of this socio-political turbulence, themselves feel that they are being attacked unfairly by Singaporeans who do not seem to understand their good intentions, and they feel slighted and angry, which in their haste, meant throwing rocks back at the people.

Coupled with growing instability in the global and local economy, wages have stagnated, purchasing power lowered, and a perceived standard of living that is sub-par as compared to the 1990s, this is a recipe for an unsettledness that can unravel the good that have been done in Singapore. The PAP government believes that it needs to try hard to prevent the institutions that it has built to unravel and so it continues to hang out to every thread that it can – onto Temasek Holdings, onto the Singapore companies, and onto the People’s Association – drawing them closer at every turn. And the people themselves are holding on tight too, as they start defining what it means to be a Singaporean, what the national identity is, and what the Singaporean core is.

Everyone is hanging on to everything and their dear lives, as the insecurity that edges them on causes confusion between one another – because we are not listening to one another. Because we are not empathising.

Perhaps it is really time to slow down – only because a Singaporean who have become so muddled in catching up have become so befuddled. Maybe we need to slow down, sit down, speak to the next person, listen to what he or she has to say, understand where they are coming from and then realise – Oh, you are feeling as insecure and vulnerable as I am and that all this time, while we are shouting over each other, in anger, that is is really because we want to protect ourselves – to ensure that our needs are met. And actually, I don’t want to take away what’s yours. I just want to have what’s mine and you can keep what’s yours, while we work on things together. And this is really what we want.

In Singapore, PAP Needs to Trust

At this point, the government still has the upper-hand. While the PAP can, the PAP needs to take a step back. People might get angry and people might shout, but it’s not at you. It’s out of their own fears. And if our politicians can understand that, they need to stop reacting, but respond in much larger ways. There’s no need to jump at people by using the law or threats to stamp down on them, because of our own fears. When people criticise, it isn’t because they want you down. It’s because they have something to say and for now, they might not know the best way to say it. If they have something to say, it doesn’t mean we have to shut them off. It just means we have to hear what they want to say, and not how they are saying it. Behind the anger there is still a message. It is hard but the government still has the upper-hand in Singapore, and until the government allow the people to speak on an equal level, the people will still shout because from below, that’s how they think they would be able to get their voices heard at the ivory tower.

The government wants the people to trust them, perhaps because the government still knows it knows what needs to be done. Perhaps it is right. But so do Singaporeans know as well what needs to be done. For trust to happen, the government needs to show that its sincere in wanting to trust the people as well – it needs to allow the people to conduct discourse among themselves, it needs to allow individuals to be able to speak at different platforms, even if their are members of organisations affiliated to the government or who receive funding from the government. It needs to allow Singaporeans to create intellectual discourse that will enliven Singapore, regardless of which perspective is being taken. The government needs to trust that when that happens, that a richer Singapore will develop.

The only question is – if people become as critically-thinking, will they vote PAP out of government? But this shouldn’t be the question to ask – the question to ask is this – no matter who is the majority in government, will the PAP or any other political party continue to play a strong and supportive in running a government together, to protect Singapore? When PAP knows to ask the right question, it would be motivated by the right principles – it would know that it doesn’t need to protect its dominance, rather that it needs to truly protect the people.

For now, the PAP continues to want to protect both its dominance and the people, but something has to give and the people have been given up. But if PAP understands that it is not synonymous to the government, but it will play its role as part of the government, then it will shift its focus back to the people, and when the government protects the people, the people will work together with the government. But if the government doesn’t step in tandem with the people, it will lose the people and it will lose its power.

A look at the statistics will bulldoze their claims.

Mr Lim laid claim to his famous tagline of how workers should be ‘Cheaper, Better and Faster (CBF)‘. Imagine this coming from the person who is supposed to head the labour union – precisely the person who should be protecting us and helping us fight for higher wages. But no, he wants us to be cheaper. (Dear readers, please also see at the bottom of this article a clarification on Mr Lim’s definition of CBF.)

So, let’s take a look at the statistics to see if Mr Lim’s CBF is statistically sound.

Now, come with me as we go through the following charts. They are very easy to read. I’d written simple, direct statements describing the charts and have linked them up, so that they form a story. Focus on the red bars – these represent where Singapore stand.

Mr Lim says cheaper workers are better. Is that so? In Chart 1, you can see that Singapore workers are paid the lowest wages in the developed countries. Indeed, we are damn cheap.

Chart 1

(Source: UBS Prices and Earnings 2011 Report)

How do we measure, “better”? I looked at productivity. According to Mr Lim’s logic, we should be better – so, highly productive, right?

Chart 2 shows the labour productivity of the developed countries. You can see that Singapore has one of the lowest productivity rates in the world.

Chart 2

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS))

Cheaper and better? Not really. Mr Lim’s claims go up in smoke here.

How about “faster and better”? Maybe Mr Lim will get it right here. In Chart 3, you will see the average weekly work hours that workers put in in the developed countries. Do Singaporeans work faster?

Chart 3

(Source: OECD StatExtracts, Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2012)

In Chart 3, you can see that Singaporeans are made to work the longest hours in developed world. Hardly the fastest that Mr Lim claims. Chart 2 shows that Singapore workers are also one of the most unproductive.

Faster and better? Again, Mr Lim makes a very bold claim, which cannot substantiated by the statistics. In fact, the statistics go the other way of Mr Lim’s claims.

If you look at the countries with higher productivity, they are the countries that will they pay their workers higher wages and have shorter hours.

Mr Lim’s SBF holds no water at all and is erroneous. To be better, we need to be dearer, not cheaper. And faster? Definitely – which means the government needs to shorten work hours. Will they do it? Go ahead, laugh.

Now, if you remember in May Day last year, PM Lee had made the claim that if Singapore workers are able to increase productivity by 30%, the government will let wages go up by 30%.

Look at Chart 2 again. Singapore’s productivity is very low. Chart 1 shows our wages are the lowest.

PM Lee had said himself that our productivity growth has slowed down decade-on-decade over the past 3 decades. It is unlikely that Singapore’s productivity will go up. So, why in the world did the government tell us that they will increase our wages if Singapore’s productivity goes up? They know productivity won’t increase so why make a promise which they know they cannot fulfill and won’t come true?

So, since their productivity promise didn’t come true, this year, PM Lee has tried a new tack, so he had said – to grow our wages, we should grow the economy. Laughable.

I’ve written about this before [link] and I will illustrate it here again.

In Chart 4, you can see that Singapore’s GDP per capita is the highest among the developed countries.

Chart 4

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS))

In Chart 1, you’d already seen that Singapore workers are paid the lowest wages. So, grow the economy to grow our wages right? Our GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world – is our wages similarly one of the highest? In the past decade when there was economic growth, our wages never grew with it. In fact, our wages remained stagnant and the real worth even decreased for some.

Grow the economy to grow our wages. It has never happened before – the government wasn’t interested to do so. What makes you think the government will do it in future?

So, why did the government make another claim, knowing yet again that it’s one that they won’t be able to keep, or won’t be interested to keep?

In fact, when you look at the countries with the highest GDP per capita, they are also more likely to pay their workers higher wages and let them work shorter hours. But why didn’t Singapore? Our country is the richest and the people are the poorest.

Why didn’t the government return the money to the people?

It is thus unsurprising that Singaporeans have become the least happy people in the world, as you can see in Chart 5.

Chart 5

(Source: Gallup)

We are made to slog long work hours at terribly low wages, even as we help our country earn so much.

Is it any wonder why Singapore’s productivity is so low? When you have such unhappy people who are made to work long hours and paid such low wages, they feel so demoralized that they are not motivated and committed to their work. Do you even need to be a rocket scientist to understand this?

Shelley Prevost, director of happiness at Lamp Post Group, said it best when she said that, “the happiest workplaces are the ones that seriously honor the humanity of their people. “When you ‘get’ that employees are human beings first and worker bees second, you say something about their worth. Companies with happily engaged employees laugh at the rules that are more about upholding policy than caring about the well-being of others. They hire people with a capacity to care for one another, foster connectedness at every level of the company, give an inspiring vision not laced with b.s. platitudes, but about real possibilities. You want to work in these places because they make you feel purposeful, connected, and valued.”

So, when we talk about how Singaporeans are discontented, is it understandable? Chart 6 shows that we have one of the developed countries’ lowest life satisfaction. I’m not surprised.

Chart 6

(Source: Human Development Report 2013)

The sad state of affairs is that the government doesn’t care. In Chart 7, you can see that before taxes and transfers, many developed countries have higher income inequality than Singapore.

Chart 7

(Source: OECD StatExtracts, Key Household Income Trends 2012 report)

Yet, after taxes and transfers, Singapore becomes the most unequal (Chart 8).

Chart 8

(Source: OECD StatExtracts, Key Household Income Trends 2012 report)

Why is this the case? Because as you can in Chart 9, the government does the least for its people. It helps us the least, even though its arguably the country best able to help its people.

Chart 9

(Source: OECD StatExtracts, Key Household Income Trends 2012 report)

Already, you’ve seen in Chart 4 that we are amongst the richest countries in the developed world, so the government is very capable of helping the people.

And in Chart 10, Singapore has the world’s highest reserves per capita and at a staggering amount! Yet, why is the government not interested in helping the people more?

Chart 10

(Source: The World Bank)

To be clear, the government is more than willing to help – it’s not whether they want to help. It’s who they want to help.

In Chart 11, you can see that the government pays themselves the highest salaries in the entire world.

Chart 11

In per capita terms, the magnitude of the richness of the salary is even more stark (Chart 12).

Chart 12

Which explains why Singapore’s in me inequality is so wide. The huge divide is caused by the government and our politicians themselves.

So, we are made to pay one of the highest prices in the world (Chart 13).

Chart 13

(Source: UBS Prices and Earnings 2011 Report)

And our purchasing power is thus the lowest in the developed world (Chart 14) and comparable to that of much poorer countries.

Chart 14

(Source: UBS Prices and Earnings 2011 Report)

But even as the government gives us very low wages and prices goods above the value of our wages, they continue to spend very little on our aspects of our basic necessities.

Our government spends the lowest proportion of GDP on health among the developed countries, and indeed among the lowest in the world (Chart 15).

Chart 15

(Source: World Health Statistics 2012)

Not only that, the government spends the lowest proportion for our healthcare bills (Chart 16).

Chart 16

(Source: World Health Statistics 2012)

And on top of our low wages and low purchasing power, we are made to foot the largest proportion of our healthcare bills by ourselves – the highest among the developed countries and one of the highest in the world (Chart 17).

Chart 17

(Source: World Health Statistics 2012)

We don’t even have enough doctors (Chart 18). No wonder waiting times at the hospitals have become so long!

Chart 18

(Source: World Health Statistics 2012)

All these when Singapore is one of the richest country, where we have the highest reserves per capita and where our government deems that it has earn enough to pay itself such staggering high wages but that it doesn’t have enough to give to the people.

Worse still, housing prices are one of the highest in the world (Chart 19).

Chart 19

(Source: Global Property Guide)

And even as our country is so rich, our people have one of the lowest pension index, which means that our pension “has major risks and/or shortcomings” (Chart 20).

Chart 20

(Source: The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index 2012)

Is it any wonder why we are the world’s people with the least emotions (Chart 21)?

Chart 21

(Source: Gallup)

We’ve learnt to suppressed our inner feelings. We are being cheated and squeezed left, right, centre.

We are given the lowest wages and made to pay the one of the highest prices. We thus have so little to save for our retirement and all these while the rich get richer, our ministers become richer and the poor becomes poorer.

All these while the many other responsibilities in our lives such as housing and healthcare continues to be so expensive, where we receive so little support and our government expects us to pay out of our own pockets, from the already meager wages that we are forced to receive.

Is it any wonder why Singapore has the world’s lowest fertility rate (Chart 22).

Chart 22

Would we dare bring a child into this world when we do not even have enough for ourselves? How would we expect the child to fend for itself in a Singapore where our government has become so heartless, and where they continue to expound a meritocracy that benefits themselves and helps themselves, all this while telling the people that the people should rely on themselves and shouldn’t expect the government to help them. All this self-reliance bull when the government helps itself.

It all falls into place, doesn’t it? Rich country but low wages and long working hours. Which results in people being unhappy and thus have low productivity. Very high income inequality where government pays itself handsomely while refusing to help the people, making them pay for basic necessities, thus giving the people such dissatisfaction in their lives. With little left for themselves for their retirement and after spending so much on housing, and all these add together, people aren’t really in the mood to reproduce. And Singaporeans have thus learnt to suppress our oppression at the hands of PAP so much so that we’ve learnt to either not express ourselves, or burst out, like many of the drivers on our roads nowadays. It’s very clear what’s happening in Singapore, but why doesn’t the government want to do anything about it?

Singapore is in a very sad state. We have a government which wants the people to live in a make-believe world where they believe that the government has the interests of Singaporeans at heart. Sure, the government has the interests of Singaporeans – not all, not some but only a few who continue to help each other in their small elitist world, while the rest of us slog to help them earn a good living, while the rest of us continue to allow ourselves to pretend that all is fine, while we are being cheated and robbed the living daylights out of us.

The statistics speak for themselves. I don’t know how else or what else I need to say to convince Singaporeans of the truth. Some Singaporeans continue to fear – we live in a fear that the government tells us to believe in and we make it so real that we don’t dare to question them because we are scared as to what might happen to us.

But what we don’t realise is that when we question, we will only make things better for ourselves.

Many Singaporeans still don’t realise that it is because of what people like us – civil society, bloggers, online commenters, Facebook administrators etc – that have forced the government to change so that Budget 2013 was decidedly more helpful for Singaporeans, ever so slightly. I can bet you that if not for the Singaporeans who question and force the government’s hand, prices will continue to spiral this year and we will continue to feel stifled by our stagnant wages.

Why else would the government try to keep coming out with new ways of telling us that our wages will increase. They are panicking! Yet, they still haven’t offered any real solutions. What are progressive wages? What is the Workfare Income Supplement? Will these actually work? What will really work are minimum wages and strong independent unions. Ask the 90% of the countries in this world with minimum wages and the Nordic countries and Switzerland which have strong unions.

It cannot be that Singaporeans are still waiting for the government to make things better. I’ve shown you the statistics! What more do I need to show you? We keep giving away our rights to the government. I still hear people say – why are you thinking or questioning so much? Or people who believe in thinking in a self-defeatist mode – but the opposition isn’t good enough, they say.

If you haven’t realised by now, it doesn’t matter who is in government. As long as people in government have power, the politics they play will deny us our right. If you want your lives to be better, then you make it better. You speak up and you tell the government what to do. You help the government run the country. It really doesn’t matter who is in government. What matters is a government where all parties work together and where we make sure the government works for us.

It’s time we realise this and not wait until the cows come home. Because the cows are never gonna come home. This is not New Zealand.

If I cannot convince you with these statistics, then you have to get out of your own fear. It’s time we take power into our own hands and remake our destiny, as our forefathers had made theirs in 1959 and 1965. It’s about time.

You know, I miss Mr Goh Keng Swee, Mr S. Rajaratnam and Mr Toh Chin Chye. None of the current PAP politicians have the moral integrity, courage and non-corruptibility that these great leaders of fore who had truly built Singapore for what it is today had.

We need a new batch of leaders among our Singaporeans now to lead Singapore into another truly memorable chapter, one that we will all share together.

Addendum: Dear readers, I have received feedback from the comments on this article and on Facebook that I have misunderstood Mr Lim’s definition of CBF. Please see below a comment that a reader had sent to me on Facebook:

“Roy sweetheart. Great article but started on the wrong footing. Cheaper Better and Faster does not refer to the workers, and definitely not salaries. If you’ll give the man a chance, you should watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgUfq4IoVtM&feature=player_embedded “

Another person had also shared the following on Facebook:

Source: Ang Teck Huat’s Facebook page

You can read more about Mr Lim’s clarification of CBF here.

I apologise for the misinterpretation of Mr Lim’s concept of CBF. The misinterpretation had arose as I was unable to have a complete understanding of CBF from the articles that I have read online.

Please note however, that the content of this article remains relevant, as aside from the misinterpretation, it remains that workers’ wages in Singapore are lowest among the developed countries, that Singapore has one of the lowest productivity and that Singapore workers work the longest hours among the developed countries.

In the pursuit to be “Cheaper”, it can be worrying to workers’ wages can inadvertently be compromised.

Why Are People Discontented?

PAP is right. The people are discontented because Singapore is very rich. But is the link that PAP had drawn correct? The people are discontented that Singapore is so rich not just because they are ‘greedy’ Singaporeans who want a share in the wealth. You see, because the country is so rich, the cost of living has increased immensely. Over the past few years, the increase in cost has also been driven by external investments of wealth, which has driven up costs. And Singaporeans are discontented because of this – their wages haven’t increased in tandem with the increase in costs, their purchasing power has been eroded and has dropped to one of the lowest in the region, ironic considering that our country are the richest.

It is not because Singaporeans are ‘greedy’ and want the money shared – it is because they feel that they are not able to sustain themselves and thus need the money to be shared. Their discontentment arose not because they are greedy, but because they need to survive and have found it increasingly hard to maintain a reasonable standard of living. The people are scared – for their old age, for their children and for when they fall sick.

Which is why the people are willing to accept a slower rate of economic growth as well. For them, there was a period of time when Singapore wasn’t that rich but things were affordable. What is the point of Singapore being so rich if things are priced out of our means? For them, why is the country pursuing economic growth and creating so much stresses in our lives. When initially they are already concerned that they wouldn’t be able to sustain their lives, these stresses add on further to their fears. Thus the people are willing to ‘let it go’.

But if we are to understand the situation clearly, the government would understand that the people don’t want to “give up”. People are tired and with the complexity of how things have evolved to this stage and with the perception that the government isn’t listening, the people would rather just go back to square one, than to work with a government (which doesn’t seem to want to listen) to devise solutions to move forward.

Well, what is the solution? The very simple solution would be for the government to increase the people’s wages so that their wages are matched up to the high prices and cost of living. Things would equalise themselves down the road, once people are able to have the breather. I am not saying that this will solve everything, but this can resolve the deepest end of the root.

Why Have People ‘Become’ Vocal?

At this point, the government believes that because there is a new generation of Singaporeans, a younger population has learnt to become more vocal. The government believes that because Singaporeans have it good, they have become demanding, and in their desires to want more, they are becoming more vocal. However, if the government does indeed believes in this logic, the problem is that they are hanging out with only a small group of people – just among the elites. The elites might feel this way, but does the rest of Singapore feel this way?

The government seems to believe that from the early part of Singapore’s history, until the early-2000s, that the people were naturally docile and non-vocal. When people started being vocal, they attribute this to a new generation. However, it is perhaps the new generation of politicians who cannot understand the implications of PAP’s olden policies.

If the PAP looks at the trend of vote swing in the general elections, they would see that in the 1980s, the PAP was also at a very precarious position. Of course people won’t as vocal then because of policies which had prevented people from protesting against the government. Also, the mainstream media was tightly controlled by the government and there wasn’t the Internet. So, things seemed quiet. But back then, if the people were able to protest and come together on the Internet, you can expect as lively and vibrant a discourse as there is today. However, such discourse then was only limited to parliamentary debates, where the government could then lambast the opposition politicians as crazy and lunatics.

Back to the present, if our current politicians do not understand this, they would think that for most of the 30 to 40 years of Singapore’s history prior to this decade, Singaporeans were generally quiet people who were apathetic. So, in the 1990s, the government would lament how Singaporeans needed to take a keener interest in politics. Yet, one wonders if the discourse by the government is only an act of show.

But if indeed our politicians are ignorant to how the strangling policies of the past have led to a mild-mannered Singaporean and how the advent of the Internet have allowed Singaporeans to overcome this barrier and has thus resulted in a more willing Singaporean, the government would know that the increasing vocalness isn’t a result of a new generation, but a result of Singaporeans who feel neglected, and who have managed to find a new arena – the Internet – to express this neglect.

Importantly, if our politicians are able to understand this, they would understand that if you stifle people’s voices for far too long, when the people are finally able to find a channel to express themselves and when the floodgates open, the people will let it rip, as it is happening now.

Now, imagine if the government had allowed people to express themselves and to allow social discourses to be generated for the past few decades, the people would have decades of training in learning how to discuss critically and responsibly about socio-political issues. If the government had allowed such discourse to happen in the 1990s, when the mood was still favourable towards the government, this would give the people time to learn critical and responsible thinking and speech, so that when the late 2000s came, even as the people started disagreeing with the government’s trajectory, they would know how to bring their concerns out in more balanced ways.

What then is the solution? At this point, the government needs to act very boldly. First, it needs to ensure that the people’s most basic needs are uplifted. As mentioned, the government would need to at least increase wages, so that the people would be able to meet their basic needs better. Next, as this section has explained, the government would need to feed the people’s intellectual thirst. The government would need to open up spaces for discourse, even those which the government might not be comfortable with.

In the next part of the article, we will explore how the insecurities of the people and government have built up and how we need to regain trust again.

Understandably, the government is at a crossroads – should it continue to control Singaporeans and hold them by the reins or should it open up?

Yet, this isn’t so much a question anymore – a government that doesn’t move along with the social evolution of a society will render itself irrelevant and eventually will be voted out. To the government which has been in power for nearly 50 years, the lack of political competition has created a psychological complacency, where they continue to believe in their ability to change the course of society and to shape society towards a direction which they want to plan for.

DPM Tharman had said that, “I think the first challenge the PAP faces is the fact that it’s the incumbent. People want a check on the PAP. And that’s natural. It’s just human psychology. So that’s the first disadvantage you face in terms of human psychology.” However, what DPM Tharman might not understand as well, in terms of psychology, is that people do not want a “check” on PAP because PAP is the “incumbent”. The real reason why people want a check on PAP is because they feel that PAP is no longer working in their interests, and so they want to “check” PAP, to bring the government back to the line.

Are the people angry PAP? Yes and no. PAP needs to understand this – people do not want PAP out because they are tired of seeing the faces of PAP politicians for 50 years. So, the PAP brought in good looking faces to be politicians, in the hope that perhaps these new faces might stem the tide against PAP. But PAP has read it wrong – it’s not who you are (or how you look), but what you do.

What has happened is that the people have been evolving on one pathway, and the PAP has gone on another. There is a divergence of pathways, and this is why the people really want a “check”. The people are asking – “Hold on a minute. We are here. Why are you governing for a small group of people on the other path, over there? That’s not what we want! If you do not come back on our path, we would need to vote you out, so that we can get this government to come back on our path.”

Governing on Outmoded Principles (1): Self-Reliance vs Wealth Accumulation

But is the PAP wrong? Or right? It isn’t an issue about right or wrong. It’s simply because PAP continues to govern on a outmoded path of securing the country’s interests so stridently that it pursues the ideology of self reliance to a tee – we cannot provide social welfare so that the people can be forced to take care of themselves. The people need to take care of themselves, so that we can accumulate wealth. We need to accumulate wealth, so that we can make sure that this country last forever.

But what the government doesn’t seem to realise is that the ideology of self reliance lies in contradiction with the country’s strategy of wealth accumulation. If you want people to be self-reliant, you need to give to the people enough. On the other hand, if you want to accumulate wealth, you need to take from the people. The government would need to constantly maintain a balance of giving the people enough so that the people can be self-reliant and taking away enough, so that the government can accumulate wealth. However, over the past decade, the people feel that the government has taken away more than they have given – the government thus went on a different trajectory from the people.

Governing on Outmoded Principles (2): Control Over People’s Freedom of Expression

As the trajectories grew apart from one another, naturally, the people began to voice out their concerns. Herein lies another barrier of an outmoded governing principle that has put the government on a head-on clash with the people. For a long time, the government doesn’t believe in allowing the people to express themselves freely for fear that this would disrupt their economic strategies – too much cooks might spoil the broth, but what had allowed them to maintain their hold was two factors that had previously worked in their favour.

1. First, the government had worked in the people’s interests and the economic strategies were aligned to the people’s needs, so the people could be contended.
2. Second and more importantly, there was no Internet, so the government could control any discourse and prevent alternative viewpoints from disrupting their economic strategies.

As mentioned, in our current time, the government had stopped aligning itself to the people, so this took away one factor in their advantage away. The expansiveness of the Internet removed the other advantage. But crucially, these two removals have worked in tandem to expose the government’s governing flaws. As of fore before the widespread use of the Internet, the people started voicing out their concerns and ‘complained’, believing that they wouldn’t be able to change things. They didn’t know how to use the Internet to greater effect and because Facebook was only launched in 2004 and took some years to gain traction, the people had no way of organising themselves online. The government thus took no notice of the people, and of the Internet.

However, as the use of Facebook gained momentum and Facebook began to introduce tools which allowed people to form communities, Singaporeans learnt to form themselves into groups, albeit loosely, online. At the start, these groups were consolidated portals of complaints, but as people learnt to take advantage of Facebook tools better, they learnt to evolve from helpless complaining to empowered critical thinking. This explains why it took several years since the advent of Internet before people could organise themselves more effectively. It also explains why the government had believed the Internet useless and ignored it in the infancy of online social networking.

Identifying the Symptoms to the Problems

With this depth in understanding, one would be able to understand what the root of the current disparity in viewpoints between the government and people lies within. There are many but it is definitely not because of the Internet – the Internet was only the facilitator which otherwise people would still learn to eventually organise themselves, albeit at more slowly.

The government’s mindset is that it continues to believe that they know what is best for Singapore.

• It believes that because Singapore has grown so rich, the people have learnt to be discontented and want more.
• It believes that a new generation of Singaporeans have grown up, who want to express themselves more openly and this openness has caused them to want to ‘check’ on the government, because they believe that they have a right to.
• It believes that Singaporeans are tired of the PAP.

PAP might have identified the right symptoms of our current problems, but have they been able to diagnose the symptoms accurately? This is why it is important that people should be allowed to express themselves – right now, only PAP gets to define the discourse, and thus they have analysed the current problems from their own views. But with nearly 50 years in power, they have learnt to think like one another and are not able to think beyond what they have learnt to tell one another. DPM Tharman is right to say that “people want a check on the PAP,” but not because PAP is “is the fact that it’s the incumbent” but because PAP has become too shrouded in its own views that it needs to “checked” on, so that the government can develop more encompassing viewpoints of all Singaporeans, and not just a select few.

In the next part of the article, we will be looking at the symptoms and understand them more clearly.

Mr Khaw had said that, “BTO pricing will be brought down to four times annual median incomes “quite soon” … It’s not something for the next century.”

The Straits Times had also reported that, “The cheaper flats would have to come with restrictions to differentiate them, so that current flat owners would not see their values plummet overnight.” The Straits Times had reported on possible restrictions such as by, “Selling a cheaper class of flat on a shorter lease such as 60 years, as opposed to the current 99 years (which) would be the easiest way,” “extend(ing) the number of years that a buyer has to stay in his new flat before he can sell it” or by selling the flats back to HDB.

First, I applaud the move to reduce the price of new flats from 5.5 times the current annual median salary to four times.

However, I disagree with the approach – why do flat owners have to put up with “restrictions” for new flats, to purchase new flats which are finally more priced at a more appropriate level, than when they were overpriced at 5.5 times?

The government had (somewhat) admitted that they had pursued flawed policies over the past few years, when they had “used a market-based approach to price its Build- To-Order (BTO) flats … (which) resulted in soaring new flat prices as the resale market spiked 80 per cent over the last six years.”

But why should Singaporeans bear the costs of inappropriate pricing policy pursued by the Housing & Development Board? If “restrictions” are put in place to reduce the worth of the flat, what difference would it make to reduce the prices of the new flats?

The inherent problem is that prices had ballooned, because of two factors – first, over-speculation and second, wages which did not grow in tandem with the rise in housing prices. In terms of over-speculation, the government took too long to put in effective policies to curb the growth of prices.

However, for the purpose of this article – why did the government not address the lack of growth, or the stagnation of wages, in the discussion of housing prices – when they have pegged the housing prices to median incomes?

Below, I will show you 3 charts. In Chart 1, you can see that the Housing Price Index had grown immensely from 2001 to 2011. (I couldn’t locate the link for this chart on the government’s website anymore, but could locate it on my previous article.)

Chart 1

In Chart 2, you can see that the HDB Resale Price Index has also grown immensely from 2002 to 2012. I am not able to locate the housing price index for new flats.

Chart 2 (Source: Department of Statistics Singapore)

Now, take a look at Chart 3. You can see the change in median gross monthly income. There wasn’t much growth.

Chart 3 (Source: Ministry of Manpower Income)

In Chart 4, you can see the change in annual wages. Again, growth plateaued.

Chart 4 (Source: Ministry of Manpower Income)

The charts speak for themselves. Whereas housing prices grew tremendously, wages remained stagnant.

Back to the question – why should the people shoulder full responsibility for housing prices which inflated because of bad government policies? Why should the people have to bear with “restrictions”? The people have been warning the government of ballooning housing prices for years, but this has fallen on deaf ears, or if they were heard, the government had reacted far too slowly.

Granted that some Singaporeans and other residents in Singapore were party to the growth of housing prices, due to their price speculation of private and resale housing prices. But the flaw in this was that the government allowed HDB prices to be pegged to private housing and to be dragged upwards.

What the government should have done was to have clear markets, and ensure that the prices of public housing was not led astray. The government did not responded when it needed to.

And now, the government expects the people to bear the brunt of the government’s mistakes.

But more importantly, if indeed housing prices are to be brought down from 5.5 times that of the annual median salary to four times that, why is it that the government has only devised the solution to “restrict” the type of housing we are able to buy?

Why didn’t the government devise the solution to uplift our wages instead?

Problematically, our wages were left to be stagnant while housing prices soared. Not only that, our wages were eroded in their value by inflation. Most worryingly, as I had written previously, Singapore’s wage levels and purchasing power is the lowest among the developed countries, even as we are one of the richest. This is preposterous.

There is a lot of room for our wages to grow, because they have been forcefully deflated. And if the government is not willing to pursue this, then it is in no position to force Singaporeans to have to compromise with “restrictions” forced on us.

Prices of public housing have to come down, either through pushing prices down, increasing wages, or a combination of both. But until both approaches are used, the government should not force Singaporeans to compromise on their standard of living simply because of poor government planning and the chronic depression of wages.