Singapore Ministers Pay, Legitimised Corruption
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Singapore Ministers Pay, Legitimised Corruption
Singapore Review, 2 May 2003 (updated May 2005)
By Mellanie Hewlitt
The below table puts things back in proper perspective: (these are basic figures as of July 2000 and did not include last year's pay hikes or other benefits. Otherwise the updated numbers may well be much larger)
1. Singapore President's Basic Salary US$1,483,000 (SGD$2,373,100)*a year
Singapore Prime Minister's Basic Salary US$1,100,000 (SGD1,958,000) a year
Minister's Basic: US$655,530 to US$819,124 (SGD1,166,844 to SGD1,458,040) a year
2. United States of America President: US$200,000 Vice President: US$181,400 Cabinet Secretaries: US$157,000
3. United Kingdom Prime Minister: US$170,556 Ministers: US$146,299 Senior Civil Servants: US$262,438
4. Australia Prime Minister: US$137,060 Deputy Prime Minister: US$111,439 Treasurer: US$102,682
5. Hong Kong Chief Executive : US$416,615 Top Civil Servant: US$278,538 Financial Sec: US$315,077
Source: Asian Wall Street Journal July 10 2000 *Singapore President's salary which was updated in 2005 from the Singapore Straits Times
In relative terms, less then 20% of Singaporeans here have take home salaries
exceeding SGD100,000/- A YEAR.
In stark contrast, BASIC SALARY FOR A MINISTER STARTS AT SGD1,166,844 A YEAR,OR JUST UNDER SGD100,000 A MONTH.
What these ministers earns in just ONE MONTH exceeds the ANNUAL TAKE HOME
salary of 80% of Singapore's income earning population. Lets not even begin to compare annual packages which will exceed SGD1 million easily.
With the above numbers and figures now in perspective, it is easier to give substance to the words "leading by example". Several facts are noteworthy here;
a) That the ministerial salaries are grossly out of proportion, even when compared with their counterparts in much larger countries (US and UK) who have far heavier responsibilities.
b) That these salary reductions were long overdue. In the past, such handsome remuneration were "justified" on the back of resounding performance. However, Singapore's economy has been in the doldrums of a recession for several years now (with beginnings reaching as far back as the 1997 Asian economic crisis). This economic barometer is a rough measure of performance and implies that ministerial salaries were due for review at least 3-4 years ago.
c) That adjustments should be made to bring them back within the industry benchmarks. Taking the salary of US vice president as a rule of thumb, the percentage for reductions should start at 50% of current pay. Even if a Singapore minister takes a 50% pay-cut, he would still be earning much more then the US vice president.
d) The percentage reductions should greater then 50% if the intent is to bring the salaries within the perspective of Singapore's domestic scene.
With such inflated figures, it is understandable why the local government controlled media (Singapore Press Holdings) have taken pains to exclude mention of actual numbers for the world to see. The numbers would be too glaring and no amount of window dressing or creative writing could have reconciled these numbers with a sane figure and restored credibility. -
I hope the Singapore President S R Nathan , PM Lee Hsien Loong and all the ministers can share their money with us or even donating to charities. As part of their salary come from our taxes and what is the point of having so much money in the pocket?
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so that they can have fully gold-made coffins and tombs.Originally posted by gorby107:I hope the Singapore President S R Nathan , PM Lee Hsien Loong and all the ministers can share their money with us or even donating to charities. As part of their salary come from our taxes and what is the point of having so much money in the pocket? -
Is this source credible? How did they obtain the figures?
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cannot be one. I think they use it for their family and personal use one. But still need to share it with us. Now Singapore economy unstable and some of them still jobless.Originally posted by vIn.Warrior:so that they can have fully gold-made coffins and tombs. -
What I do believe about PAP ministers' sky-high wages? I definately believe it's too high and bears too much of a burden to the taxpayers. In many other countries, it has been proved that public servants and govt ministers doesn't need to be paid US$1m onwards to be effective and efficient.
In fact, the opposite is always true- for two reasons.
1) Excessive money tends to tell people on both sides, two things: for the ordinary people, it means govt ministers, although how inefficient and how ineffective he can be, he's still able to make a lot more money than those who only work for less than peanuts.
From the govt. ministers' point of view, they will view it as a god-given right to get high wages for the so little stuff that they do. Inevitably, some if not all will believe they deserve it so much that they don't even want to consider a wage cut in times of recession and depressions. High wages also encourages inefficiency and ineffectiveness because it will make them believe that as long as a govt. scheme has only 10% effectiveness, it's better than nothing and therefore they still deserve the high pay- which is quite untrue.
2) In public service, wages are always drawn on taxpayers' money annually, whether through direct income taxes or indirect taxes. Such as it is, it is different from the private sector- which the money comes from the spending of consumers, customers who either wants the product and/or the service.
So even though the taxpayers' money will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, the amount of cash the private sector can draw annually is still much, much higher than the public sector. For example, Microsoft is a company that has billions of dollars of financial turnover annually. It's governed by corporate laws and guidances. It's also a public limited company, so if Bill Gates get paid by the billions, he deserves it.
On the other hand, public servants- being a employee of the public(due to the fact the public actually pays his salary through their tax contributions) cannot and shouldn't draw an extremely stupidly high salary at the expense of the people who pays his salary through taxes. Public sector servants and ministers should never ever peg their salary to the private sector because public sector servants serve the public- they do not serve the shareholders.
They are being paid a good reasonable salary to serve the public- and to run the adminstration on behalf of the people. So if you give the reason on why PAP should peg their salaries to the private sector, I tell you that it's a huge financial burden on the general public.
Already the PAP ministers have demonstrated time and time again that most of them are incomptence and ineffective. And yet they continue to draw huge amounts of wages, in spite of their rubbish performances over the last 3 to 5 years. That creates resentment among the ordinary people and that only increases the bad blood between the people and the govt. It also increases the rich-poor gap in Singapore directly and indirectly and it also can affect the performance of the economy in an indirect but obvious manner too.
So my view is this, in order to get the government to be effective again, in order to get it to be more efficient, to get it to reduce the tons of red tape that it has created itself for its own benefit, we must recognize that govt. ministers are being overpaid, overfed till the point they have become as lazy as Garfield.
In fact make that a whole lot of Garfields.
Govt. sky high salaries must be reduced to a point that is comparable to those in UK, US or Australia- or even lower as our country is smaller and population, also smaller. In addition, the size of government must be reduced and layers of red tape massively reduced. A smaller government with a smaller civil service can be more effective and efficient as it draws less money to run it and also it just makes everyone(who has survived the downsizing of govt and civil service) work harder as they need to cover more ground. -
in case sometimes go wrong, they have millions to depend on.Originally posted by gorby107:I hope the Singapore President S R Nathan , PM Lee Hsien Loong and all the ministers can share their money with us or even donating to charities. As part of their salary come from our taxes and what is the point of having so much money in the pocket?
i agree they should be well paid , but benchmark against leaders of the top contries and NOT leaders in the billion dollar industry.
lucky they never benchmark against bill gates and steve job as they drew very little salary. sometimes steve works for free in apple. -
If the basic pay of our ministers is 3x or 4x that of the US President, then something is seriously wrong.
Don't come and tell me that our ministers have more responsibilities than the most powerful man on earth - I ain't dumb enough to fall for that. -
So after knowing how much our top government officers are being paid, what are you going to do about it?
Confuscius said, "To know and not to do is not to know".
What are your actions?
So who is thinking of migrating? -
The entire system is obscene, given the fact that lower salaried Singaporeans are taxed directly and indirectly resulting in a KNOWN FACT that Singaporeans DO NOT have enough in their SAVINGS or CPF to support themselves in old age.
Yet, the low salaried Singaporeans are continuously egged on to provide charity to a whole host of charity funded institutions, to support those infirmed, sick and aged members from our own Social Strata, while the Governing Elites will not act to release funding from the BILLION DOLLAR PROFITS made from the BILLION DOLLAR RESERVES.
It was claimed by the Ruling Elites that the "High Salary" for the Elite Members of the Government Machinery should avoid the "pork barrel" kind of salary that is "arranged" in most Western Political system - (a.k.a the USA, UK, and European countries).
In the USA, when the President steps down from office, he continue to receive a stipend from the Country, PLUS administrative support and funding, and will also be engaged as paid Consultant and Speaker to businesses and institutions.
It seems that such "retirement" opportunities are less available in Singapore, which is physically smaller then the USA (or any other referenced countries which the salaries are being compared with).
In any case, the industrial, corporate and institutional sizes are all in the hands of Govenment; and these have already reached near maximum capacity employing all the loyal and good-behaviour ministers, ministers-of-state, permanent secretaries, and generals - who have all received "early retirement" notices, and slotted into these opportunistic positions to allow them to draw MILLION Dollar Salaries as Senior Management of the GLCs.
Where will the Ruling Elite go, if they are to receive "retirement" notices - note the absence of "early" ?
Surely, they cannot expect themselves to rub shoulders and be on the similar bread line of these lesser ministers, ministers-of-state, permanent secretaries, and generals ?
While the Sadams, Suhartos, and the Marcos blatantly raided their national treasury, and treat the National Reserves as their own, we have Elites in our Government - who are at least more dignified - by passing legislations to pay themselves MILLION DOLLAR SALARY with the approval of an obedient Parliament formed by a majority of 99% from their own party cardres - and with NO REFERENDUM to get approval from the Singaporean Citizens !!
Do we need to imagine the reason for the Ruling Elite in their feverish efforts to nail down any Opposition from ever gaining popularity with our Singapore Citizens ?
The Ruling Elite must ensure their continued strangle hold on Political Power, or they will lose all opportunities to enrich themselves further.
Footnote:
It will be interesting to note that while MM LKY is paid a million dollar stipend in his position, he is also engaged as Consultant in some major foreign corporations. How is his time calculated for work spent on Singapore and that of foreign corporations - so as to justify the million dollar salary paid ?
It is also interesting to note that the size of those employed as Ministers-without-Portfolio - in the Prime Minister's Office - has grown to assist the present Prime Ministers to tackle the supposed heavy workload.
Previous Prime Ministers LKY and GCT had only two such Ministers-without-Portfolio, who themselves are full time members of some other Government linked bodies - such as the NTUC.
This time around, the present PM LHL has SIX to support his Prime Minister's Office, and supposedly also double up in a consultative roles to some other ministries. Is there a need for such bloated sized Ministries, with each having two or three sitting ministers in one ministry ? Should we not pay these supporting ministers from the salary of the Prime Minister ?
Is the position of PM forced onto LHL - despite the known fact that a recurrence of his cancer will happen when he is placed under pressure - and hence, the need for such an enlarged number of Ministers-without-Portfolio ? -
Aptly put.Originally posted by Atobe:Footnote:
It will be interesting to note that while MM LKY is paid a million dollar stipend in his position, he is also engaged as Consultant in some major foreign corporations. How is his time calculated for work spent on Singapore and that of foreign corporations - so as to justify the million dollar salary paid ?
It is also interesting to note that the size of those employed as Ministers-without-Portfolio - in the Prime Minister's Office - has grown to assist the present Prime Ministers to tackle the supposed heavy workload.
Previous Prime Ministers LKY and GCT had only two such Ministers-without-Portfolio, who themselves are full time members of some other Government linked bodies - such as the NTUC.
This time around, the present PM LHL has SIX to support his Prime Minister's Office, and supposedly also double up in a consultative roles to some other ministries. Is there a need for such bloated sized Ministries, with each having two or three sitting ministers in one ministry ? Should we not pay these supporting ministers from the salary of the Prime Minister ?
Is the position of PM forced onto LHL - despite the known fact that a recurrence of his cancer will happen when he is placed under pressure - and hence, the need for such an enlarged number of Ministers-without-Portfolio ?
With the recent discovery that TT Durai was serving as director to several companies in and around the time he was CEO of NKF drew plenty of flak from the average Singaporeans. It was indeed 'obscene' that he should attempt to portray himself in court as 'gracious' by turning down a 25K salary for a low 12K when in fact his position was simply to maintain his interest (and therefore his buldging pockets) in those respective firms. A wolf hiding in sheep's clothing so put.
Is it any different with our ministers? People trying to rationalise the pay per responsibility ratio of serving a country just seem to be at a total lost when a monthly sum of 6 figures is staring at their faces.
Try as you might, the understanding that they 'deserve' such pay is indeed disturbing. With the standard of living on the rise here, we can be forgiven if the general public remark that at 6-digits, ministers are effectively immune to such inflation.
It all comes down to what we consider as reasonable pay for serving a nation against lavish salaries. With the average local paying an effective 150K dollars worth of tax in their working lifetime, one wonders if we may be taxed 5-10 fold over?
No doubt ministers deserve high salaries, but how much is too much? -
Originally posted by crazy monkey:
lan jiao... abt 7 times more than the us president.. wat the fuck..and singapore so many times smaller than the us...
[b]Singapore Ministers Pay, Legitimised Corruption
Singapore Review, 2 May 2003 (updated May 2005)
By Mellanie Hewlitt
The below table puts things back in proper perspective: (these are basic figures as of July 2000 and did not include last year's pay hikes or other benefits. Otherwise the updated numbers may well be much larger)
1. Singapore President's Basic Salary US$1,483,000 (SGD$2,373,100)*a year
Singapore Prime Minister's Basic Salary US$1,100,000 (SGD1,958,000) a year
Minister's Basic: US$655,530 to US$819,124 (SGD1,166,844 to SGD1,458,040) a year
2. United States of America President: US$200,000 Vice President: US$181,400 Cabinet Secretaries: US$157,000
3. United Kingdom Prime Minister: US$170,556 Ministers: US$146,299 Senior Civil Servants: US$262,438
4. Australia Prime Minister: US$137,060 Deputy Prime Minister: US$111,439 Treasurer: US$102,682
5. Hong Kong Chief Executive : US$416,615 Top Civil Servant: US$278,538 Financial Sec: US$315,077
Source: Asian Wall Street Journal July 10 2000 *Singapore President's salary which was updated in 2005 from the Singapore Straits Times
In relative terms, less then 20% of Singaporeans here have take home salaries
exceeding SGD100,000/- A YEAR.
In stark contrast, BASIC SALARY FOR A MINISTER STARTS AT SGD1,166,844 A YEAR,OR JUST UNDER SGD100,000 A MONTH.
What these ministers earns in just ONE MONTH exceeds the ANNUAL TAKE HOME
salary of 80% of Singapore's income earning population. Lets not even begin to compare annual packages which will exceed SGD1 million easily.
With the above numbers and figures now in perspective, it is easier to give substance to the words "leading by example". Several facts are noteworthy here;
a) That the ministerial salaries are grossly out of proportion, even when compared with their counterparts in much larger countries (US and UK) who have far heavier responsibilities.
b) That these salary reductions were long overdue. In the past, such handsome remuneration were "justified" on the back of resounding performance. However, Singapore's economy has been in the doldrums of a recession for several years now (with beginnings reaching as far back as the 1997 Asian economic crisis). This economic barometer is a rough measure of performance and implies that ministerial salaries were due for review at least 3-4 years ago.
c) That adjustments should be made to bring them back within the industry benchmarks. Taking the salary of US vice president as a rule of thumb, the percentage for reductions should start at 50% of current pay. Even if a Singapore minister takes a 50% pay-cut, he would still be earning much more then the US vice president.
d) The percentage reductions should greater then 50% if the intent is to bring the salaries within the perspective of Singapore's domestic scene.
With such inflated figures, it is understandable why the local government controlled media (Singapore Press Holdings) have taken pains to exclude mention of actual numbers for the world to see. The numbers would be too glaring and no amount of window dressing or creative writing could have reconciled these numbers with a sane figure and restored credibility.
[/b]
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Originally posted by ctstalin:
From the "slip of the tongue" by SM GCT's "tai-tai", we now have an insight into the minds of the Ruling Elite and their Families.
lan jiao... abt 7 times more than the us president.. wat the fuck..and singapore so many times smaller than the us...
"$600,000 no big deal, it is only PEANUTS considering the HUGE RESERVES "
This remark is certainly very telling !
Now we can understand the necessity to pay the Ruling Elite the Million Dollars that must be paid - simply because of the HUGE SINGAPORE RESERVES.
We will never know the extent of the size of our Singapore Reserves, as it is held admantly to be a NATIONAL SECRET - of which its open knowledge will be detrimental to the security of Singapore as claimed by the Ruling Elite.
The "HUGE PEANUT RESERVES" is constantly being accumulated by the "BIG SOAK UP" of Singaporean money from every social and economic activities in Singapore that is controlled and provided by all the various Government Linked Corporations. -
WAH IS THE SOURCE ACCURATE???
if it is accurate, i think all these should be reflected aned exposed like the nkf. i think it's time for real transparency to be gradually implemented in singapore. gone are the times when people were restricted by the government by many ways. gone are the times when people had to listen to anything the government "told" them to do.
Let's have FULL TRANSPARENCY in singapore!!!!!!!!!! -
Information such as these was available for a long time, but no one cared until the NKF saga hit home , especially in the heartland, for the majority to wake up and question.
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[quote]Originally posted by Atobe:
From the "slip of the tongue" by SM GCT's "tai-tai", we now have an insight into the minds of the Ruling Elite and their Families.
"[b]$600,000 no big deal, it is only PEANUTS considering the HUGE RESERVES "
Yeah i wont donate anymore since whatever i donate will be less than PEANUTS anyway. -
By now MM Lee should have realized that the size of Singapore economy, its GDP , surpluses or reserves are certainly not the criteria for determining the salaries or retirement annuities of our ministers or civil servants.
He should have seen how outraged people are with NKF assumption that its S$168 millions in reserve do not offer as criteria for judging performance or talents of its CEO.
Any government or public bodies that derive incomes or revenues from the stakeholders or the public are simply doing easy jobs - just collect monies and spend them.
Unless the government has succeeded in building Singapore into a first world technologically advanced wealthy country like Switzerland the present leaders do not deserve their self-approved world's highest salaries.
If they are honest and possessing integrity as mentioned by Badawi, they should voluntarily return half of their hyper salaries back to the people or donate them to charities chosen by the people.
After two years, say the next election, they can prove their worth and get back their previous pays after achieving the promised first-world Swiss standard of living. If there is a Goh Keng Swee, who can create another Jurong success, people will pay him (not the whole lot) the highest salary with independent panel recommendations and parliament final sanction. -
i think this is a good way to keep ministers in check. i mean, at least they'll do their job properly. look at china n compare.
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hmm is it true that china's president earn abt 260USD a month------heard that from somewhere-not sure true or not
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The Vietnamese Prime Minister is paid about USD300 per month; however, this amount is equal to Vietnam Dong 4,750,000.
With the "Cost of Living" still relatively low by Vietnamese "Standard of Living" this amount is more then sufficient, and is in fact quite luxurious.
A LARGE bowl of "beef noodle" soup cost only VND 15,000 (which is about S$1.50), and a plate of rice with meat and vegetables cost about the same, a can of beer is about the same price.
So a salary of US$300 or VND4,750,000 will go a long way in Vietnam.
When basic costs are kept low, the general "Cost of Living" will not require wages to be higher.
All this will hold true, until some bright spark decide that the present "Standard of Living" is too low, when compared to some other foreign models.
With the present wage scale of a Prime Minister being paid US$300 per month, and a University Professor paid only US$180, Primary School Teacher paid only US$80, can this income level ever allow them to achieve a higher "Standard of Living" ?
What does a "HIGHER Standard of Living" entails ?
A modern house with tapped water, and cabled electricity ? All the modern domestic equipment that includes Radio, TV, DVD player, Refrigerator, Gas Oven, Water Heater, and perhaps new set of designer's furnitures ? Four wheeled passenger vehicle ?
To be able to own this list of modern appliances that bring this family to a "Higher Standard of Living", the salary level will need adjustments.
The amount of wages paid should allow the worker to attain a "new HIGHER Standard of Living" compared to past conditions, but the new wages should not destabilised the "LOW Cost of Living".
Such luxury goods that are usually imported at a high cost, can be locally assembled or manufactured, so as to achieve lower prices that DO NOT DESTABILISE the local "Cost of Living".
During the 1970s through 1980s, our Singapore Government had exhorted Singaporeans to work harder, to increase productivity, so as to justify the higher wage levels that the Government is relentlessly squeezing out of the Employers.
It seems that the Government had believed that the high wages that the Singapore workers are paid can be justified by higher productivity level; and resulted in the Government Ministers embarking on Productivity Drives throughout the 1980s through the 1990s.
Did our Singapore Government achieve this goal of controlling the "Cost of Living", while embarking on an all out effort to bring Singaporeans to a Higher "Standard of Living" ?
Despite the Government runned Department of Statistics constant print out of low inflation, and low Consumer Cost Index, each and every Singaporean is fighting hard to stretch the hard earned Dollar.
Some lower income families have to take on two jobs simply to make ends meet.
Unfortunately for the Department of Statistics, its claims of low inflation does not seem to bear itself out, as the current high wages have resulted in high labor costs that caused manufacturers to relocate to lower cost centers.
The decisions to relocate is also influenced by the high operating costs that stem firstly from the high capital costs in land and building, which is the basic brickworks for the manufactuer.
The relocation by foreign manufacturers will clearly expose the stark difference in interpreting the situation in Singapore.
The relocation of foreign manufacturers clearly expose that the Department of Statistics has not been fully accurate with their reports that seem to back up Government claims of manageable Cost of Living.
One can only wonder by whose standards can one manage the current Cost of Living Standard ? By their standard of measuring with a MILLION DOLLAR ANNUAL Salary in their pocket, or through our standard of measure with our Third World Income ?
After going through two crisis, the Government has abandoned the talk of ever achieving GCT's SWISS Standard of Living, or continuing with the boast of our position in LKY's First World.
Has the Singapore Government finally awaken to the gross folly of past wage policy, and is now convincing Singaporean to accept lower wages, lower CPF, and short term employment contracts ?
What happened to the dream of the SWISS Standard of Living and Life in the First World for all Singaporeans ?
With a "six figure" salary earned by the Ruling Elite in the Government, they are surely the only Singaporeans having the SWISS Standard of Living, and having a LIFE equal to the First World.
While the Ruling Elites have their SWISS style villa and living conditions, with salary levels equal to the First World, this bunch of Ruling Elite has the audacity to impose the SWISS Cost of Living onto Singaporeans, while at the same time expecting Singaporeans to accept Third World wages after FORTY Years of Independence !!!!
No wonder they are celebrating in style for this National Day to commemorate the FORTY Years of Independence.
Note the difference between the "COST of Living" and the "STANDARD of Living" - these are two different issues. -
Seriously, I am SO pissed off with the PAP. They will never get my vote again. No matter how screwed up the opposition is.
With this knowledge, what can we do? Just chagrin and bear it? There must be a way to incite some peaceful revolution or demonstration, although the police and PAP would never allow for it. Where's Dr Chee when we need him? -
imagine someone like marlboro tan fetching that kind of salary.
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MBT is one of the most unpopular PAP members around and it's hard not to state the obvious reason on why he is so.
His record in politics is one of endless failure. I'd believe this new Act of allowing more pple to borrow more money- especially in such a bleak economical situation- will eventually backfire on him.
Just like the way his 'Singapore in the football World Cup by 2010' goal backfired on him about 3 years back. -
Pegging MP and ministers' pay to the private-sector is a wrong than right benchmark. Doing so makes them adopt and pursue private-sector practises and interests while neglecting their primary function of good governance which they were appointed to public offices for. It has become such a big problem that the PM has to devise rules to check MPs' business activities outside the government.
If the private sector decides to peg their pay
to the MPs' and government ministers', wouldn't that look ridiculous?
The government should peg their staff pay to worldwide low-corruption government benchmarks like the US and UK government salary scales.
That is the right, not wrong thing to do.
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I am asking the below questions again because I didn't hear much concrete actions other than "I won't vote for PAP" and "maybe we can organise...." Don't vote for PAP is not effective because most prob you don't get a chance to vote due to walk-overs. Maybe we can organise something will always remain as maybe.
Many people can express frustrations but there will not be any effect unless many people take concrete actions. By now you should have realised that our opposition parties are too weak to mount any opposition. If you are really so frustrated, join the opposition parties and make them bigger! Or you can organise speeches at Speaker Corner. Or start a petition.
But count me out of the above because I am self-centred and it is easier to plan for migration.
"So after knowing how much our top government officers are being paid, what are you going to do about it?
Confuscius said, "To know and not to do is not to know".
What are your actions?
So who is thinking of migrating?"