Cruxx said:
1. There's a reason why they are called the "pseudo-opposition" rather than the "ruling party". They have to at least pretend that they are opposed to the PAP.
1. If what you described as the pseudo-opposition party is true, then the "true opposition" will only be 20% of the electorate. What a miserable figure it is? What right has it to make any noise?
2. Trust me. What Pritam Singh said about coalition govt, which other parties did not say but if all were to be given the offer, these other parties would not be the first to decline the offer because to be realistic, which party do you think will be offered the right to form a coalition govt? At it is the several opposition parties are fighting on several, varied platforms. Can anything useful come out of this? Don't be naive.
3. Regarding the Ministerial salaries, again let's be realistic even if you envy the million dollar salaries and which we all like to attack, including myself, what level could we realistic bring it down to, without being cynical? Given the rise of civil service salaries, albeit a bad idea but as the Chinese says it is already cooked rice, and GLC top salaries, not just the CEOs but the whole jing gang, can we realistic expect ministers to draw a lot less than all these?
As it is, some GLC CEOs today are in fact drawing salaries that are two, three times that of a top minister's pay. Yes, can we change this situation and adopt a salary structure similar to, say, the US govt (remember that Bernacke is only drawing around US$200k a year, much lower than a PS, DS or a director of a division's pay)? Technically yes, practically you need several years of gradual salary adjustment to get this done without causing a major problem particularly in the property and financial market but generally throughout the economy. Given this situation, I don't begrudge the Ministers their salaries but I will make noise about it for the way it is is after several years of wrong policies, something that cannot be reversed overnight.
I, therefore, do not blame the WP for not making more noise on this. To take from a Chinese saying again: If you are riding a tiger, it is very difficult to get down. I blame the WP for not benchmarking it against the median salary, a missed opportunity because I believe the median salary is where the bulk of our problem lies. Correct that and everything will fall in place, high end, low end. The rulers of this country should have this common link with the average guy. But when Prof Lim proposed his salary restructuring and when Prof Tommy Koh indirectly supported his proposal that it would have little impact on the competitiveness of our economy by differentiating tradable from non-tradable components of costs, again I heard a lot of noise, the key reason I gathered seemed to be these two gentlemen had been used by the govt to advance certain policies in the past.
Do we in the Opposition really knows what we are after? Do we know what we want? I am not fully convinced. If we want to remain forever as an opposition, perhaps making noise is the right approach to win votes. But if we wish to change Singapore and displace what we view as bad, we need to do a lot more.
