Last Sat (22 Jun), ST Forum reader Isaac Neo Yi Chong wrote that even as Singapore’s economy has been consistently growing, the rise in income inequality has been accompanied by “middle-class incomes stagnating, and even real wage declines for the lower class”. He also noted that inter-generational income elasticity (the disparity between incomes among generations) is heavily correlated with social …

It was recently reported in the media that a young Singaporean in his late 20s lost his engineering job and was unable to secure another job. Feeling hopeless, he holed himself up at home, mostly playing computer games and eventually developed the “hikikomori” syndrome. The term “hikikomori” was coined by Japanese psychologist Tamaki Saitoō in the late 1990s, referring to …

On Mon this week (17 Jun), former Singapore Ambassador-at-Large Bilahari Kausikan commented on his Facebook page with regard to the recent mass protests in Hong Kong over its proposed extradition law. The proposed law which would allow Hong Kong to extradite people wanted in China infuriated large number of Hong Kong people. Many fear that people in Hong Kong may …

It was reported that the top 3 absentee MPs from Parliamentary sittings for last year (2018) were from the People’s Action Party, with Mr Iswaran at the top. He missed 9 or 28% of the total 32 Parliamentary sittings last year. Prof Fatimah and Dr Ng Eng Hen came in joined 2nd, who both missed 8 or a quarter of …

TOC went through the Parliamentary Votes and Proceedings to examine the attendance records of MPs in Parliament for last year (2018). The Parliamentary Votes and Proceedings are the official minutes of the proceedings of Parliament, including the proceedings of the Committee of the whole Parliament. It contains a record of attendance of the Members, announcements by the Speaker, papers presented …

NTUC FairPrice issued a press release yesterday (17 Jun), announcing that both Merdeka Generation (MG) and Pioneer Generation (PG) members will be able to enjoy a 3% discount at FairPrice outlets every Wednesday starting from 1 July next month. This is the first time the discount scheme is extended to MG members. Meanwhile, PG members will continue to enjoy an …

At an international Ministerial Conference on Diabetes in Nov last year, the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that war on diabetes has to be waged on multiple fronts (‘Diabetes must be fought on multiple fronts: Tharman‘, 27 Nov 2018). He said that employers, citizens and the whole of government need to chip in to fight a condition …

Mr Melvin Yong, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC, posted a Facebook post on Sunday evening, accusing of falsehoods being circulated on social media that the chocolates given out by activists from People Action Party were expired and noted that the claim was untrue as the date shown on the packaging clearly shows that the chocolates only expires in …

Speaking at a REACH-CNA dialogue session today (15 Jun), Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that the Government wants to partner Singaporeans to design and implement policies on 4 areas: Environmental sustainability Housing environment Young Singaporeans Social mobility For the environment, Heng said this is an issue that many young Singaporeans are passionate about “because they will be inheriting …

A recent post by a foreign PMET on expat.com, a popular expat forum, had revealed how companies can run rings around Singapore’s Manpower Ministry (MOM) in order to get more foreigners to work in their companies. The foreigner, apparently from the Philippines, wrote that his company applied for him an S-Pass on 21 Jan this year but was rejected 2 …