The Information Daily, 17 Jun 2012
Singapore government needs to intervene radically to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and ensure opportunities exist for all Singaporeans to improve their quality of life, a group of economists have said in a recent paper published by the Institute of Policy Studies.
The meteoric rise of Singapore in the past four decades has often been credited to its meritocratic society where upward socio-economic mobility was almost given. Yet, in recent times, social mobility has slowed down while the gap between the rich and poor has widened significantly.
The inequity and social tension was reflected in the electoral politics as well, the paper noted. In 2011, the People’s Action Party (PAP) was returned to power with barely 50% of the votes – the worse result since the first election in 1965. Full story
