Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) secretary-general Dr Chee Soon Juan took to social media yesterday to call out Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on issues of social stratification and inequality in Singapore.
In a post on social media, he quoted Prime Minister Lee from earlier this year, on October 14, 2018, when the latter said, “We must not allow social stratification to harden in Singapore”.
Posted by Chee Soon Juan 徐顺全 on Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Mr Lee’s remarks were made at a post-National Day Rally dialogue at Ci Yuan Community Club, which were later made available to the media. At the dialogue, he also stressed the importance of not leaving behind lower-income Singaporeans.
In his Facebook post, Dr Chee then proceeded to list statistics pertaining to Singapore. The info graphic read, “183,717 Millionaires in S’pore, up 11%. Number of elderly suicides at all-time high. S’pore bottom 10 countries in inequality reduction”.
Earlier this year, Singapore ranked 149 in an Oxfam index of 157 countries based on efforts to tackle the gap between the rich and poor.
At the bottom, it also read, “Trust is not what you say. It’s what you do”.
Dr Chee’s post received almost 600 reactions and over 40 comments, most of which were in support of his sentiments.
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obbana@theindependent.sg