Parliament has reopened in May 2018 after a break. President Halimah Yacob's address was followed by debates.

And if the speeches made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and 4G Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung are anything to go by, the various areas of inequality in Singapore's society is a topic of great importance to our political leadership.

Ong: 4 areas of inequality & how we're addressing them

In his speech, Minister Ong highlighted four concerns with regard to inequality in Singapore:

• The income gap,
• How well the middle-income group is doing,
• The ease (or difficulty) of moving up the social ladder, and
• How well different groups from different classes mix with one another.

He showed how Singapore has been doing over the past decade or so in the various international barometers for equality —

1. The ratio of the household incomes of the 90th percentile to the 10th percentile in Singapore

Ong notes that while Singapore's ratio was higher than the United States, South Korea, the UK and Finland, and continued to be higher than the latter three in 2015, he pointed out that this number has come down over 2012 through 2015 — plus, we're a city-state, and so comparing our numbers to cities in these countries will yield greater parity, he added.

He also notes we continue to work on this through progressive taxation, which at the moment sees our top 10 per cent of income earners contributing 80 per cent of our personal income tax revenue. Ong also points out that:

- The 20 per cent lowest income earners in Singapore receive about $4 in benefits for each dollar of tax they pay, while

- The 41st - 60th percentile of income earners here gets $2 in benefits for each tax dollar paid, a rate that is higher than the $1.30-$1.40 received by middle-income households in the UK, U.S. and Finland.

[related_story]

2. Gini coefficient

Despite studies that have correlated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth with rising income inequality, Ong noted that Singapore has been able to buck that trend, with our Gini coefficient falling in times of economic growth.

He explains this is because Singapore's model is an inclusive one that involves cooperation between workers, employers and government "to share the fruits of success".

Ong also notes that compared with the other countries in this chart, Singapore's Gini coefficient is higher than theirs because of their comprehensive welfare systems.

However, Ong also highlights that people in these countries pay very high taxes — on average, he said, a typical worker pays 30 per cent of his salary in taxes, while GST hovers between 20 and 25 per cent of the cost of goods purchased.

In comparison, half the people in Singapore do not pay taxes, while our GST is still at a single digit level.

3. The change in median household income between 2006 and 2016, across various countries

As the chart shows, real median income in the comparative countries grew by far less than that here in Singapore — Ong says our median income levels saw "healthy growth" because incomes grew across the board, including our lower income.

This, says Ong, is most greatly evidenced in the lifestyles Singapore's broad middle-income group lead — more are taking family vacations, birthday celebrations at restaurants and living in bigger HDB flats and executive condominiums, things which he says are enjoyed by "a broad middle" rather than an exclusive few.

The challenge facing Singapore's middle-income: climbing up — because of the already-high base we are starting at, notes Ong, who adds that we should define quality of life in terms beyond the economic and material, but consider things like greener and more pleasant environments, as well as the cohesiveness of our society.

Challenges ahead with respect to inequality

In his speech, Ong acknowledged that families who do well give their children head starts through coaching, classes and more exposure to the world, making things tougher for the poorer families of today than those in the past, hence entrenching social stratification.

He also mentioned that housing, National Service and education policies have helped children and young Singaporeans from different strata of society to meet and mix with one another.

But, he also said, some schools have higher proportions of students from higher-income groups, an issue that some principals have pointed out for years now. Ong says he is concerned about the onset of stratification, that happens when groups of friends are formed among people with the same socioeconomic status (SES hurhur), that will poison Singapore's society.

Turning to the education system, Ong says "a lot more needs to be done" to create more pathways and opportunities, also urging employers and human resource practitioners to "wake up to this new mindset" — that there are many ways to acquire the skills needed for a specific job.

PM Lee: The danger of closed elite circles

In his speech, PM Lee spoke at length about the need for Singaporeans at the individual and social level to guard against the formation of classes or hierarchies that will divide and exclude, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

Apart from social cues like the quality of a person's spoken English or where he or she eats, what he or she wears or the clubs they belong to, PM Lee said we should as a society work to emphasise commonalities and frown upon those who ostentatiously flaunt or display their wealth and status — especially those who look down on the less privileged.

Interestingly, PM Lee also cautioned of the societal obstacle of closed elite circles that block outsiders from joining their leagues.

He said these social networks are natural but must remain permeable and open at all times, and it must not be impossible for someone who has ability and talent to be welcomed into the group of elites and even rise to its top.

"If this happened, not only would social mobility be frustrated, but soon the elite group would start to only look after its own interests, and fail in their duty to lead and care for the rest of society. And that would be disastrous for Singapore."

He touched on other social sensitivities too, like the need to be wary of influences from China and India on our local ethnic Chinese and Indians, as well as to make a conscious effort to be welcoming to immigrants who make the choice to sink roots here.

Definitely a top-level topic for our 4G political leaders in the years running up to 2020.

You can watch this section of PM Lee's speech here:

And excerpts from Minister Ong's speech here:

Top photo: Screenshots via govsingapore YouTube videos