In a press release the SDP said, "The PAP will never convince the people of the need for such mind-boggling salaries for the ministers.

"All it can do is to bully the people into acceptance like it has done so many times in the past.

"The government has repeatedly stated that the pay hike of its ministers is justified by the way it handled the Asian economic crisis," the statement said.

Reminding Singaporeans of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's challenge for the people to judge his government by its results, the SDP made the following claims:

"At the height of the economic crisis:

• The Singapore dollar plunged 25 per cent from a high of $1.40 to the US dollar to the present low of $1.74, effectively wiping out tens of billions of dollars in the nation's financial reserves.
• The stock market at one point nose-dived to a heart-stopping 800 points and is still in doldrums.
• The property market bubble popped, crashing by as much as 50 per cent during the crisis and causing thousands of homeowners to suffer the hardship and humiliation of defaulting on their home mortgages. Property prices are still far from pre-crisis levels making a mockery of the fact that Singaporeans are asset-rich.
• 60,000 people have lost their jobs, most of whom still cannot find employment. This does not include the tens of thousands more who remain underemployed and needing two jobs just to make ends meet.
• The income disparity has exacerbated with the lowest 10 per cent of households earning an average of an incredible $133 a month.
• State-owned enterprises were outwitted by foreign competitors, like SingTel, and lost billions of taxpayers' dollars in failed ventures, like DBS and Micropolis.
• The government failed spectacularly with the Suzhou Industrial Park that was projected at $30 billion.
• The government pledged $17 billion to the Suharto regime, which is now facing charges of massive corruption, without the knowledge of Singaporeans."

The statement signed by the Party's secretary general, Dr Chee Soon Juan said, "Compared to other Asian countries, the PAP government's performance was decidedly mediocre."

While Singapore reeled in recession in 1998, Taiwan and Australia posted an six per cent GDP growth, the statement said.

"Yet, the Taiwanese and Australian governments are not asking for obscene salary levels that the Singapore ministers are claiming for themselves," the SDP said.

The Party statement said the PAP has "expectedly and shamelessly" claimed credit for the recovery that Singapore is "seemingly experiencing" now.

The Party contends almost every Asian country is seeing growth rates - several much higher than Singapore's.

"Yet, one doesn't hear of ministers increasing their own salaries, especially when its citizens are still saddled with CPF and wage cuts," the SDP said.

"The Singapore government knows little about what caused the crisis in the first place and what sparked the recovery in the region.

The SDP claims a couple of PAP ministers have admitted as much.

But when it comes to justifying increase in ministerial salaries, the SDP said, the government "will desperately grasp at the wind for any reason - real or imagined.