From July 1 the civil service got rises averaging 13 percent--but the hikes were heavily weighted at the top. A small elite corps received rises of up to 50 percent but increases fell to about 4 percent at lower levels. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong saw his annual salary grow 14 percent to S$1.9 million (US$1.1 million) and is eligible for a bonus of up to a year's pay. The most junior minister won 12 percent more, rising to S$968,000.

In coffee shops, Internet chat rooms and letters to pro-government newspapers, Singaporeans have been venting their anger. The city's senior civil servants are already among the world's best-paid public employees, and the rises come at a time when many people feel they have still to recoup what they lost in the Asian economic crisis.

In the government's defence, the rises followed a two-year pay freeze and came when top private-sector salaries are soaring. But authorities have only just begun to restore public pension contributions that were slashed in 1998.

"We will endure if our leaders endure with us. We took a pay cut when things were bad, as we were told," wrote Shanghai-based Alex Tan in a letter to the daily Straits Times. "The irony is that before our incomes could see any appreciable increase, those in high office have had their increase first."

The rises add to growing income disparities. Unemployment is low at 3.9 percent but Singapore has no comprehensive unemployment insurance scheme and a rising number of people are classed as under-employed.

According to a government survey issued in May, monthly household income for the bottom 10 percent of the population fell to S$133 last year from S$258 in 1998. At the same time, the richest 20 percent of households made 18 times what was earned by the poorest 20 percent--up from 15 times in 1998.

WARNING ON CORRUPTION

The government holds that high salaries attract the brightest to the civil service, stop them leaving and discourage corruption. Private assessments rate the civil service highly.

Justifying the increases, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew told parliament: "That period of revolutionary change that threw up people with deep convictions and overpowering motivation is over. We are in an era of high growth, with fortunes being made by the enterprising. Do not believe that we have escaped the problems that have plagued the region . . . corruption, collusion and nepotism. Our market-based pay and allowances will give no excuse for any slippage."

The People's Action Party, in power since 1959, probably won't lose much electoral ground over the issue but it measures its standing by small changes in its share of the vote (65 percent in the last election). Just a few defections could cost the PAP a degree of face that its leaders consider important.

The government must call an election by mid-2002. Though rumours had suggested it might try to capitalize on its handling of the economic crisis by calling polls this year, analysts say that's impossible now: An election is unlikely until the second half of next year. Before then, the government may prime the economic pump--perhaps by accelerating the return of companies' pension contributions--in a bid to calm voters.

Will that be enough? Singapore's economic numbers are likely to be strong in the early part of next year, purely on the back of big new chemical and semiconductor plants opening. But authorities will be under pressure to tackle several problems--including the widening income gap.

Speakers who plan to use the new Speakers' Corner, due to open in August as a government initiative in open debate, may have a ready-made issue.