Statistics as a magic trick

Hazel Poa breaks down the latest HDB statistics National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan provided to ST's Jessica Cheam to justify median household income outstripping increased HDB resale flat prices. This the the graph the minister brought out:

Hazel's point that "the choice of the base year can be very significant" is illustrated in 2 simple graphs and disproves the ministers assertions. First, setting the base year to 2001 gives us:

And now, setting the base year to 2006, the year of the last General Elections:

Run over to Hazel's blog and read the whole post. Will ST, or Jessica Cheam, cover this angle after they have touted Mah's "hard facts and statistics", and therefore living up to her own proclamation as "anti-establishment"?

(h/t: Kenneth Jeyaretnam)