Alice Koh in the ST Forum: Ok to pay millions to get monkeys!

[steffychun]

Pay still a factor in drawing top talent

I URGE the committee reviewing ministerial salaries to consider the negative consequences of not pegging ministers' pay to top incomes.

(and what are the positive consequences?)

Having mediocre ministerial salaries will blunt our aim of attracting top talent into government. No matter how much is said that politics is about serving Singapore, attractive wages remain a motivational factor for high-fliers in different sectors to enter public service.

(Really Ah? Then Is Barack Obama underpaid in America? Have any of our Ministers shot a Bin Laden? Oops, one of them let a terrorist go...)

We will be 'penny wise, pound foolish' to believe we will have a larger national budget by cutting ministerial salaries. In the longer term, high-quality ministers will retire earlier and we will see frequent changes in the Cabinet. In fact, having the right minister with superior policies will grow our national budget much more than the amount we reward him.

(Who pray tell is a superior Minister? Are Singaporean Ministers Super Heroes?)

Singapore has a unique formula for attracting top brains from each sector. This has enabled it to gather good ministers to implement sound policies, which helped us pull through recessions and the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, as well as recover job losses quickly after the economic crisis.

(Yes a unique formula for taking millions and letting floods, terrorists, foreign workers etc etc)

What would happen if we employ second-rate ministers with an above-average salary? How much would weaker governance cost Singapore in the long term?

(What would happen if we let in more foreign workers with our million dollar ministers?)

Singaporeans believe in value for money. It is this belief and leaving no chance for weaker governance that have helped Singapore's reserves to grow to hundreds of billions as compared to the deficits in some First World countries.

(Do you know what Value for Money is? It is savings you bitch!)

We cannot compare our Prime Minister's pay with that of leaders of large countries like the United States, where leaders serve only one or two terms. In many countries, the intangible benefits of holding political office far outweigh the salaries they receive.

(Really? Again, has our Prime Minister lead a plan to kill a top world terrorists? Is serving one or two terms really the factor? (British PMs can serve countless terms you un-educated bitch)

As a minister's job will be more challenging in the future, our political leaders should be compensated fairly, according to their contributions, responsibilities, abilities and sacrifices.

(As Vivian said, how much do you want?)

With the rapid growth of our economy and standard of living, more millionaires have surfaced, and this has resulted in higher income inequality. Rather than having a committee to review ministers' pay, one should be set up to study how to close our income gap and raise the wages of the poor.

(Congratulations. I'm not sure how you passed your University, A/O Levels or even PSLE. Or Kindergarten.)

Alice Koh (Ms) -- I remember she posted lots of pro-PAP stuff a while back. One of the 60%

 

[fanta]

Miss Alice Koh,
our ministers are over paid, draining national resources, millions of minister's salaries could be use for the poor.

If world leaders can live and take pride in a US$250,000 salary, why can't SIngapore leaders?

 

[po2wq]

... Having mediocre ministerial salaries will blunt our aim of attracting top talent into government. No matter how much is said that politics is about serving Singapore, attractive wages remain a motivational factor for high-fliers in different sectors to enter public service ...

Alice Koh (Ms) ...

ah alice ...

dose burgers oso said dat attractif wages prevents colluption ...

u shud oso say dat having mediocre ministerial salaries wil oso cos widespread, rampant colluption! ... :oIo:

 

[Confuseous]

Just another of those unenlightened brainless monkeys who think THEY are the smart ones. These are the brainless monkeys that the PAP would like to breed.

The salary review is being done not because the MIWs suddenly see the error of their moral ways - it is to ensure that they stay in power. At the same time, they are trying to sweeten the ground for the EP elections which must be held by September. Which sane smart fella would want to run, especially when under the "sponsorship" of the ruling party?

 

[wikiphile]

Who the fuck is this Alice Koh??? I keep seeing her name on pro PAP letters recently after the GE? Fucking ghostwriter

 

[ivebert]

Who the fuck is this Alice Koh??? I keep seeing her name on pro PAP letters recently after the GE? Fucking ghostwriter

They should make it a LAW to publish the full name of all authors of all articles

I can't believe you can use an alias to write to the newspaper in SG

Shows how backward your country is

 

[ahleebabasingaporethief]

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</td></tr> <tr><td class="msgtxt" id="msgtxt_1">The Might of the Peoplefs Power

May 23rd, 2011 |

Author: Contributions |

Edit

Never has the might of the peoplefs power manifested itself so strongly in Singapore as in the last General Election. This was acutely felt by PM Lee Hsien Loong and his Cabinet colleagues when the Peoplefs Action Party (PAP) was overwhelmingly defeated in Aljunied GRC resulting in the loss of two heavyweight ministers and a prospective Speaker of Parliament. The PAP also saw its share of valid votes drop to 60.1 per cent compared to 66.6 per cent in 2006, the lowest since independence. There has been a considerable amount of soul-searching in the party and PM Lee has since shown that he is going to give more priority and importance to the peoplefs financial and social woes. He may be gung ho in his revivifying effort but whether some of his more tardy ministers are up to the mark is another matter. There is a Chinese saying: He who gains the peoplefs heart gains the country; he who loses the peoplefs heart loses the country (“¾–¯SŽÒ“¾“V‰ºG Ž¸–¯SŽÒŽ¸“V‰ºj. In a microcosm, the Workersf Party fits into the former.
It is because of the widespread criticisms of the astronomical ministerial pay that PM Lee now feels the heat and compunction to do something to assuage the peoplefs anger. He has now decided to form a special committee to be headed by Mr. Gerald Ee, National Kidney Foundation Chairman, to review the basis and level of Ministersf salaries. It is preposterous when the prime ministerfs salary is six times that of the President of the United States of America. Even a ministerfs salary exceeds that of the USA President several times.
A discomfited and comical SM Goh Cok Tong had described the issue of ministerial salaries as the goppositionfs flogging horseh and said that the gmajorityh of the population were not concerned about it. He was either day-dreaming or was misled by his feedback people. In fact he was the blurry-eyed Prime Minister who introduced these infamous ministerial salaries in the mid-1990s, so how could he be be aware of the peoplefs wrath now? Even if he were aware, it would reflect badly on his reputation to admit to this animosity of the people. In fact at that time, the famous author Catherine Lim sent a long letter to the Straits Times highly critical of the astronomical salaries but the then PM Goh Chok Tong, true to his hubristic character, dismissed Catherine Limfs letter offhand, chastised and warned her that if she wanted to engage the Government politically she would have to join a political party to do it. What impertinence! Any citizen has the right to criticise the Government in his own capacity. In fact by his high-handed action, PM Goh was trying to intimidate Catherine Lim not to criticise the Government on this issue.
The fact that PM Lee Hsien Loong has now decided to form a special committee to review the ministerial salaries flies in the face of Emeritus SM Goh Chok Tongfs complacent assessment of the ground feelings on this issue. The ball is now in the court of the Review Committee to see if it has the courage to recommend a drastic pruning of the absurd ministerial salaries to a level commensurate with their duties and responsibilities to the satisfaction of the people (rakyat).
.
Yoong Siew Wah
*The writer is an ex-ISD director and he blogs at Singapore Recalcitrant.

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[Cerebral]

It is extremely disappointing when we have idiots like Alice Koh who tries to justify the high salaries for the mini stars. The salary which everyone has a beef with is not about the absolute amount, but the concept behind paying the amount. People cannot fathom how salaries can be pegged to top 5% earners in Singapore? and the amount they worked out to is 10 times of the President of the World most powerful nation.

In addition, the argument of PAP's ability to attract top talents was proved to be incorrect in GE 2011, when Opposition fielded an excellent group of candidates, while PAP in comparison looked to have Div 2 talents. Consider this - Have you seen a clear and viable vision for Singapore since LHH took over the reins? In fact Tan Jee Say's call towards greater reliance towards service-oriented economy is a good call, which PAP should be proposing and not from an opposition.

 

[steffychun]

ST Forum asks for full name ionI/C. Is QAlice Koh her full name? Then next time I can give my full name as Emeritus.