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Interesting read from Balji, a journalist with long time PAP leanings. Based on his numbers, Minister salaries would have to be cut to around $600k. He seems to be indicating in the strongest possible terms that this is the max Singaporeans will bear. If they wayang and end up still earning 5 to 6x other world leaders, then there is going to be hell to pay.
Ministerial salaries: Social compact or commercial contract?
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sing...al-compact-commercial-contract-132939894.html
By P N Balji
In setting up a committee to review the highly-controversial ministerial salaries, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has a golden opportunity to take the PAP government back to its roots.
His government's traditions go back to a social compact established between the ruler and the ruled since it came to power in 1959. It missed that plot as it charged into the 1980s and 1990s, and diluted that compact with its elitist form of governance and its single-minded charge into the big league.
In 1994, that social compact began to move towards a commercial contract when Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister then, made the deeply divisive move to come out with a formula that would peg ministers' pay to that of top private sector employees.
He wanted to "remove the need to justify pay revisions every few years as adjustments based on income tax figures could be made automatically each year". He was hoping that, over time, it would become a non-issue.
How wrong he was. The issue became a punching bag for the Opposition during every general election after 1994. The ground simmered as citizens began to talk of the kind of salaries the PM and his ministers were getting. The last publicly-available figures (for the year of 2009) showed Mr Lee Hsien Loong earning $3.04 million and an entry-grade minister making $1.57 million a year.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew was proven wrong on the benchmark itself with the government shying away from meeting it completely following the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998, the terrorism attacks in New York in 2001 and the Sars scare in 2003. While ordinary workers' pay took a hit, top private sector's kept moving up putting pressure on government pay to go up, too.
The inherent difficulties in the benchmarking system began to appear. At one time, only 57 percent of that benchmark was being met.
A serious review was in order. But with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the initiator and champion of high salaries, continuing to be present in the Cabinet that would have been impossible. With the electoral anger and Mr Lee Kuan Yew's departure, PM must have decided to settle this once and for all. Thus the announcement of the review on 21 May.
The man appointed to review the salaries, Mr Gerard Ee, has a monumental task ahead of him. Issues he will have to grapple with: What will be politically palatable? What salaries will draw political talent? Where do you draw the line between the Holy Order of public service, as PAP pioneer Dr Goh Keng Swee aptly described it, and a salaried job?
All these can be surmounted to a great extent by:
One, going back to the pre-1994 salaries when a minister was paid $48,900 a month and adding inflation and the increase in median average salaries since then. This will help to take the political sting out of the thorny issue.
Two, bringing in ministerial talent at a later age, say when they are in their early 50s. By that time, these people would have amassed enough wealth for them not to need high salaries anymore. Foreign Minister K Shanmugam, who became a minister 20 years after being an MP and a successful lawyer, and Mr Richard Hu, who became Finance Minister after he had had a good run as head of Shell Singapore, are living examples of those who have taken that route.
The two main arguments for high salaries -- a corrupt-free government and the recruitment of top talent -- should not apply anymore. Anti-corruption is a trait that is embedded in a Singaporean's DNA. On top of that, a powerful and non-compromising Corrupt Practices and Investigation Bureau can be a strong deterrent to those who want to have their palms greased.
As for top talent, well, high salaries may not be a big draw after all. Look at the new PAP candidates who were given ministerial positions; not one was from the private sector. Anyway, convincing such people to join government ranks should be the work of the PM and his Cabinet. Let that be one of their KPIs.
Ministerial salaries: Social compact or commercial contract?
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sing...al-compact-commercial-contract-132939894.html
By P N Balji
In setting up a committee to review the highly-controversial ministerial salaries, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has a golden opportunity to take the PAP government back to its roots.
His government's traditions go back to a social compact established between the ruler and the ruled since it came to power in 1959. It missed that plot as it charged into the 1980s and 1990s, and diluted that compact with its elitist form of governance and its single-minded charge into the big league.
In 1994, that social compact began to move towards a commercial contract when Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister then, made the deeply divisive move to come out with a formula that would peg ministers' pay to that of top private sector employees.
He wanted to "remove the need to justify pay revisions every few years as adjustments based on income tax figures could be made automatically each year". He was hoping that, over time, it would become a non-issue.
How wrong he was. The issue became a punching bag for the Opposition during every general election after 1994. The ground simmered as citizens began to talk of the kind of salaries the PM and his ministers were getting. The last publicly-available figures (for the year of 2009) showed Mr Lee Hsien Loong earning $3.04 million and an entry-grade minister making $1.57 million a year.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew was proven wrong on the benchmark itself with the government shying away from meeting it completely following the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998, the terrorism attacks in New York in 2001 and the Sars scare in 2003. While ordinary workers' pay took a hit, top private sector's kept moving up putting pressure on government pay to go up, too.
The inherent difficulties in the benchmarking system began to appear. At one time, only 57 percent of that benchmark was being met.
A serious review was in order. But with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the initiator and champion of high salaries, continuing to be present in the Cabinet that would have been impossible. With the electoral anger and Mr Lee Kuan Yew's departure, PM must have decided to settle this once and for all. Thus the announcement of the review on 21 May.
The man appointed to review the salaries, Mr Gerard Ee, has a monumental task ahead of him. Issues he will have to grapple with: What will be politically palatable? What salaries will draw political talent? Where do you draw the line between the Holy Order of public service, as PAP pioneer Dr Goh Keng Swee aptly described it, and a salaried job?
All these can be surmounted to a great extent by:
One, going back to the pre-1994 salaries when a minister was paid $48,900 a month and adding inflation and the increase in median average salaries since then. This will help to take the political sting out of the thorny issue.
Two, bringing in ministerial talent at a later age, say when they are in their early 50s. By that time, these people would have amassed enough wealth for them not to need high salaries anymore. Foreign Minister K Shanmugam, who became a minister 20 years after being an MP and a successful lawyer, and Mr Richard Hu, who became Finance Minister after he had had a good run as head of Shell Singapore, are living examples of those who have taken that route.
The two main arguments for high salaries -- a corrupt-free government and the recruitment of top talent -- should not apply anymore. Anti-corruption is a trait that is embedded in a Singaporean's DNA. On top of that, a powerful and non-compromising Corrupt Practices and Investigation Bureau can be a strong deterrent to those who want to have their palms greased.
As for top talent, well, high salaries may not be a big draw after all. Look at the new PAP candidates who were given ministerial positions; not one was from the private sector. Anyway, convincing such people to join government ranks should be the work of the PM and his Cabinet. Let that be one of their KPIs.
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