The only proven way to keep politicians honest is freedom of speech. A strong anti-corruption agency helps too. Even if one looks at our own history, how did we create a largely corruption-free government in the 1960s and 1970s? Not by high salaries — these didn’t come into effect until the 1990s. The key factors then were political will (on Lee Kuan Yew’s part), a free media (at least until the 1970s) and a powerful anti-corruption agency.
Consequently I consider it a little dishonest intellectually for the government to keep repeating this mantra about high salaries being needed to prevent corruption. Decent salaries do, but marginal utility falls off rapidly beyond a certain point. Worse yet, that same dishonesty holds us back from developing the truly useful tools that DO prevent corruption: citizens’ right to access information, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly. In other words: Human rights.
If the prime minister is serious about reform, he should stop behaving like a technocrat looking at what levers to pull, and start thinking like a statesman.
Read more here
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2...less-free-speech-and-human-rights-entrenched/
Consequently I consider it a little dishonest intellectually for the government to keep repeating this mantra about high salaries being needed to prevent corruption. Decent salaries do, but marginal utility falls off rapidly beyond a certain point. Worse yet, that same dishonesty holds us back from developing the truly useful tools that DO prevent corruption: citizens’ right to access information, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly. In other words: Human rights.
If the prime minister is serious about reform, he should stop behaving like a technocrat looking at what levers to pull, and start thinking like a statesman.
Read more here
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2...less-free-speech-and-human-rights-entrenched/
