I came across this essay and like to share with u the views of a scholar on our Million dollar minister salary..
This is part of the essay....
The mindset of our country's leaders is another fine example reflecting the great divide between them and the man on the street. For an average Joe like me, 1 million dollars per year is an awful lot of money that many can't even imagine saving that much in our lifetime. There we have our elites telling average Joe they feel that they need an 80% increase in their pay from 1.2 million to 2.2 million a year otherwise they would refuse to work for the country. How insensitive can that be? Average Joes can't understand why our elites can't be satisfied with what they feel as an awful lot of money and now is asking for more? Besides, average Joe's salary rarely see a double digit increase in percentage at any point of time, now the elites are asking for 80%?
Intelligent observers would have pointed out that another old argument used by the politicians, that paying ministers by the millions will prevent corruption, is flawed because we have many examples of (almost) corruption free nations without the millions payout. Others look into the black and white to pick up the problems with the way our ministers are paid.
In a way, there is no denying that deep inside many Singaporean's heart, we feel that our leaders are just trying to bring home more taxpayer's money. They may be good at putting numbers in the news and maintaining economic growth for Singapore. But many of us are not touched nor inspired by our leaders actions. Our textbooks may tell our children of Singapore's "glorious history" about how PAP led the country into the modern era but parents will be telling legends on how political oppositions were "removed" and how our leaders insisted to be the most well paid politicians in the world (and yet wants to earn even more).
The dollars our ministers are chasing after, makes little sense.
This is part of the essay....
The mindset of our country's leaders is another fine example reflecting the great divide between them and the man on the street. For an average Joe like me, 1 million dollars per year is an awful lot of money that many can't even imagine saving that much in our lifetime. There we have our elites telling average Joe they feel that they need an 80% increase in their pay from 1.2 million to 2.2 million a year otherwise they would refuse to work for the country. How insensitive can that be? Average Joes can't understand why our elites can't be satisfied with what they feel as an awful lot of money and now is asking for more? Besides, average Joe's salary rarely see a double digit increase in percentage at any point of time, now the elites are asking for 80%?
Intelligent observers would have pointed out that another old argument used by the politicians, that paying ministers by the millions will prevent corruption, is flawed because we have many examples of (almost) corruption free nations without the millions payout. Others look into the black and white to pick up the problems with the way our ministers are paid.
In a way, there is no denying that deep inside many Singaporean's heart, we feel that our leaders are just trying to bring home more taxpayer's money. They may be good at putting numbers in the news and maintaining economic growth for Singapore. But many of us are not touched nor inspired by our leaders actions. Our textbooks may tell our children of Singapore's "glorious history" about how PAP led the country into the modern era but parents will be telling legends on how political oppositions were "removed" and how our leaders insisted to be the most well paid politicians in the world (and yet wants to earn even more).
The dollars our ministers are chasing after, makes little sense.
