Consider good leadership an investment for Singapore
Letter from Quek Ser Aik 04:48 AM Jan 06, 2012
Suppose we could benchmark our ministers' quality, and suppose it drops 10 per cent in the long run (after the pay cut). Would it be worth the savings on their salaries? Which other country's current leadership would we rather have for Singapore?
When the media reports on corrupt civil services that hobble their nations' progress, we see ourselves as a counter example: A clean, rules-based community.
Ideally, our best and brightest should continue to forgo much privacy and family comfort, to rally our nation with integrity, to cry and laugh with the rest of us, never mind the pay.
However, at work, I used to sometimes brush with corporate leaders who were paid far more than our ministers and I did not get the impression that they were all good enough to lead us.
Elsewhere, if Mr Barack Obama did not run, there would have been Mrs Hillary Clinton. Our barrel is much shallower.
I complain, like everybody, and sometimes fancy the anti-establishment label. Perhaps the annual salaries, including bonuses and pensions, of all our elected officials, past and present, should be made public.
But let us not give ourselves the cold comfort of the excuse, come a time should Singapore be in the doldrums: "Can't totally blame them, since they're not the best we could have persuaded to mind for us, anyway."
Let us invest, and pass our little red dot, glowing, to our children.
Letter from Quek Ser Aik 04:48 AM Jan 06, 2012
Suppose we could benchmark our ministers' quality, and suppose it drops 10 per cent in the long run (after the pay cut). Would it be worth the savings on their salaries? Which other country's current leadership would we rather have for Singapore?
When the media reports on corrupt civil services that hobble their nations' progress, we see ourselves as a counter example: A clean, rules-based community.
Ideally, our best and brightest should continue to forgo much privacy and family comfort, to rally our nation with integrity, to cry and laugh with the rest of us, never mind the pay.
However, at work, I used to sometimes brush with corporate leaders who were paid far more than our ministers and I did not get the impression that they were all good enough to lead us.
Elsewhere, if Mr Barack Obama did not run, there would have been Mrs Hillary Clinton. Our barrel is much shallower.
I complain, like everybody, and sometimes fancy the anti-establishment label. Perhaps the annual salaries, including bonuses and pensions, of all our elected officials, past and present, should be made public.
But let us not give ourselves the cold comfort of the excuse, come a time should Singapore be in the doldrums: "Can't totally blame them, since they're not the best we could have persuaded to mind for us, anyway."
Let us invest, and pass our little red dot, glowing, to our children.