When the Committee to Review Ministerial Salaries finally released its report, the PAP held a huddle session exclusively for its party members ahead of its public release. This is wrong. This is a national issue in which all Singaporeans have a stake in and if there was to be a private preview, then it should be open to the elected members of the opposition as well. I'm surprised that the opposition MPs did not pick up on that. Perhaps they were too excited about their own counter proposals with which they hope to show up the work of the Committee.
Be as it may, I do not think anyone really disputes the need to pay our elected representatives a reasonable salary. Despite all that has been said about it being a privilege to serve, there are obvious sacrifices that have to be made. Anyone contemplating a political 'calling' to say otherwise would be naive at best (and likely not having the intellectual chops for government office) or at worse, outright lying, in which case, they should NOT be in government office at all.
It is necessary for anyone to look out for their own interests. Nobody will do it for you otherwise. The problem is deciding to what extent and to what degree. Our political leaders are people too and like people, susceptible to greed. Like the little kid sneaking cookies out of the jar being tempted to pilfer more over time until Grandma catches them in the act and smacks their hand, they will keep awarding themselves bigger and more benefits over time. The last electoral defeat was like Grandma smacking the hand.
Benchmarking ministerial salaries to a portion of the top 1000 earners in Singapore is as good a proposal as any other realistically viable scheme. I would think that few would dispute the importance and responsibilities of our ministers when compared to these 1000 individuals.
Put yourselves into the shoes of these ministers for a while if you will. You spend time and energy coming up with policies that allow business tycoons to prosper, make billions in profits and show off their multitudes of young mistresses while you have to live the life of a pious monk...(at least in public) You can't even queue up for property launches so you can flip them for a quick profit. Neither do we want to see a minister queuing at the Yishun Toto outlet hoping to strike it rich. We can do without the added competition :) We need to pay them enough that they are not distracted and can concentrate on doing what needs to be done in the interests of the nation.
It would be good if it can be otherwise. In over 5000 years of Chinese civilisation (as people are fond of quoting), they have managed to produce only one Confucius, only one poet who was sufficiently disappointed about his country's state of governance to commit suicide. I don't think we can find enough of such individuals here in Singapore.
So, this review of ministerial salaries is timely and a necessary move to rein in compensation that have recently swung too far in favour of these individuals that have been put forward as our betters. Whether it will help to improve or maintain the political status quo of the ruling party is the wrong question to ask. The question is can the ministers deliver the results expected of them? If not, even if they volunteer to work for free, it will not make a difference. The motion to accept the recommendations of the ministerial salary review committee has passed. If the May 2011 elections were to be held now, would the results be any different? What do you think?
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