Source: The Real Singapore
PM LEE: WE ARE PAYING CORRECT SALARIES TO MORALLY UPRIGHT AND TRUSTWORTHY MINISTERS
Post date: 11 Nov 2014 - 9:00am
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said ministers must be paid “realistic and correct salaries” so that they get “morally upright people” for the job.
He said this in an interview with Yang Lan on Beijing Satellite TV. The interview was broadcasted on Monday.
“I think the topic of high salaries can cause a sharp reaction.
Mr Lee said, “In principle, we are not talking about high salaries.
“What we want are realistic and correct salaries.
He said that this is because they want “morally upright people” and the “right people for the right jobs”.
“The most important job must be done by the most capable, the most trustworthy person.
He feels that they should pay high salaries to ministers because “we must treat them fairly and equally.”
He said that, “If we want the services of such capable and trustworthy people, then we must treat them fairly and equally.
“We must have a practical system - a realistic salary.
“At the same time our requirements are strict - your performance must be good.”
He also revealed, “Legally, you absolutely cannot do anything you are not supposed to do.
“And if that happens, you will be punished under the law, and the punishment will be severe.
Mr Lee said, “So this is not just a question of salaries.
“It is also a matter of the system, an issue of transparency, and our whole culture.”
Mr Lee also said, “In the long term, anti-corruption measures are necessary for economic development.
“In Singapore, we feel anti-corruption is very important,” he claimed.
He also claimed that, “Since the People's Action Party became the ruling party, its 55 years - we have always stood firm on maintaining a clean and corruption-free Government.
Again, Mr Lee said that everything that needs to be done muat be done legally.
“Of course, sometimes some people may break the rules, or break the law.
He made the claim too that, “No matter who is involved, we deal with this very strictly according to law.
Today, the Singapore ministers are paid the highest salaries in the world. Mr Lee’s own salary of $2.2 million puts him as earning more than three times as much as the next highest-paid head of state.
The income inequality in Singapore is also the highest among the developed countries. The rich-poor gap in Singapore is also the highest.
Even though Mr Lee earns $2.2 million in a year, a cleaner can still only earn $1,000 a month. It will take nearly 300 years for a cleaner to earn the total of what Mr Lee can earn.
In recent times, the Singapore government has also increased their own salaries in 1994, 2000, 2004 and 2007 and each time, the income inequality rose with it, followed by the rich getting richer as the share of income that goes to them also increased.
Mr Lee said that ministers should be treated “fairly and equally” but this comes at the expense of Singaporeans who are treated unequally.
<span style="background-color: #FFFF00">However, the question has been often asked, if we need to pay office-holders such extravagant salaries to prevent them from being corrupt, then are they even “morally upright” and “trustworthy” people in the first place, as Mr Lee claimed?
Then, are they truly the “right people for the right jobs”?</span>
Related:
Court Rules that Lawyer, PAP MP Alvin Yeo overcharged $1 Million in Legal Fees
Excerpt from We want “realistic and correct salaries” in government: Lee Hsien Loong, The Online Citizen
Lee’s ruling People’s Action Party, which has run the government since independence, saw its vote share dived a further 6.6 per cent, and the PAP losing a group representation constituency for the first time.
Almost immediately after the election, Mr Lee announced that the government would review ministers’ salaries. Two weeks later, he appointed an eight-member committee led by the then National Kidney Foundation chairman Gerald Ee, to oversee the review.
In January 2012, the committee released its recommended salary scales for office holders.
Lee’s salary was slashed from S$3.76 million to the current S$2.2 million.
It nonetheless still made him the highest-paid head of government in the world.
The current salary scale is as follows:
In October last year, former head of the Civil Service, Ngiam Tong Dow, criticised paying ministers millions of dollars.
“I don’t know whether Lee Kuan Yew will agree but it started going downhill when we started to raise ministers’ salaries, not even pegging them to the national salary but aligning them with the top ten [in the private sector]”, he said.
“When you raise ministers’ salaries to the point that they’re earning millions of dollar(s), every minister — no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell (PM Lee) Hsien Loong off or whatever — will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary,” he continued. “When the salary is so high, which minister dares to leave, unless they decide to become the opposition party? As a result, the entire political arena has become a civil service, and I don’t see anyone speaking up anymore.”
After the government rebutted his assertions, Mr Ngiam later withdrew his remarks.
PM LEE: WE ARE PAYING CORRECT SALARIES TO MORALLY UPRIGHT AND TRUSTWORTHY MINISTERS
Post date: 11 Nov 2014 - 9:00am
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said ministers must be paid “realistic and correct salaries” so that they get “morally upright people” for the job.
He said this in an interview with Yang Lan on Beijing Satellite TV. The interview was broadcasted on Monday.
“I think the topic of high salaries can cause a sharp reaction.
Mr Lee said, “In principle, we are not talking about high salaries.
“What we want are realistic and correct salaries.
He said that this is because they want “morally upright people” and the “right people for the right jobs”.
“The most important job must be done by the most capable, the most trustworthy person.
He feels that they should pay high salaries to ministers because “we must treat them fairly and equally.”
He said that, “If we want the services of such capable and trustworthy people, then we must treat them fairly and equally.
“We must have a practical system - a realistic salary.
“At the same time our requirements are strict - your performance must be good.”
He also revealed, “Legally, you absolutely cannot do anything you are not supposed to do.
“And if that happens, you will be punished under the law, and the punishment will be severe.
Mr Lee said, “So this is not just a question of salaries.
“It is also a matter of the system, an issue of transparency, and our whole culture.”
Mr Lee also said, “In the long term, anti-corruption measures are necessary for economic development.
“In Singapore, we feel anti-corruption is very important,” he claimed.
He also claimed that, “Since the People's Action Party became the ruling party, its 55 years - we have always stood firm on maintaining a clean and corruption-free Government.
Again, Mr Lee said that everything that needs to be done muat be done legally.
“Of course, sometimes some people may break the rules, or break the law.
He made the claim too that, “No matter who is involved, we deal with this very strictly according to law.
Today, the Singapore ministers are paid the highest salaries in the world. Mr Lee’s own salary of $2.2 million puts him as earning more than three times as much as the next highest-paid head of state.
The income inequality in Singapore is also the highest among the developed countries. The rich-poor gap in Singapore is also the highest.
Even though Mr Lee earns $2.2 million in a year, a cleaner can still only earn $1,000 a month. It will take nearly 300 years for a cleaner to earn the total of what Mr Lee can earn.
In recent times, the Singapore government has also increased their own salaries in 1994, 2000, 2004 and 2007 and each time, the income inequality rose with it, followed by the rich getting richer as the share of income that goes to them also increased.
Mr Lee said that ministers should be treated “fairly and equally” but this comes at the expense of Singaporeans who are treated unequally.
<span style="background-color: #FFFF00">However, the question has been often asked, if we need to pay office-holders such extravagant salaries to prevent them from being corrupt, then are they even “morally upright” and “trustworthy” people in the first place, as Mr Lee claimed?
Then, are they truly the “right people for the right jobs”?</span>
Related:
Court Rules that Lawyer, PAP MP Alvin Yeo overcharged $1 Million in Legal Fees
End Of Article
Excerpt from We want “realistic and correct salaries” in government: Lee Hsien Loong, The Online Citizen
Lee’s ruling People’s Action Party, which has run the government since independence, saw its vote share dived a further 6.6 per cent, and the PAP losing a group representation constituency for the first time.
Almost immediately after the election, Mr Lee announced that the government would review ministers’ salaries. Two weeks later, he appointed an eight-member committee led by the then National Kidney Foundation chairman Gerald Ee, to oversee the review.
In January 2012, the committee released its recommended salary scales for office holders.
Lee’s salary was slashed from S$3.76 million to the current S$2.2 million.
It nonetheless still made him the highest-paid head of government in the world.
The current salary scale is as follows:
In October last year, former head of the Civil Service, Ngiam Tong Dow, criticised paying ministers millions of dollars.
“I don’t know whether Lee Kuan Yew will agree but it started going downhill when we started to raise ministers’ salaries, not even pegging them to the national salary but aligning them with the top ten [in the private sector]”, he said.
“When you raise ministers’ salaries to the point that they’re earning millions of dollar(s), every minister — no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell (PM Lee) Hsien Loong off or whatever — will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary,” he continued. “When the salary is so high, which minister dares to leave, unless they decide to become the opposition party? As a result, the entire political arena has become a civil service, and I don’t see anyone speaking up anymore.”
After the government rebutted his assertions, Mr Ngiam later withdrew his remarks.
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