Comments on: Ministers salaries – lets have a re-focus

By: doppelganger

doppelganger — Sat, 28 May 2011 15:16:21 +0000

Fellow citizen, how can you believe that the PM is changing his attitude when the Committee he selects for review of the MInisterial salaries are of the same mold. This is again hoodwinking the citizenry.

Who are those ministers salary review committee members ?

Gerald Ee is PAP man.

John De Payva – NTUC President, what’s there to say. PAP man.

Fang Ai Lian – former Nominated Member of Parliament, PAP woman.

Stephen Lee – SIA Chairman, what’s there to say? PAP man.

Po’ad Shaik Abu Bakar Matter – Presidential Advisers, PAP man.

George Quek – Breadtalk CEO, gotten off with extremely light fine $4,000 for drink driving and crashing his Porsche into a stationary police car at a road block. Time to return favour? PAP man.

Lucien Wong – Allen & Gledhill Managing Partner and director of SPH. A&G acted for Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong and Goh Chok Tong in suing the oppositions bankrupt. PAP man.

Dear fellow citizen, when this Committee has done its job, we will be well and truly stuck with the Ministerial salaries.

By: doppelganger

doppelganger — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:29:56 +0000

I first heard of the reason given by the PAP why the Ministers have to be paid their presnt enormous salaries back in 1994. The gist of it was that if you do not pay them that well they will be corrupted. Holy Cow! What a fragile moral backbone these noble office holders are deemed to have

Then a few weeks ago, the PM gave on TV another reason which is even more fantastic. The gist of it was that the Ministers must be paid their astronomical sums because they will not have the opportunity to attract lucrative fees for talks and book royalties once their tenure ends. I thought to myself as soon as I heard this reasoning by the PM himself. Should the citizenry compensate these Parliamentarians for their mediocrity on the world stage?

The PAP obviously pamper themselves covertly and overtly, so much so that the PM must have heard this reasoning very often from the horses’ mouths and he may have just blurted out this inane syllogism without conscious thought. How else can I explain to myself how a well educated Cambridge Mathematician can justify a reward for being unexceptional; such a massive reward of millions of dollars per annum at that.

I have to record these two pieces of PAP reasoning for the basis of the Ministerial salaries so that the Salaries Committee does not use the same again on us. It may provoke mass insanity for which Woodbridge has no room.

By: doppelganger

doppelganger — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:09:38 +0000

By getting togeher a Committee of people who have links with the Government, the PAP is ensuring that the answer for Ministerial salaries will be biased towards them. In due course we will receive from the Committee an answer which is somewhat less but still topping the world average for similar Government officeholders, ostensibly debated in a predominantly PAP Parliament and stick the results down our throats and continue to enjoy millions upon millions per annum. This time around we the citizenry cannot voice our misgivings again because the PAP will claim that the matter having been decided by an ‘independent’ committee and thoroughly ‘debated’ is legal and payable without further harassment.

No country in this world links Parliamentarian’s pay to the top earners in the private sector, except the PAP in Singapore. If America were to link its senators’ pay to its top earners, they would have to be paid billions per annum. Same consideration applies to British Parliamentarians, Australian, German, French, Chinese, Japanese,Indian, Malaysian. Indonesian etc. This is because the top earners are in the billionare range.Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bernard Arnault, Lawrence Allison, Lakshmi Mittal, Amancio Ortega, Eike Batista, Mukesh Ambani, Christy Walton, Li Ka-Shing etc No country has its officeholders salaries even close to the top bankers, lawyers and other professionals in their country’s private sector. If the US for instance had done that, Obama’s remuneration would be in the billions too. This is because the largest enterprises are based in the US and their CEOs are typically paid in billions.

It is only in Singapore that this concept that the Parliamentarians pay should be some percentage of top earners in the private sector. The PAP led by Goh Chok Tong had the temerity to initiate this concept in 1994 because they found that Singaporeans are a cowardly and docile lot. A whiff of the ISD shakes their knees. The thought of libel and having to face compliant judges in Court sent everyone scattering to their own private concerns and shutting their mouths tight. So through our inaction and silence we allowed the Ministerial salary scheme to get out of hand and out of this world.It is time we bring some reality back into the aspirations of the PAP, as otherwise they will rob us in the broad daylight, by Committees and the much vaunted Rule of Law by which they swear.

The oppositon party which we voted into Parliament should speak out for us now or it will be too late. We do not want a compliant committee ( just like judges in Singapore) to decide the Ministerial salaries, We want the salaries to be decided by International Business Consultants appointed by each opposition party. Tell this to PMLee, NOW !!!

By: falcon

falcon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:32:14 +0000

our ministers have no hearts. they serve themselves and their associates first before serving singaporeans. why should they get a pay rise?

By: see no evil

see no evil — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:10:07 +0000

The evil in man comes in many forms.The simplest form is greed.

By: New Creation

New Creation — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:52:54 +0000

Who are the ones responsible for destroying the earth? Who are the ones who are ultimately responsible for destroying values? Who oppresses and who suppresses if not the ones who were given unimaginable financial power(BUYING POWER) to ENCOURAGE all of the above?
Once the people subscribe to First Adam free market system, they inevitably signed their rights and lives to fulfilling the greed and excesses of an ignoble class created.
But can the world balance the increasingly extremity between the rich and the poor? Do you seriously believe that there will be winners in such a large scale exploitative relationship?
If not, those who have led us there should yield their beasts on the altar, sacrificed(true sacrifices)for a sweet aroma to bring in the much needed rain!

We need to find a way to strike a healthy balance so that excesses can be brought down to FILL UP the recesses.Otherwise, the consuming culture will be liken to locusts ravaging the earth over and over again till it becomes barren and empty.

By: shoestring

shoestring — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:16:49 +0000

This issue about ministerial/administrative service salaries is very simple. Do we want to retain those individuals(not to mention pay them more) and allow them to come up with more policies that make our lives worse, and theirs better?

By: Lai CF

Lai CF — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:52:16 +0000

And from his Father “Why do we need to pay more” 1996 speech to 2007, more than a decade, the concept of NOBLESSE OBLIGE has yet to filter down to these noveaux riche.

The duty to serve the nation that is so ingrained in the Aristocracy, in exchange of granting absolute political power to them, to allow them to fucntion as the “rudder” to the Ship fo State, for the betterment of their vassals and serfdom.

And for all their proud boast of the Success of Elitism, I need only to point to Grace Quek.

When you are gifted, with all the advantages in life, well-bred, well-reared, good pedigree and a prodigy; then what make you think that some of those Selected One ‘Grace Quek” will not turned into an “Annabel Chong” for all the millions you throw at them?

By: pontificator

pontificator — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:29:13 +0000

if indeed the sages were right about the root cause of evil that lies in its servitude to money, then, shouldn’t there be a need for a new breed of much abler people to reverse the order of motivation? and if the sages were right that the greatest force on earth is love, shouldn’t the love and the respect of your fellowmen be your greatest reward you can receive, above all else, for serving the greatest good?
and if all the above are true, then, it is imperative that the leadership should not hanker for more than what’s necessary( in fact, fortune should be reversed) for the good of all so as to suppress a wicked motivation and conversely, nurture the spirit of love for humanity to create, not a first world nation but rather a first class people with heart and soul.
i wager that where the heart of the nation is, we shall find a treasure of people(stayers) that shall be a shining example of new life and experiences that will pave the way for a braver new world!