They are working doubly hard to pull Singapore through this downturn, so they deserve to get paid more, otherwise they may quit and we’ll lose these good men to the private sector, which will welcome them with open arms and pay them 5 times what they earn in the Cabinet! :P

You got it. Since the benchmark pay is with the top earners in the private sector.. if their salaries go down, so will our cabinet ministers.

Let’s watch the upcoming show.

Hahahaha…

People’s pay are going down and if those clowns, mimes and jugglers are rising their pay, it will certainly cause public dissatisfaction. Hopefully all their actions will wake fellow Singaporeans up from the trance that the PAP has instilled in them years ago

they should decrease their salary…

so citizen will at least think tat THEY STILL LOYAL TO SINGAPORE AND still have the heart to help US…

hai…but i don think they will…

Emperor Komenos ;D,

PAP instilled no trance. The people chose to follow a life of affluence and allowed the government their own free will. Only when times are bad did the people blame the government. It’s been like that in every country throughout history.

As long as the people’s needs are met, they let you do your thing, even if you go as far as accepting bribes. This action however, is unacceptable in Singapore. It’s acceptable in other countries though.

…

Thye have to Victor, don’t worry. They have no choice. As Tharman said it, budget deficit will balloon, and where do you think the most pay cuts will and ought to occur?

Hahaha..

How many of you will be happier if you have a PM that is Dr. Mahathir working free for Singapore for 22 years?

Andrew,

You forgot another scenario. Go ahead with the increment as planned but the PM says he will donate his increment to charity of his choice (such as PAP Community Foundation) so as to retain his moral authority (which is just absolute bullshit) to lead.

As far as I’m concerned, I expect them to take a pay cut now when at least 80% of Singaporeans are suffering with wage cut/stagnation, retrenchment, and high cost of living.

Otherwise, all this talk about asking company management to lead by example, take pay reduction and only resort to retrenchment after exploring all cost cutting measures will sound hollow.

If they still go ahead with any pay increment, employers will ask them to go fly a kite and will just retrench workers to protect their own profits. The govt will have absolutely no moral authority to ask them to do otherwise.

panter92, are you one of those grassroots activity people or the cadre?
you speak like….so…..ob…v…eos….

PM Lee explained that it was to give him “the moral standing to defend this policy with Singaporeans”

My foot.

why do you use Dr Mahathir? The usage of certain negative only examples smacks of the famous PAP tactics of using only negative examples to support their cases. Why don’t you use Gandhi or great American Presidents such as Washington?

don’t worry people. PAP government will tell you that when they raise salaries, its to keep in line with benchmarks and retain talent amidst turbulent times. They will tell you salaries for them will go up anyway, good or bad times. It’s not their fault, never. Its the global forces. Since its not their fault, let us not begrudge them the money they completely deserve. Remember, either you pay them or you lose them.

What do you say?

Temasek also gonna pay cut right? also may be cut staff right?

digress a bit :
I saw a sports type flashy Mercedes Benz with a number plate engraved with fine prints ‘Tema…k Holdings’ with car number that appear like normal numbering SG…. Trailing behind this car, you can see there is also a Crest logo pasted next to the right side of rear lighting. The amazing thing is this Mercedes has 2 large strips of sports stripes pasted across its roof. Very impressive and flashy car.

So, not sure anyone of you seen this car before. I fortunately have. What a flashy car! The person owning the car must be very enjoy.

They should go ahead with the increase, but why stop at 100% of the benchmark? Go ahead and make my day – make that 200% of the benchmark, and while they are at that, don’t forget to raise the GST, ERP, electricity tariffs, S&C charges. Companies should go ahead and retrench more people. Our women can then go to Indonesia and work as maids, while we the men can catch the first boat to Bangladesh and work as cleaners for their town councils.

forgot to mention : 2 or 4 exhaust pipes evenly distributed on the left and right. stylo man!

The freq and amt of increases as though there is no tomorrow.

“They should go ahead with the increase, but why stop at 100% of the benchmark? Go ahead and make my day – make that 200% of the benchmark, and while they are at that, don’t forget to raise the GST, ERP, electricity tariffs, S&C charges. Companies should go ahead and retrench more people. Our women can then go to Indonesia and work as maids, while we the men can catch the first boat to Bangladesh and work as cleaners for their town councils.”

why stop at 200%? why not open chequebook? take as much as you want.
how about income tax? =)

so you think MM Lee could be wrong about our women working as maids? You are dead wrong. MM Lee is forever right. If you find him wrong, you are wrong.

I think when people have got used to living-it-up for some time, they aren’t gonna kick that “wonderful” habit of theirs. Moreover, after losing millions in their “gambling” in toxic structured financial products “with their eyes wide open” and “their seasoned greedy hearts aspiring to be even richer than the rich”, they would want to have more handy and timely cash coming in to “cut loss” so to speak.

Those hardened greedy hearts and habitually arrogant characters would, I think, simply go ahead without even blinking an eye lid, political cost or not. They think they have got us by the balls and there is no significant opposition voices and movements that would be able to put them in trouble. They have the power, the muscles, the press and the grass-roots, as well as the law, behind them. Who would dare to rock the boat especially during a time of crisis?

Just watch and see whether I am right. I believe I wouldn’t be far off in this brief
assessment.

Last year, Singapore’s economy was doing very well.

This year’s economy was a surprise many did not forsee.

Ministers, like all others did not forsee the magnitude of the implication of the US credit crunch on the world economy.

I believe they would help Singaporeans tide over the hard times.

Ministers’ pays are always astronomical when compared to the lower-paid Singaporeans earning less than $2000 per month.

But when compared to top CEOs, top surgeons, top professionals, top lawyers, their pays may in fact be lower than them, in fact the Public Service Division has a method to benchmark the minister’s pays accordingly.

In my opinion, I believe Ministers do deserve the pay they are getting: just look at the many work they have to do as well as the importance of their work.

It is always an issue of comparion. This issue can extend to all matters of life besides pay.

I propose taking this opportunity to cut the pay of minister to $150,000 per year. If the minister not happy, he can go and find private job.I$150,000 is very gracious to them consider many ministers will become taxi-driver in coming bad times ! Citizens ask these ministar to support this initiative and assure them more good years !

The wayang has just began .Lets see more wayang coming lah…

There is no point saying so much on the blog.

I think just circulate on the internet and appeal to those that don’t agree with the pay hire come to Speaker Corner and join a silent protest. We see how many people will come. At the same time you can also find out how many people will vote for PAP in the next election.

No use saying so much here.

We Singaporeans have been tricked. While we have been “Staying Together”, they have been “Moving Ahead”.

As for the list of possibilities, I think it could be #3, i.e. postpone it indefinitely. This is the safest way out, no political gain nor loss, but it leaves them a way to enrich themselves later.

However, when they lose the two-third majority in parliament after the next GE like what happened in Malaysia, then it may not be so easy to up their pay again.

“But when compared to top CEOs, top surgeons, top professionals, top lawyers, their pays may in fact be lower than them, in fact the Public Service Division has a method to benchmark the minister’s pays accordingly.

Please la, tell us what risks these expensive clowns take ? In traditional private job, the higher the pay , the higher the risk and accountability, but our clowns are the higher the pay, the lower the risk with no accountability and responsibility! When things go wrong, just quote Caveat Emptor and ask the “little people” to take responsible. Without doing anything at all, how can these clowns be responsible and accountability to anything anyway ? What method ? PSD ? The same kangaroo division with conflict of interest to benchmark the pay of those clowns who in turn will keep the division alive ? What a joke !

RE : 19) Singapore Short Stories on November 22nd, 2008 12.03 am But when compared to top CEOs, top surgeons, top professionals, top lawyers, their pays may in fact be lower than them, in fact the Public Service Division has a method to benchmark the minister’s pays accordingly.

What absolute crap-

are our ministers of such superhuman abilities that they deserve to be paid several times what leaders of the US , Uk , Japan are paid? IS OUR ECONOMY 6 TIMES THAT OF THE USA ; do we have to help steer world politics or the world economy? This sense of self importance among our leaders is unbelieveable. If they think they can get more pay in the private sector , please go. Leave Singapore to the people who really care about it and not how fat their wallets are.

ya..,i agree with u..(21)

but i disagree with (19)

i don think tat singapore is V difficult to control..
as a good gov,,only need to control how to grow for sing economic,,and whether citizens have more in their pocket to buy thing..

BUt,,our gov,,,is not..they treated as they r a COE,instead of a gov..
all their world is just profit..

we did not tell them to set up T holding,,or either GIC..
am i correct..??

plus do u think sing pp is willing to live in NEW singapore,,compare to 1980s..??

their salary is so high..let compare to USA gov,,which CONTROL worLD market…
They did so much of work compare to sing..

hey,,when u guy become a gov pp…U will have the power…
and tat power is u can”T imagine..

NTUC is control by a gov pp..,,NTUC in wh–po is soo…..OVER..
GOV say canNOT put thing outside yr shop..,,BUT the NTUC hor,,PUTTING A LOT OF thing outside their shop…and it is TOO over…

DO this fair..?? still have a lot coffee shop also like tat…
mostly becos the owner have some relationship with ……
so…….THEY CAN…but U,,NO NO NO…
hahahahas…

DO u think they r genuies..?
maybe..
but they lost so much money ,,BUT it”S yours money..,singaporeans..

when they earn money.,,they said tat they R CLEVER..
but when they lose money.,,they said BECOS Of bad economic…
will not learn for their mistake…

be a minister,,is so good.,,carpark free,,car park girl also fear them,,not they fear car park girl lex…
hahas..

in the past..,,becos of WE BELIEVE ,,so we elected theem,,not becos of clever or others..

hai..
think ba.. :)

Can we just outsource our ministars…since the local minister are so expensive to maintain..lets go for cheaper better foreign alternative

Its definately a no-no go for the increase of these bums’ salaries, if singaporeans just keep quiet and allows them to screw you people through and through, then be prepared to see the nation collapsing even faster during this worst global crisis which is already taking effect on us all now. They screwed us up time and again and with so many $billions of our taxpayers monies already down the drain and God knows how much more which are still in the dark which they refused to disclose, and also all our trapped cpf monies for them to draw as much as they wish, do we think we should allow this can go on any further? its suicidal! do you people want to see more and more of your folks resorting to selling tissues and picking empty carton boxes in the street, or do you singaporeans want to continue letting these idiots to distroy your future just to keep them in power? 50 years is a very long time, enough is enough!

Civil service salaries may be revised

Those in senior positions may be affected by slowed economic growth

Friday � October 24, 2008

The Public Service Division (PSD) may revise civil service salaries in light of the turmoil in the financial markets and lower growth forecasts for Singapore, the first Asian economy to slip into a technical recession.

In response to media queries, the PSD said it is compiling salary data in the private sector and “will need some time” to study the salary trends before coming to a decision.

Regardless, annual pay for senior civil servants and Government leaders will be affected by the slower growth this year, which is now projected to be three per cent.

A “significant” part of their annual pay is linked to the GDP growth rate and structured as a GDP bonus, said the PSD, which comes under the Prime Minister’s Office.

The norm payment for Senior Permanent Secretaries and Ministers is set on a linear scale with zero bonus if the economy grows by two per cent or less and an eight-month bonus if the economy grows by at least 10 per cent.

The GDP bonus formed close to 20 per cent of the typical annual salary last year of these senior public officials, based on the annual growth of 7.7 per cent and after civil service salaries were revised.

A third and final phase of the salary revisions is scheduled to take effect by the end of this year, to bring the salaries of this group to 88 per cent of the benchmark pegged to the private sector.

The PSD noted yesterday that civil service salaries are “reviewed and revised regularly” to keep in line with the private sector.

Other countries, too, have reviewed civil service salaries in light of the economic situation. Earlier this month, Ireland unveiled budget plans that include a 10-per cent pay cut for government ministers and senior civil servants. Ireland was the first eurozone country to fall into a recession.

This is hilarious.
Reading through all the comments, I actually found it hard to distinguish who is serious and who is being sacastic.

I’ll definitely be looking to increase the wages of Temasek management team as well as GIC for their sterling performance in buying high value banks like Citi. Of course, not discounting paper losses of 40 billion, which is only temporary (let’s move on people, long term!).

31) laserpointer on November 22nd, 2008 2.00 am I’ll definitely be looking to increase the wages of Temasek management team as well as GIC for their sterling performance in buying high value banks like Citi. Of course, not discounting paper losses of 40 billion, which is only temporary (let’s move on people, long term!).

40billions losses???
waiting for someone to appear and say that singapore is going to face bankruptcy but don’t worry, its only a technically bankruptcy, paper lost! we have alot of things that are made of paper in singapore these days.

Panter92 (#6),

Before you go on ranting on your view, I would like to point out an excellent read “Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent” to you. Propaganda to democracy is what violence is to dictatorship.

Knowing our government, it will definitely go through with the pay increment.

Several firsts for our country’s governance:

1. Highest paid PM and cabinet in the free modern world. All the PM, SM, MM received more than $2 million in annual salaries excluding perks.

2. Highest no of MPs belonging to a single democratic party sitting in Parliament in the world (95%) when they garnered only 65% votes during election. Also only democratic country in the world that allows MPs to be elected without any election campaigning due to walkover from GRC.

3. Formation of first GRCs in a democratic political system so that new MPs can be elected through the backdoor of a strong team of ministers. They will thus have a job after resigning from their commercial work.

4. Only democratic country in the world that has a father-son-wife team together helming the country’s top few positions

5. Higest paid MPs in the world – $13,000 a month excluding perks.

6. Highest amount of conservancy fees to be accumulated from the public totalling $2 billion and still counting.

7. Highest amount of press control through the national paper ST.

8. One of the longest democratic political party in governace since inception – 43 years

9. One of the worse opposition politics in the world after 43 years in a democratic country – 2 seats currently representing less than 5% of the whole Parliament seats.

10. One of the most politically apathetic modern developed country in the world.

The list goes on but I stopped at no 10 here but anyone can continue from the list if the want to.

Gilbert Goh Keow Wah,
you forget about salary of additional roles held by MM, SM .
MM is the special advisor for Citigroup .
http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/press/2006/060905c.htm
Guess how much Citigroup pay MM ? Will you believe LKY will work for free for Citigroup ? Now you begin to see the conflict of interest ? Didn’t we invest billions into Citigroup as well ?

SM is the chairman of MAS , and did he get extra pay as chairman beside as Senior Minister ? Remember the gov ALWAYS NO FREE LUNCH especially we are talking about million dollar lunch !

Now are we surprise that the clowns cannot dedicate themselve to playing more effective roles since they have other money-making duty to perform ?

Oh… I yet to even talk about ministers who hold position in GLC’s money-making position. No wonder these clowns don’t have time to care about citizens and lost touch with the ground anymore. MOney more important !\

Lim Swee Say is going to feel even richer.

Well – it is at least clear that the fiscal help in cash govt is proposing to dish out next year is a help whatever small quantum it may be. The “appeasement ” is needed not only because of the economic crisis, but to mitigate president, ministers, etc continued enjoyment of the incredibly high salaries ( no choice – otherwise there may not be even a team) and the lacklustre performance to date.

The bigger picture into the political landscape and performance is clear – the govt policy makers are not up to the mark ; just by this year and current performance, overall team rating cannot be satisfactory by PM’s standards and he must know it it by now. What are people’s good memories of this year ?
The only policies -good news for the citizens and they are long overdue are the coming 4th university and the organ transplant changes – kudos to KBW and NEH ( actually Tony Tan & Gan/Lui during Tharman’s watch)
It is time for change and to lead by examples – let us see if sincerity is really there and the best thing the cabinent can do to win back the enthusiam and confidence of the people is to acknowledge their below par performance and lead in action by volunteering a 25% paycut in their salaries (Temasek’s paycut may be necessary to help their bottom line next year – here for the politicians there is no bottom line apparently).

18) Tom on November 21st, 2008 11.57 pm

“Last year, Singapore’s economy was doing very well.”

Does anyone have any information to show that last years growth was directedly a result of good government policies or is it simply a good year for everybody. You know, a mediocre CEO can take over a successful business and it will still do well for a few years before the cracks start to show. Look at Lehman Brothers.

Secondly, it was a bubble. Even an economics idiot like me felt that it was going to burst sooner or later. I remembered having this conversation with my bro-in-law in 2007 about property prices, and that it will collapse in 2009. But then again, on hindsight everyone is a prophet.

“This year’s economy was a surprise many did not forsee.”

That is untrue. Paul Krugman had been warning of the crisis for quite some time. But i’m sure everyone prefers Alan Greenspan then because everyone loves to hear good things more than bad.

“Ministers, like all others did not forsee the magnitude of the implication of the US credit crunch on the world economy.”

So therefore it doesn’t absolve them from responsibility. When you make policies, you are RESPONSIBLE for their effects whether good or bad. You cannot claim credit for the good things, and say it’s unforseen for the bad ones.

Anyone who has run an organisation knows that EVERY DECISION he/she makes has a direct impact on the organisation and its people. Responsible people TAKE responsibilities. Irresponsible people make excuses.

“I believe they would help Singaporeans tide over the hard times.”

I think it’s time we change the mentality of reliance. As gemani said before, when we always look to the government to do something for us, we hand over power to them. (there is of course a difference between that, and pressuring the government to do the right thing for the people) It gets tiring to hear so many people say ‘i believe they would help us’ as if a) they are helpful people, and b) they really don’t have to do this, so we should be grateful.

Truth is, it is THEIR JOB.

We forgot that the power is in our hands.

The TRUTH is the MAJORITY , which is the majority of people Who Got the Chance to vote,

voted for them and does this not
mean they support their level of pay
which is the Highest in the WORLD for
politicians?

Singaporeans must all think about this.

Btw, where is mas selamat kastari, the escaped TERRORIST who escaped from the high security detention center of singapore who upto now, for no no how long already have not been found?

Any clue at all that he is still in singapore?
Any clue at all that he is NOT in singapore?

#19, PLEASE dun compare with private sector! If you think you need this type of pay go to private sector…u must hv the mind set to serve the nation, the ppl. Anyway, the kind of pay they are getting nw is way above the sky. n they are not held responsible like those CEO or top exec in private, eg mas selamat case and the mini bond etc. N compare to economy I doubt our economy is bigger than US, Japan, UK etc. If you are talking about corruption, no matter hw much one is pay they will still “eat” $, is the personality. There are ppl in the top civil servant services being charge too…there are case where MPs also kana charged.

I really hope those MPs out to serve the ppl and hear the ppl.

I have given up trying to size the outrageous salaries the ministers are paying themselves. Is it six figures, seven figures, eight figures or nine figures? Is it 5 times the salary of George Bush or ten times, if you include the still more outrageous performance bonuses which they have not factored into their basic salaries?
Is one single minister in Singapore really worth three times the total sum of all the eight heads of state of the world’s eight largest economies?
It is beyond comprehension that the salary of one single minister in just one year is equivalent to the amount an average person can earn in two hundred years. It is beyond any conventional logic that a minister while still in office can at the same time draw a pension equivalent to the last drawn salary of his previous position as the same minister doing exactly the same job.
(For every two past parliamentary terms as minister on the same job, the present minister gets one additional pension).
Most of all, it is beyond comprehension how the minister is going to spend all these legally-but-not-morally-gotten wealth in Singapore. Where do they stash all this money?

Another issue…the government should not run the country like a company! At least they should protect the ppl by protecting the basic need of their ppl…like electricity, water, public transport etc. Not sell everythings to 3rd party to made $ and like them increase watever prices they like.

Sometime I quite worry wat might happen if there one day the Lees family is out of the parliment…definately more things will cum out from theri family and wat will happen. Maybe our ppl will be F…shock? Or before this things can happen the army will be call upon?

Here are the possibilities, with my own rating for the most probable:

I am impressed by Andrew’s logical predictions:

”
1. Go ahead with it. There is no political opposition strong enough to capitalise on it. Tell the people that in this time of difficulty we need to attract talented people even more. Thus, the need to increase salaries. This is probable especially if the budget in January is a generous one. (Strong probability) ”

Yes, this is just a prediction and nothing more.
With time, there could be more candidates step forward to compete especially as the economic meltdown affects more people. and this economic downturn has no where in sight. 1 thing for sure, the Alternative scene remains status quo. No strong threat yet.

So, it may be wise to do it before the bottom or full entire complete impact is felt. Whoever wins , either a town or a GRC or the whole majority, they have 5 years to try for more good years. And they can do what they wanted to do. I mean do good good lah. what else. ;)

paiseh….typo : 1st line is also quoted….ignore. thanks.

I think this sounds very much like legalising corruption to be un-corrupted. This is the problem when too little oppositions are in the parliment.

But how many Singaporeans will remember this in 2012? haha…

(7) and (11)

I think (11) has a good point.

The PAP’s strategy has always been to compare Singapore’s economic success and leadership vis-a-vis less than “world class” governments. This is skewed reasoning. Although we are in a Asian situation, we cannot continue to compare ourselves to our neighbours if we are to truly move on to a First World mentality.

Our government leaders may have First World resources but only Third World mentalities. It is outrageous how they can continue to be so smug in justifying further pay increases when they broke the glass ceiling long ago. Not only did they break it; they practically smashed way past it.

Besides the extorbitant salary, do we need so many Mnisters. Since we they love to compare themselves to private sector, they also follow them and run a lean ship(as DBS said). Why do we need so many old /ex PMs around. Many see them as redundant and some as plain deadwood. Do we need so many MPs. Bukit Batok team has proven they can still operate effectively with one less. So I am sure the rest can too. Its time to run a lean government ship as well.

actually guys, you are ALL mistaken about our ministers. They actually think for our country when they raise they own pay. How so?

When they raise their pay, they will pay more income tax. More income tax means more money for government’s coffers, money that can be spent on us Singaporeans. So therefore they are caring and far-sighted and we must be thankful.

Imagine if they pay themselves just 10k a month. How much LESS income tax would they be paying? Singapore will lose out, not only on these hugely out-of-the-world talented people and income tax gains from them.

In essence, BE GRATEFUL GUYS.

“If the ministers didn’t get a pay raise, then I’ll worry”

NOTE (1): Even if senior civil servants salary were to be cut, the money is still in their coffer and they have to find way to spend it.

Every year, each ministry is given a burgeoning amount of money to the tune of hundred of millions to a handful of billions to spend.

The ministry have to find a way to burn up these money or else they may be getting less the next budget year.

Unless ministry are given less budget give each year and the money saved is channeled back to the population at large, there is little effect of senior CV getting a pay cut or lowering bonuses.

NOTE (2): I hope the government is not ramming up the GDP so as to secure fat bonuses when the effect is not filtered to the general population.

Big MNCs that were given big perks by the government setting up shop to produce high end products like pharmaceutical and ramming up GDP does little benefit to the general population.

These set-up require few labours to run the business but can push up GDP but it does little help to the general population. And the sales figure of these firms fluctuate a lot as it happen now.

For a country that’s at least 2 times smaller than the district of Johor Bahru, it’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. 84 MPs to oversee Singapore, simply amazing. That’s why our Govt is super-efficient. They

1. send you GIRO tax plan BEFORE you submit your tax returns on Apr 1st.
2. dream up EVS prepayment scheme for electricity
3. tweak ERPs more often than they clean your HDB blocks
4. dream up CPF Life so that you can feel rich for life, but is never really rich
5. start a Happy Toilet campaign while retrenched people scramble to become toilet cleaners

84 MPs, one Mas Selamat – Singapore 0, Mas Selamat 1

#50

hahah…I dun mind they pay me this kind of pay n i will let them 5% more on top of the usual income tax..

No. 50 Me “Imagine if they pay themselves just 10k a month. How much LESS income tax would they be paying? Singapore will lose out, not only on these hugely out-of-the-world talented people and income tax gains from them.

In essence, BE GRATEFUL GUYS.”

I would be grateful if they join the private sector, use their talents to help businesses grow, so that more Singaporeans can be gainfully employed. Since they can earn much more in the private sector, they will be paying more tax, just as well.

As for the Govt, let people of integrity and with a passion to serve come forward.

Basic Pay will definitely not be cut, instead it will be raised to keep up the benchmark. However, the GDP bonus will disappear for 1 year but increase in the future years. This KPI indicator is a farce, the threshold is set too low and it is not in the control of Singapore government. This is definitely not pay for performance. A better indicator should be the average pay rise for the 10 to 60% percentile of employed Singaporeans.

No. 56 cy “A better indicator should be the average pay rise for the 10 to 60% percentile of employed Singaporeans.”

Yes, I second that. The GDP is skewed at best, can be manipulated easily and doesn’t translate to actual benefits for the majority. KPIs should be measured directly off the people of Singapore, on a per capita basis.

We all are aware that our mnisters are the highest paid in the world. Our President through no fault of his own is the highest paid in the entire world. Maybe he should be sent over to America to help Obama.

One wonders whether the world knows how talented our ministers are and the huge salaries that they are paid. Americans will be amazed to know all this. Singapore should offer our ministers to america to help them over this crisis that they are at the moment in. Our SMM and SM should volunteer their expertise to the world at large.

Tell the world what they have been doing wrong and what we in singapore have done right to such an extent that we will be able to pay all our ministers pay increases at the expense of the people.

The Workers’ Party Mr Low Thia Khiang has suggested that ministers’ salary be tied to the bottom 20% of Singaporeans. Specifically, he recommended that ministers’ pay be 100 times those of the average bottom 20%.

No. 59 “The Workers’ Party Mr Low Thia Khiang has suggested that ministers’ salary be tied to the bottom 20% of Singaporeans. Specifically, he recommended that ministers’ pay be 100 times those of the average bottom 20%”

That’s the ultimate & yes, I support that. If the bottom 20% improves, that means that have really done an excellent job as leaders of a nation of people at all levels.

They will take a pay cut. They have no choice. We should see to it.

andrew low,
i doubt the govt will increase their pay.
otherwise, many people would have lost hopes in our govt.

The PAP govern is worst than Taiwan former president Tan S B. Tan took money from the rich men and big companys.The PAP govern squeezes money from all singapooreans regardless whether you are jobless or low pay workers.

10 CRUCIAL Citizens’ Wishes with effect 2009.

1. Ministers’ pay to be cut by 50%. Other senior office holders’ pay to be cut by 20%.

2. Ministers’ pension benefits to be eradicated immediately.

3. MPs must serve as fulltime civil servants. Part-time MPs are purely cosmetics and a waste of tax dollars.

4. ERADICATE GRCs totally. It is the most manipulative method of securing MP seats besides redrawing electoral boundaries.

5. Make MPs legally accountable for their respective town councils’ fund. Annual reports must be made public after vetting by established accounting firms.

6. Singaporeans should be employed directly by town councils and must be accorded priority in estate maintenance jobs through better pays and benefits. This helps to absorb the low or unskilled workforce, increases employment opportunities, etc.

7. Laws protecting ministers from investigations MUST be eradicated. No one is above the law and is subject to the same legal course as any citiizen.

8. The army, police and the judiciary MUST UPHELD impartial law and order devoid of any influence by anybody, political party, etc.

9. Journalists MUST UPHELD their responsibilities – unbiased, fair, balanced, unskewed and in-depth journalism. News publishing company should BE DEVOID of political ownership.

10. Every eligible Singaporean MUST have a chance to vote during a general election. The results will be a true measure of support for parties, policies and direction for the country.

Dream on, Harrison.

The truth is, we do not care how much these people earn as long as they do a good job. But are they doing a good job? it is callous that Singaporeans are asked to bite the bullet while the government officials enjoy fat perks and bonuses. Even the private sector management are taking pay cuts (see Straits Times yesterday) to boost morale (and morality?). But remember the party is called People’s Action party, that means if people don’t take action, these folks are going to continue to party at your expense!

Perhaps they will take a pay cut of between 15 – 25%, taking the cue from Temasak Holdings.

to quote Harrison:
‘8. The army, police and the judiciary MUST UPHELD impartial law and order devoid of any influence by anybody, political party, etc’.

I wonder how the Singapore Armed Forces and Police Force could be independent of the Ruler of the Country.

patriot

I agree that their salary benchmark should be peck somehow to the salary of the bottom 10%. Only in such a way will their interest is aligned to the people of Singaporean.

The current benckmark is only tied the top earners of 8 professions which include doctors, lawyers, accountants and bankers. Whether in good times or bad, there will always be people in this group who will make bigger bucks than the previous year while the bottom 10% will see their wages cut.

In addition, their bonuses should not be just tied to GDP growth. Their bonuses should also be tied to the unemployment figures of Singaporeans (must exclude PRs and foreigners).

I propose the following :

1. 20% of the salary cap be tied to the existing benchmark
2. 80% of the salary cap be tied to the salary of the bottom 10th percentile of Singaporeans at 50 times that salary.

This 2 benchmarks will determine the maximum salary for the year.

3. Their salary be divided into 2 components, 60% of maximum salary as fixed component and 40% as variable component or bonuses

4. 50% of their bonuses be tied to GDP like existing scheme
5. 50% of their bonuses be tied to unemployment of Singaporeans

We must have a pay scale for our political leaders and senior civil servants that is aligned with the interest of the people of SIngapore and not just benchmark against the top earners in Singapore.

I think this is a tough topic as it concerns money – a person’s worth is tied to it.

Many ministers I know sacrificed many millions to join the cabinet. For example, Minister Ng Eng Hen was a top surgeon and earned close to $10 million yearly. Now as Manpower Minister, he probably earned around $2 million all in.

SO truly there are some that sacrificed to join public service for reasons best known to themselves. The recent Law Minister is also a top laywer but sacrificed a few millions to helm the law ministry.

Some may truly join the cabinet to serve or do something fruitful for the country. One can be a lawyer anytime but there is only one portfolio to be a law minister at any one time.

I am also against the sky high salary of our cabinet. It diluted the part about sacrificing yourself for country. However, people like Minister Ng earned my respect as they truly work hard and sacrificed alot to come in and serve.

There is no yardstick to measure on how much to pay our cabinet. What is a good measure? Is $1 million each enough per minister? Is the way we peg ourselves to the top 5 professions reasonable?

I think one of the main reasons for LKY to introduce the high salary range for our cabinet is that firstly there is a shortage of people who are willing and capable to join the team. So once you spotted someone suitable you don’t want to compromise the part about giving him a relevant package so that he does not lose too much when he jumps ship. He has less one consideration to contemplate when he is invited to join.

Secondly, it helps to remove the corruption factor. This is a smart move as if the cabinet is corrupt due to a low salary package, the country is being subjected to alot of fraud and malpractices.

Nevertheless, I am still not in agreement with our sky high salary package. The Australian PM here earns not more than $500,000 a year excluding perks. He has a 20 million population and well over a million kilometre of terrain under him.

He also has to deal with a partisan shadow opposition who will give him hell so that he will need to stay on his toes all the time.

However, finally, the worse blow of all is that we have no say on how much they can pay themselves. The worse form of democracy is no democracy at all. It is a monopoly of power shrouded under the mist of democracy.

Unless, we vote in another alternate political power strong enough to act as a check against the ruling party, they can even pay themselevs as much as $5 million a year and we can’t do anything about it.

I don’t think there’s a problem paying whatever salary those ministers demand,

BUT MAKE SURE THEY COME WITH A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

I suppose the issue is less to do with salary, than the fact that the salary is determined by the ruling party themselves. I wonder why they never let the citizens decide it for them. I think Singaporeans are by and large reasonable people. Hell, if the ministers ask nicely, we might all agree to give them more even!

What I can’t stand is that while all our cookies are in the same jar, the ministers insist because they work the hardest, to stick their grubby hands into the cookie jar and decide for themselves how much they are worth.

I mean, think about it for a moment, the difference between us Singaporeans telling our foreign visitors proudly, “we pay our leaders well because they did a good job” and us telling the same visitors in embarassment, “our leaders pay themselves well because they think they did a good job.”

Hi Gilbert Goh;

there are indeed people who join the Cabinet and lose out in income. Other than those You mentioned, there are few others co-opted in that suffer similar ‘income losses’. BUT to respect them for the so-called monetary losses is to miss the Essence of the Issue of political offices.

A politician should only be respected for his/her understandings of their people states of wellbeing and the security of the Country they ruled. I would rather have those lecturers in Sociology, Political Sciences, Human Relations and other people related professionals coming into politics by ways of voluntary participations or co-opted.

Hope You realized that those handpicked into the PAP Cabinet are likely diehard party members or supporters that are loyal and devoted only to PAP the Party and not the Citizenry at large. AND THIS IS A (THE) PROBLEM. What the people wish for in a politician is one that swore allegiance to the people not to a party or other superior cabinet members.

Btw, equating remunerations(incomes) for different jobs is itself murky business. What if a patient is willing to pay a doctor 10 million US Dollars thinking that the doctor has saved his life and the whole process of healing took only six month(hypothetical). Please do not forget that within that six months, the doctor got paid anothe few millions b other patients. Note here that the doctor is doing a totally different duty.

As it is, I feel that Singapore is already plagued by blind loyalty and hero worshippings, especially to some of those Senior PAP Party Members. I will state here as I have done elsewhere many times, that the Independence of Singapore was a given as the British Empire was not able to hold on to their colonies anymore. Before Singapore, India and Malaysia were given independence, none of these three countries had to fight for their independences. India had a little wrangling with the Colonial Master, but Singapore was assured protection by the Colonial Master who roped in other nations(Anzuk Forces) to help.

Singapore, as it is today and based on the opinions in the Socio-political Blogs and the coffee shop talks, is a much less happy country than the 50s and 60s. And it is simply because the people and the Local Ruler are not seeing eyes to eyes on top of the many divides resulting from policy implementations, especially in the last two decades or so.

patriot

Telling one who does not know what greed and shame are is like performing piano recitals to cows or akin to having ducklings listening to the roars of thunder- but then some breeds like to cow or quack about…………..but, at times, deafening quiet when situation(s) calls for.

Bloody #%@^, pay rise in Jan still not enough? Haven’t sucked the people dry, have you?

Good times – raise pay
Doom times – pay remains constant

This is so similar to:
Oil price rise – increase transport / electricity
Oil price decrease – transport / electricity remains constant

Everyone do your part to decrease expenditure – since our voting rights aren’t very existent anymore.

guys, like i said, appreciate them or they will disappear. you don’t want your wifes to become maids, and you go clean toilets do you?

they will remind you again that their pay has nothing to do with the economy, whether they get 1 million or 10 million or not will not improve your lives, and that Singaporeans are just stupid and jealous because decreasing their pay or not will have no effect on anything, so why not just shut up, let them enjoy their pay and let them feel richer every month?

After reading so many comments here, I now understand WHY the garment needs so many MPs and still needing more to come, its not about work load nor about talents actually, they are recruited not to protect the country, they are here to protect the ruling party to cast votes for them, indeed a very clever move!

We should ask our ministers to make yearly declaration of their wealth! Why is it not done here when such declaration of wealth is done in Thailand?

77) pumpkin on November 23rd, 2008 12.08 am We should ask our ministers to make yearly declaration of their wealth! Why is it not done here when such declaration of wealth is done in Thailand?

They can’t and someone will not allow that to happen to protect himself from being investigated resulting in many more to surface later.

These blood suckers deserved high pay cos they need to spend all these money for future longer term hospitalisation fee. So i agreed with them that they need the next pay hike.

what can you expect from a one party rule ? Spore at this phase must have at least 2 parties to do check and balance, ministers pay themselves so sky high now with taxpayer money are a sin when yo see so many poor people are struggling to meet ends meet.
Spore moving this way by a few self-interest leaders is sadly a sure way to go down hill as a nation.

u should allow them their par increase as this was planned in the past. whats happened now is just bad timing. dun begrudge your beloved ministers their increase. they are counting on it to pay their investments and mortgages etc……
sorry for the poor singaporeans who have to suffer. after all this is an elitist society and we have no sympathy or place for others…………. :P

This thing of paying our ministers top private sector salaries is simply crapshit. Most (if not all) our ministers would not even draw half of their present salaries if they were in the private sector AFTER we stripped them of all their political connections.

Government and citizens of the world want CEO pay to be cut.

Shouldn’t ministerial pay pegged to private sector pay take a leaf from the lessons of the economic crisis?

Singapore is really a yoke. Whole world know we pay millions & millions to JOKERS who self-claim they are the 1st class leader, yet they lose BILLIONS to foreigners.

3rd pay hike for minister? f*ck the hell PAP … you really think you can do whatever you like? People are losing job and some even need to struggle for daily meals, yet you want PAY HIKES?

[...] Ministars, Get Rich r Die Tryin – TOC: Third ministers’ pay hike in two years – Staying together or moving ahead? – Feed Me To The Fish: Grandstanding or just sitting on their buttocks? – Everyday’s Life in [...]

The Pupy ministers and mps tot that they are 1st class leaders and dreaming of pay hike, my foot if they are dumped and out of favourite by the old lee king he will be like the former minister who is now working for an Indon corp and getting less than 10% of what he was paid as a minister.

The people are already suffering like mad and these scoundrels are all in to rob the citizens big this time, knowing that their party is going to lose badly soon.

They have just announced that thanks to their poor performance in the only KPI that counts in the system they created – GDP, they will “only get” a three month bonus while the rest of the civil service gets a one month bonus. Then they have the cheek to call that a pay cut!!!

Wow!!! Amazing chutzpah!!

If on the eve of polling day, they decided to do something like cash handouts, rebates here and there, tax breaks etc, assuming the economy still in the gloom..They are going to win it big time. For the simple reasons..

1) People are have goldfish memory when it comes to minding money and neccessities. People forgets when money dangles in front of them in times of need..
carrot + donkey = run faster

2) The salary hike will happen but so does civil service pay. Civil servants will enjoy increment and variable bonus +++.
Again..carrot+ donkey = run faster..

3) The earlier budget announcement is to douse the people’s notion that the government doesn’t care. The budget aims to also to silence mismanagement of town council funds, gastronomic spending on overseas investments and also the fallout of structured products. With projected lower GDP and higher inflation plus rising deficit, another sure thing is financial assistance and more cash to be given out..
donkey + more carrots = well fed, sleepy donkey

4) Singaporeans don’t need freedom of speech or basically human whatever rights we just want our problems to be settled by our government..and after more than 50 years of rule..I think they can read exactly how to keep majority submissive and satisfied.

smart master + well fed sleepy donkey = more hard work tomorrow for donkey

Absolutely lost all respect and decency for all of them.
Singaporeans really have short memories. There was strong opposition when they started this madness of high salaries. They basically shot themsleves in the foot and lost face.

aiyoyo

pay hike?

what’s the economy outlook like for 2009?

The standard of singapore medical clinics is very good now. But of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion.