Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor
On 9 April 2007, Minister in Charge of the Civil Service, Mr Teo Chee Hean, announced a three-step formula to revise salaries in the public sector to bring them in line with the private sector. (link) Specifically, ministers and senior civil servants’ salaries would be brought to 88 per cent of the benchmark by the end of 2008.
The first two revisions have already taken place – on 1 April 2007 and on Jan 2008. Salaries are now at 77 per cent of the benchmark.
The second revision saw such a huge outcry that PM Lee had to announce he will donate his increases to charity. (link) This was seen as a move to assuage unhappiness on the ground. PM Lee explained that it was to give him “the moral standing to defend this policy with Singaporeans”. (link) But Mr Teo said that “it is wrong to think that a bigger pay would undermine the moral authority of the government.” (CNA)
What is more important is what Mr Teo himself said, when he defended the pay hikes in April 2007:
I’ve been asked whether this is a good time to make such salary adjustments. But, actually the point is that such salary adjustments must be done in good times. Otherwise, we’ll end up with problems in the public service. (Emphasis mine) (CNA)
Well, times are not so good now. In fact, it will be rather bad, according to all predictions, forecasts and projections – including the Government’s own.
So, will the Government go ahead with the third hike which, according to Mr Teo, will take place by the end of this year?
One suspects that when the Government first decided that they would have the three-step increase, it probably thought that the economy would be robust in 2007 and 2008 – and beyond. This was on the back of the three years of economic recovery prior to 2007. Indeed, in July 2007, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew himself said Singapore was in a “golden period”. “If there are no wars or oil crises,” he said, “this golden period can stretch out over many years.” (MFA)
Seen in this context, the Government probably thought that they would be able to carry the ground on the salary hike issue. As long as the economy continued to hum along, Singaporeans would not be too bothered about high salaries for our ministers.
But politics is a funny thing – and not all forecasts and predictions, even by wise old men and a “special”, “unique” and “exceptional” government (link), come true accordingly.
2008, especially, turned out to be a roller-coaster ride for the Government, which was caught off-guard by many issues which now threaten to cost it some political capital.
After ministers got their second pay hike in Jan 08, the very next month, in February, Mas Selamat Kastari escaped through a toilet window in a detention centre. It became, quite easily, the biggest news (some would say the biggest joke) of the year.
After 10 months, he is still at large and the Government continues to believe that he is still in Singapore even as they tell the public that they have no proof of it.
In April 2008, inflation in Singapore reached a 26-year high of 7.5 per cent. (link) The Government, clearly, was caught off guard by this. (See here: Inflation projections – a moving target.) Singaporeans experienced a spiralling rising cost of living, especially in areas such as transport, food and healthcare. Retrenchments have started – first with DBS and then with NOL.
The latest revelation that town councils have lost money in investing in structured products have also received angry reaction from residents. All these taken together with other gaffes such as the Lee Bee Wah/STTA saga, contentious issues such as compensating organ donors, and the predicament of Las Vegas Sands’ Integrated Resort.
In a nutshell, the ground is not sweet.
For the Government to push ahead with a third pay hike for its ministers will require the expenditure of more political capital – especially when an early election is on the cards, despite what the Government may say about it.
2009 will mark the PAP’s 50th anniversary. One can be sure that if an election is held then, the PAP would do everything it can to win convincingly – whether it is through pork-barrel methods of giving out cash on the eve of polling day, as they did in the last elections, or through the same tried and tested character assassination of opposition members tactics adopted in past elections. Nothing will be allowed to mar the party’s half century milestone of existence, you can be sure.
And this is where we may speculate about what the Government might do vis a vis ministerial salaries. They will have to take into account any political fall-out from giving themselves an even bigger pay cheque.
Here are the possibilities, with my own rating for the most probable:
- 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)
- Go ahead with it but with smaller increases than planned. (Probable)
- Postpone it and say “we are standing with Singaporeans during this time of recession.” (Unlikely)
- Postpone it and ministers take a pay cut at the same time – to show solidarity with Singaporeans. (Unlikely)
- Third hike cancelled or abolished. (Definitely unlilkely)
In its 2006 General Elections, the PAP’s manifesto was “Staying Together, Moving Ahead”. Two years after that election, it will be interesting to see how the PAP Government live up to that declaration – especially at a time when it would, in most people’s eyes, be wise to indeed stay together with Singaporeans. Or will ministers be “moving ahead” while Singaporeans lose their jobs by the thousands come the new year? A clue about whether the Government will indeed increase ministers’ salaries will be to watch if there are any increase for the President’s pay in the coming weeks.
By the way, the PAP came into power in the elections in May, 1959. 50 years on, I am sure it is tempting for them to want to hold the next elections to coincide with that anniversary – especially when Mr Lee Kuan Yew is still around.
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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.