by Andrew Loh
Pay us or your women will become maids!
Andrew Loh
After dishing out the goodies to Singaporeans, ministers are rewarding themselves with the biggest goody of all.
“Mr Teo yesterday revealed that because of the ‘exceptionally high’ growth in gross domestic product (GDP) last year, senior officials, including ministers, will receive the maximum GDP-linked bonus, which ‘accounts for a maximum of about ¼ of the annual salary of senior officers, or eight months’.”
– Straits Times, 3 March 2011, reporting the announcement by Minister in charge of the Civil Service and Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Teo Chee Hean, of a bigger pay packet for “top public servants” this year.
Whenever salaries of ministers are “revised” upwards, criticisms of this flow thick and fast. This happened in 2007 as well, when salaries for ministers were raised by some 60 per cent. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew lambasted Singaporeans for criticizing the increase then:
“I say you have no sense of proportion; you don’t know what life is about. The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative, and you’ll never put Singapore together again.” (New York Times)
“Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday… that it is “absurd” for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warned that Singapore would suffer if the government could not pay competitive salaries.
“Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people’s countries,” he said. (CNN)
Well, that’s MM Lee – who lives in the “real world”. Or so he claims. (Reuters)
Whatever the PAP Government’s reasons for rewarding itself a eight-month bonus this time, it is an excessive amount, by any measure. How the Government arrived at this figure of eight months has never been explained. It seems almost an arbitrary number plucked out of thin air.
The justification Mr Teo gives for this latest revision is simply because the GDP is expected to grow 14.5 per cent this year – which, according to the formula for salaries, merits a bonus of eight months since GDP growth exceeds the threshold 10 per cent.
How much have salaries for ministers increased since 1994, when the formula for pegging ministers’ pay to the private sector was first mooted? In 1994, the Prime Minister’s salary was S$1.15 million. Currently, his salary is S$3.76 million – an increase of about S$2.6 million in 16 years.
It is unclear if the PM gets rewarded with a GDP Bonus but his ministers do.
8 months bonuses – justified?
I think Singaporeans will recall the many failings of some ministers these past few years – including the Prime Minister himself.
Lets look at some of these individual ministers and their failings and consider if these ministers deserve an eight-month bonus.
DPM Wong Kan Seng
His failures are epic. The almost comical simplicity of Mas Selamat’s escape from Singapore’s Internal Security Department’s grasp is well remembered by one and all. Yet, instead of taking full responsibility and resign, DPM Wong instead pointed the finger – audaciously, I might add – at the lower rungs in his ministry. Yet, this is not his only failure with regards to Mas Selamat. His ministry failed to arrest Mas Selamat not once but twice. And both times after the man has escaped, it was our neighbouring countries which re-captured the suspect and handed him over to Singapore.
Another failure of DPM Wong is in raising Singapore’s birth rate. DPM Wong oversees the National Population and Talent Division, charged with arresting the declining procreation rate. It was reported recently that our Total Fertility Rate has dropped to a record low of 1.16, one of the lowest in the world.
Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister MCYS
Another minister with epic failures to his name. From the quadrupling of the budget for the Youth Olympic Games, which went from its original S$104 million to S$387 million, to the number of homeless people camped out in parks all over Singapore, Dr Balakrishnan seemed oblivious to these. Here is a minister who would argue – quite ridiculously – with his fellow PAP MP in Parliament over an extra S$1 a day for those on Public Assistance – the old, poor, sick – but who thinks nothing of splashing almost S$400 million on a sports event. Indeed, he “admitted three times” that he got the YOG budget wrong.
As for the homeless, instead of similarly admitting that he “got it wrong” and that his finger wasn’t on the pulse, he went to Parliament and ridiculed a homeless couple and “irresponsible websites” which brought the matter to his attention!
Raymond Lim, Minister of Transport
If any minister was sleeping on his job, Raymond Lim is he. The crowded MRT trains seem to have caught the minister by surprise. Apparently, he woke up to the problem late, at which time commuters were already suffering the results of his slumber. Even today, the trains are packed, and nothing effective seems to have been done to improve the situation. Audaciously, SMRT’s Chief Executive Saw Phaik Hwa laid the blame squarely on commuters – “People can board the trains. It is whether they want to,” she said last year. Mr Lim kept his silence instead of admonishing the good CEO.
What about Mr Lim’s solution to traffic jams on the roads? Install more Electronic Road Pricing gantries, and increase the fees. That seems to be his only solution – which in any case, does not seem to alleviate the problem, especially during peak hours.
Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Works Minister
When many areas in Singapore were flooded in November 2009, Mr Yaacob famously said this “occurs once every 50 years”. As it turned out, that wasn’t true. The following months in 2010 saw massive floodings all over Singapore, the most noteworthy was the one at Orchard Road. Mr Yaacob and his lieutenants then blamed it on “choked drains”, and of course, ultimately laid the responsibility on Singaporeans.
Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister
There is no need to elaborate too much on Mr Mah’s “accomplishments” these last few years. I think the results speak for themselves. He allowed housing prices to escalate before making a show of introducing “cooling measures” to try and rein in prices – all of which have failed, even until today.
Certainly, this is one minister who does not, by any stretch of the imagination, deserve an eight-month bonus.
Khaw Boon Wan, Health Minister
Mr Khaw proved to everyone that he truly lived in the Ivory Tower when he declared, rather gleefully, how he had to pay only S$8 out of his pocket for his bypass surgery in 2010. He was trying to show that healthcare in Singapore is cheap and affordable. The truth is that more and more Singaporeans, especially the elderly ones, are going overseas for treatment and to fill prescriptions because they can’t afford to do so in Singapore.
And I dare say that, contrary to what the minister tried to portray, no one in Singapore pays S$8 for a major surgery. Not any average Singaporean anyway.
Lee Kuan Yew
What can one say about this Old Mascot? From dissing leaders of our neighbouring countries, to casting doubts on Singaporean Muslims’ religious practice, the man is, surely, past his prime. His Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) lost more than S$50 billion in investments. No one knows what goes on in that secret agency. As someone who claims to have handed the reins of power over to the younger leaders, MM Lee seem to love hogging the limelight and is in the news more than any other minister, releasing so many books which claim to tell the “Singapore story”, and provide “hard truths to keep Singapore going”. Seems his preoccupation is to write books and preach from his bully pulpit. As he himself has said several times, he is no longer in charge, he is “not so quick on the uptake”, and he doesn’t even spend as much time in the office as he did previously.
These are some examples of ministers who, in spite of major failings, are going to receive eight months worth of GDP bonuses running into the millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
There is a moral issue in this obscene – lets call a spade a spade – eight-months bonus for ministers. Can you or should you enrich yourself in such a blatantly despicable manner when so many Singaporeans are still struggling to cope, when job security is no longer assured, when Singaporeans are told to brace themselves for record inflation this year, and when retirement is no longer something Singaporeans can look forward to with gladness? And when Singapore has the second highest income-inequality gap in the world?
Also, when the performance of the current government leaves much to be desired, as can be seen in its many failures of the last few years, is GDP growth the only yardstick which matters? After the elections, the government could very well import another million foreign workers. GDP growth would double to 30 per cent. And ministers could reward themselves with another eight months worth of bonuses.
Simply using GDP growth as a yardstick is quite stupid, really. It makes no sense whatsoever.
In the 2004 Parliamentary exchange with NCMP Steve Chia, PM Lee Hsien Loong said:
“The Member’s implicit question is: are the Ministers enriching themselves again? And the answer is, we are going on market terms and, if anything, we are paying below what the market is.”
Well, if ministers were assessed on their performance in “the market” (ie, the private sector), it is not improbable that at least some of them would have been fired long ago, let alone be given such obscenegenerous bonuses.
One can only hope that the Prime Minister remembers and heeds his own words in 2006:
“We must not allow ourselves to be divided between haves and have-nots, or winners and loser. If we let a politics of envy drive a wedge between us, our society will be destroyed, and all will suffer. That must never happen.”
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his Budget 2011 speech declared that the government will raise workers’ salaries by 30 per cent in the next 10 years.
Ministers, on the other hand, will now receive a 30 per cent increase in total remuneration with just a stroke of the pen. In fact, with just a few words in Parliament and the dirty deed is done.
Does it make sense?
The Story of Lion City Pte Ltd.
(found on reach.gov.sg)
[clarification: LKY = Lew Kong Yau]
10 brothers inherited a successful company from their father. The company had 100 stocks and each brother had 10.
Shortly after, one of the brothers, Lew Kong Yau, approached two of his other brothers whom he noticed were good businessmen and said to them, “Why don’t we manage this company for everyone? We can ensure better profits”.
This idea was brought up to the rest and agreed upon. At first, it was good. The business, which was already good when they inherited it, has done a little better cause of the good business sense of these 2 other brothers. These 3 decide it’s time to increase stocks. There are now 1000 shares and each get 100.
After a little more time has passed, Lee Kong Yau tells his other 2 brothers, “We are getting older. We should retire and let our younger brothers take over. I’m sure they have newer ideas that’ll be good for all”. His two brothers agree and retire.
Kong Yau himself though hangs on and then decides to increase the stocks even more. Lion City Pte Ltd now has 10,000 shares. This time though he tells his 9 brothers that they will retain their 100 shares each cause, “It’s good for the company. Trust me”. What he doesn’t tell them is while they are keeping their 100 shares, Kong Yau is keeping his 10% and now has 1000 shares. He also hires people with business sense to run the company and he just sits and “forecasts”.
Then Kong Yau announces, “I want to increase profits. I’m going to start bringing in cheap temp workers and you 9 only have a small % of stocks, you need to compete with these cheap temp workers for wages. Be cheaper, better, faster”.
After the first year he announces, “Profits are up! I’m going to reward myself with $3 million dollars a year salary from now on. I’m also bringing in even cheaper temp workers to further increase the company’s profits! It’s good for the company. You all need to compete with them for wages too, it’s good for the company! It increases profits! Btw, I’ve increased shares further. Lion City Pte Ltd now has 1,000,000 shares. Your 100 shares are really not worth anything and you have no say in the company anymore”. Of course, Kong Yau himself still retains 10%.
Year after year Kong Yau reduces wages for his brothers, squeeze them in their smaller and smaller cubicles by bringing in more and more cheap temp workers while his own private office gets bigger and bigger. Year after year he insults his brothers calling them daft and lazy. Year after year he takes all credit for work his brothers put in and rewards himself.
This year, no different. “Profits are up! All of you need to manage your expectations! If I don’t keep your pay low how is our profit margin going to stay up? Also, cause profit is up, I’m giving myself 8 months bonus.”
…how does this story end?
_______________________
Interesting huh? What’s missing is how some of his brothers also lost their jobs to keep profits up, and are now picking up cans and cardboard for food, while watching LKY handsomely reward himself for the increased profit.
Latest revision “because the GDP is expected to grow 14.5 per cent this year”… EXPECTED TO GROW. Keyword:EXPECTED. It’s like going on a shopping spree because you went for a job interview! YOU HAVEN’T ACTUALLY GOTTEN THE JOB YET.
8 month bonus aside, the original salary that ministers were getting was already ridiculous. What did The Old Man mean when he said ministers should be paid a lot to ensure quality service (or whatever it is)? Does that mean that Balakrishnan, WKS etc would all be corrupt if paid less/more reasonably? If that is so then I’m ashamed for all those in office.
Also, don’t any of the ministers have internet? Shouldn’t they be more aware of the unhappiness they’re causing?
Yo, PAP. Just because you know your days are numbered doesn’t mean you take as much as you can before bowing out.
Sad to say S’porean are mostly cowards (everyone for themselves). You kept hearing complaints at coffeeshops but when it comes time to vote all these cowards still vote for PAP. Even my good friends, “I cannot vote for opposition, if I do I might get in trouble”. Grow some balls S’porean.
Speaking from across the borders, I sympathise with you folks. Frankly, the answer to all your troubles is to pray that your leaders are honest, accountable and just.
btw this idea of linking one’s bonus to GDP in a country where the export/GDP is more than 200% is quite ludicrous because much of the benefits of a strong year like 2010 is due to the recovery of the world economy and the excess liquidity in the financial system.
There must be a more stable benchmark given the above average volatility of Spore’s GDP.
A little known fact is that our Parliament sits for less than 30 days in a year. If somebody has a big enough calculator, please calculate our ministers’ hourly wages (of course, they will claim they spend a lot of time with their constituents):
See http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2989752
Superb article! Refreshing feedbacks/comments.
Dear Ministers,
This is a request for you to donate all your received bonuses to charity to help the under-privileged because they are suffering.
Sincerely,
Singaporean Citizen
欺骗人民，天诛地灭。
Cheated its own citizens, to be executed by heaven and destroyed by earth; absolutely and utterly destroyed.
Interesting article. Certainly can see the points raised by the commentary. But to be fair, the ministers did not get to receive their bonuses when times were pay so at least now the GDP is well, they should be paid a due bonuses. I am not sure if it is true but I heard that some of them do donate their bonuses to charities. I really hope they do as they certainly can well afford to.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Just look at the cost of living here. Ridiculously high housing cost, even government housing. 1001 charges, taxes, etc to control the number of cars, etc, etc, etc, etc…
Why? Cause they say it’s a small country and land is scarce. Then why are they flooding the country with people?
Just for GDP growth? We all have to suffer damaging effects to our quality of life, to our peace of mind? To our livelihoods and ability to put a roof over our heads and raise families all for “GDP growth”???
It’s bad enough if they do this secretly, but to openly reduce our short time on earth to this just for GDP growth and richly reward themselves for it?????
Are they that dense and selfish that they don’t realize that GDP growth should be a means to the end and not then end itself??? The end should be an increase in livability of this country! The end should be a better quality of lives for the Citizens! THAT’S WHAT WE VOTE YOU IN FOR!!!
It is so absolutely ridiculous that we have to take on mountains of debts even to put a roof over our heads with no job security on top of that just so they can have a nice GDP figure to increase their own private bank balances with!!!
This government has gone past the point of redemption and I hope Singaporeans WAKE UP!!!
i used to respect govt until …
look like they claim all credit for themselves
dread the day we reach the point of no return ..
All I know is that my whole family of 7 all eligible to vote will vote the Oppostion ….I urge the Opposition to contest all seats….
The Opposition need to win 17% more votes and they will form the next Government.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/president-obama-tops-government-pay-top-10-list-2011-03-08?pagenumber=2
Q1: Fact or Myth –
Our Singapore Cabinet has 21 Ministers:
14 Ministers with portfolios +
7 Ministers WITHOUT portfolios.
A1: Fact.
_______________________
Q2: Who are in Seventh Heaven?
A2: These are the people in Seventh Heaven –
1. Lee Kuan Yew
2. Goh Chok Tong
3. S Jayakumar
4. Wong Kan Seng
5. Lim Boon Heng
6. Lim Swee Seng
7. Lim Hwee Hua
Q1: Fact or Myth –
Our Singapore Cabinet has 21 Ministers:
14 Ministers with portfolios +
7 Ministers WITHOUT portfolios.
A1: Fact.
_______________________
Q2: Who are in Seventh Heaven?
A2: These are the people in Seventh Heaven –
1. Lee Kuan Yew
2. Goh Chok Tong
3. S Jayakumar
4. Wong Kan Seng
5. Lim Boon Heng
6. Lim Swee Say
7. Lim Hwee Hua
Singapore GDP – S$300b = S$0.3 trillion
US GDP – US$14 trillion = S$18 trillion
The US economy is 60 times larger than Singapore’s.
So, if Obama used the logic of GDP, then his salary would need to be S$4m x 60 = S$240 m = US$184 m to be equivalent to LHL’s salary.
Poor Obama.
They are paid to lie to us.
Not just the total quantum of ministerial pay.
Focus also on the pay structure … if we have learned anything from 2008 Wall Street implosion and bankers’ bonuses.
The pay structure for Singapore ministers and senior civil servants comprises:
20% GDP Bonus
27% Job-Perf Bonus
47% Total Variable Component
If your pay is 47% variable as above, what will drive you?
The higher the GDP volatility the better.
So perhaps it is purely incidental that the sectoral focus of Singapore’s economy has shifted toward semi-conductors/disk drives, pharmaceuticals and fund management, all of which are traditionally cyclical and therefore inherently volatile.
GDP Growth – Two scenarios over 4 years, eg:
Volatile Model Stable Model
1% 3%
10% 3%
1% 3%
10% 3%
GDP Bonus – Same two scenarios over the same 4 years as above, eg:
Volatile Model Stable Model
16 months * 12 months **
* 0 bonus for two years and 8 months’ bonus for two years (8 x 2 = 16)
** 3 months’ bonus for each of the four years (3 x 4 = 12)
Singaporeans are in for a roller-coaster ride – is that what you want?
Spectacular Booms and Busts every other year?
oldman is the emperor ,the P.debate is just bullshit they do and take what are they want “legally” … reckon over 90% singaporean have seen 1m in his/her lifetime…. godbless !!!
Let’s show our unity: kick out the papies in the coming elections. Show them that Singaporeans or Singapore can do without their greed and self-serving aims.
This is ridiculous!!! Commoners in Singapore average pay increase by 2%-3% for years while inflatioin running above 3%, our disposable income drops over the years. Our dear ministers and president get 8 months bonus and 26% pay rise respectively? They need to give themselves excuses to get more money to pay for their high priced properties? Our MPs aspired to earn ministers’ salary are taking more board of directrors position to catch up with ministers’ pay. When things got screw up e.g. YOG way exceeded the budget, buying tons of F1 tickets for volunteers but arrive on the wrong date, building lesser HDB to inflat the property prices further etc… Is there anyone standing out to take the responsibility and step down? Pushing the property price up and spending lots of taxpayers’ money help to push the GDP up in order to get 8 months bonus. With such KPI, the behaviour will be like the Wall Street bankers in no time!!
I really think its time for a change. This is what happens when a person/party/organization holds absolute power. They become corrupt.
Just look at Mediacorp and SPH. They have absoulte monopoly, so they can do anything they want. The news coverage sucks, the magazines they publish are all homogeneous. ‘Reporters’ fare better as tv hosts.
Likewise, we have stayed silent for too long, and given them too much power. The ministers are robbing us in front of our own eyes, and telling us that its for our own good.
This is deception at its highest form. We need to open our eyes and recognize this now.
Even if you foresee PAP winning this election due to most people voting for ‘em outta fear or “power outages” during vote counting, do not go against your own heart. Vote for what you think is right. Do not vote outta fear. Do not vote for ‘em just because you think they’re gonna win again even if you don’t believe in them. Be true to yourself & stand up for what you believe in.
We already know how ridiculous the PAP is. Rewarding themselves handsomely while letting the people of Singapore live in crap. Enough is enough! I’ve had it with these god damned snakes on this god damned island.
At age 55 and after serving 2 terms, they get their pension. Also they get 2nd pay cheque if they continue to serve.
GDP growth is propped by govt subsidy of billions of dollars like in semi-conductor sector. Link their bonus and performance to the poor and elderly.
So funny his words
the woman become maids.
I think the problem they created themselves are haunting them.
They let the woman run the national issues and now the woman are chasing and threathening them and then they use it against all Singaporean by saying if they lost our woman become maid.
I think he is not living in realistic life. He says it without even doing a survey.
I think if he give the man more salary and make all man in Singapore properous and rich, im sure all the woman 99.9% of them would love to stay home and shopping and not worry of going to work.
But if he give us all Singaporean “Non Cents”, then i am sure our woman will be maid….in including his wife and mother.