Are PAP Ministers Over Paid?

[NightWind]

http://theowlcritic.blogspot.com/

 

Thursday, March 31, 2011

An 'Animal Farm' In Singapore

For those who have not read Animal Farm, it was a story about farm animals who revolt and throw out their whip-wielding owner. The pigs, being the smartest, then run the farm. We will not spoil the book for you by revealing more, but here is how their propagandist, Squealer, justifies the pigs getting the milk and all the apples :

 

 

"Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.

Surely, comrades, surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"

 

 

Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.

 

 

If you can tell the difference between Animal Farm's pigs and their taking all of the best things, and the PAP's politicians and the obscene amounts they are paying themselves, then we congratulate you.

 

We cannot.

Edited April 2, 2011 by NightWind

[1fast1]

I love Orwell (or good ol' Eric Arthur Blair). 1984 is probably my favourite novel ever, with Animal Farm near the top.

[Expertz]

why can't our opposition parties come together and declare a $1 salary if they take over parliament and the millions of dollars that used to go into minister salaries and foreigner integration fund be channeled into developing local talent instead?

 

i'm sure singaporeans will respond very well to that!

or alternatively just give all that $$ back to the public, i'm sure we can all make do with $2 more in our banks rather than having all this money go to waste

[Parkingidiot]

i think arguing for $1 salary is ridiculous la.. we are all reasonable people. The gahmen should be paid a reasonable salary for the efforts they put in and results produced. Just not astronomical salaries.

 

Even if they are paid $600K a month - this is still the highest in the world - and $600K can live very comfortably. I think paying the PM and President between $600K-$1million is ok. The rest of the ministers between $500K-700K, and all the bottom feeders <$400K should be reasonable. And there should be no major increase in pay every year, unless the rest of the countrymen also experience similar or greater increases. They should also be ready to reduce their pay in line with the rest of the countrymen when everybody else takes a pay cut.

[Yeshe]

i think arguing for $1 salary is ridiculous la.. we are all reasonable people. The gahmen should be paid a reasonable salary for the efforts they put in and results produced. Just not astronomical salaries.

 

Even if they are paid $600K a month - this is still the highest in the world - and $600K can live very comfortably. I think paying the PM and President between $600K-$1million is ok. The rest of the ministers between $500K-700K, and all the bottom feeders <$400K should be reasonable. And there should be no major increase in pay every year, unless the rest of the countrymen also experience similar or greater increases. They should also be ready to reduce their pay in line with the rest of the countrymen when everybody else takes a pay cut.

 

for a moment, u scare me

 

anyway, lao lee mentioned before, must have high salary to prevent corruption mah [laugh]

[Patangie]

Definitely over paid.

[Lucaswh]

Of course la, still need to discuss meh?

[Duckduck]

do u guys prefer normal or "legalized" corruption? history has shown that no form of garmen is 100% corruption free. communists are highly corrupt, capitalist democrats prefer to call it "paid forward" high salary corruption prevention methodology.

 

this world until the end of its days is evil. $ drives the world therefore the end of it beckons. i pity our children

[Hermitage]

I love Orwell (or good ol' Eric Arthur Blair). 1984 is probably my favourite novel ever, with Animal Farm near the top.

 

Is 1984 really good? I've got it lurking around the bookshelves somewhere, will dig it out and give a read since you recommend it so highly!

 

'84 was also when Powerslave was released Live to Fly, Fly to Live!!!

 

Oh and btw, this thread is rather quite irrelevant really! I mean the answer to that question is so obvious, it's kinda like asking if the sun will set tonight!

[Civicblade]

You have probably got your numbers wrong.

 

The PM, SM and MM annual renumeration (package with bonus) is ~$3.8 million per year. I do not know their basic monthly salary, it should be in the region of around S$150k - $200k.

 

If we compare purely the number and not job scope, our ministers are paid many many times (LHL = 4X Obama) to other head of states and ministers around the world.

 

On the other end, if we compare our cabinet ministers salary to head of companies, sports or movie stars. Our minister's pay pales in comparison.

 

The crux of the matter is, which benchmark should we use? Do we use the pay of top executive and professional in Singapore or salaries of politicians in developed countries or a number that is derived by multiplying against the median salary of Singaporeans?

 

Which benchmark works best for our country's future? Are we atttracting the right people with our current benchmark (set by LKY)? Are we promoting that the fittest survive, earn as much as you can and the pay me more mentality to the country?

 

Is there a better benchmark that we should adopt that ultimately brings the most benefit to the country? Does the parliament engage on candid and honest discussion during the current benchmark setting and review? Or was the benchmark rubber stamped because it was proposed by LKY and there are no sizeable opposition in the parliament to provide robust and rigour debate on this matter? Just take the recent 30% pay raise for the President as an example. It was rubber stamped all the way through parliament.

 

Do we need more oppositions in Parliament? YES!

 

i think arguing for $1 salary is ridiculous la.. we are all reasonable people. The gahmen should be paid a reasonable salary for the efforts they put in and results produced. Just not astronomical salaries.

 

Even if they are paid $600K a month - this is still the highest in the world - and $600K can live very comfortably. I think paying the PM and President between $600K-$1million is ok. The rest of the ministers between $500K-700K, and all the bottom feeders <$400K should be reasonable. And there should be no major increase in pay every year, unless the rest of the countrymen also experience similar or greater increases. They should also be ready to reduce their pay in line with the rest of the countrymen when everybody else takes a pay cut.

 

[Porche]

u r wrong.....the annual package 3.8 million exclude bonuses.....

[Mllcg]

still got bonus?!?!

 

btw, who is that 1 joker?

[Civicblade]

Does anyone know PM LHL, SM GCT and MM LKY 's total renumeration package for 2010?

 

Thanks for the information. It will be great to have a link to the news report. I couldn't find anything current regarding this subject on Google.

[Hypermiler]

for a moment, u scare me

 

anyway, lao lee mentioned before, must have high salary to prevent corruption mah [laugh]

 

 

So orignally these candidates had the intention to be corrupted until they received high salary. Is that correct?

 

Then if they have corrupted intentions, how can it be claimed that they have to be squeaky clean before they can be selected to stand for election?

 

Hmmm.....

 

Bribe myself so i won't be corrupted.

 

[Parkingidiot]

for a moment, u scare me

 

anyway, lao lee mentioned before, must have high salary to prevent corruption mah [laugh]

 

 

You have probably got your numbers wrong.

:

:

:

Do we need more oppositions in Parliament? YES!

 

 

Sorry..!!! TYPO. I STAND CORRECTED!

 

I meant that even if they are paid $600K A YEAR, they would still be the highest paid leaders in THE WORLD! So...

 

If you want a benchmark - take the G5, or G7 or G8 countries and average their leaders' pay and benefits.... that should be a fair benchmark.

Or take Hong Kong leader's pay as a benchmark.

Or take Obama's pay as a benchmark.

[Nlatio]

haaaa... tthe topic will be brought up again and again..... yes, think they are overpaid.... but no, we wont get any answer to the question.....

 

Its the same as asking yoursefl.....

 

Do you think you are overpaid????

 

In our dicktionary.... no such word as Overpaid.... so I guess MIW dicktionary also dont have such word....

[Kopites]

No brain answer ! Definitely overpay.

[Parkingidiot]

Maybe the poll should be ... how much more do you think they will pay themselves, if left unchecked?

 

I think, if no one stop them ... we'd probably see the President and PM salaries hit $10million per annum by end of this decade.