Ministerial pay
There has been a huge uproar about the minister’s pay recently in Singapore. The ministers of the little red dot receive a pay far more than that of the US president Barak Obama. The president in Singapore takes home US$2.7 million per month while Obama only earns US$400,000! Obama is the president of the most important country, and yet his salary is lower than that of a comparatively insignificant red dot, a red dot which most people in countries like UK do not know of.
Where does this US$2.7 million come from? It comes from the tax payers in Singapore. Money flows out of our pockets and into the minister’s wallet. We can accept this, if the minister is doing a very good job. However, George Yeo, who lost his seat in Parliament, earns $2,000,000 every year due to pensions while seating in his home doing nothing. On the other hand, Barak Obama is working very hard to earn US$4,800,000 while George Yeo earns around US$1,000,000, a quarter of what Obama earns, for doing nothing. This money is not taxable! Also, if he knows he only has one more month to live, he can ask for and get 14 years of pension ($28,000,000) up front in a single lump of money! Why should we be paying a former minister who is currently doing nothing $2,000,000 every year when he can go out and find a job to make a living? In addition, if a minister is eligible for pension (served at least 8 years), he would receive his pension and his salary concurrently.
The Singapore Government testified saying that this was a means to prevent corruption. By paying the high salary, the ministers earn so much that they do not think of corruption and keep the government corruption-free. With this high salary, it is very difficult to determine why the Singapore ministers are leading the nation. Is it truly because of their urge to serve the nation, or is it because of their urge to pocket the money which comes with the job?
So, is there really a difference when serving the nation for money or from the heart? When serving the nation from the heart, decisions made by the ministers do not benefit oneself only but the country as a whole. For example, a minister is faced with a decision, and there are two options: One would benefit the whole country but not himself. The other option allows him to add a few thousand to his monthly salary at the expense of the rest of the country. A minister serving from his heart would choose the first option while a minister serving for money would choose the second. This is the main disadvantage when you have ministers serving for money. It is very clear which is the preferred type of minister. However, can Singapore afford to reduce the salaries of its ministers in an effort to sieve out all ministers who serve for money and not from their heart? The answer is no. Singapore is a small country, with a small pool of talents compared to the other countries. Among these talents, only a few are willing to serve the nation, and among the people who are willing to serve the nation, maybe only half is willing to serve the nation from their hearts. Given the low salary, those talented people who want to serve for the money would find other jobs which can give them a decent income. Without the high pay, only these few people who are willing to serve the nation from their hearts would join the government, leaving a lot of seats empty. Either the people who are willing to serve all take up multiple roles in government, adding to the stress each of them face, or just leave them empty. The high salaries the ministers receive help attract more people to the government, and pulling in the people who serve for money to fill up the empty positions. With the high salaries, the ministers would not bother to use underhand techniques and risk losing their jobs. Also, when it comes to decision making, they would not want to make a decision which would benefit them as they may risk losing the next elections too. In other words, there is an invisible force forcing them not to make selfish decisions but only those which benefit the nation generally.
As a whole, without the high salary, there probably would not be enough talented people filling up the vacant seats, but with the high salary, it is unfair to Singaporeans in general as they pretty much pay to have a government which should not be the case.
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