What They Don’t Tell You About Why Our Ministers Must Be Highly Paid
The Government aims to have an independent committee carry out the next salary review for political office holders this year, Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing said on Tuesday (Jan 10). This announcement has lead to the resurfacing of comments about how our ministers are overly paid.
Previously, we have heard comments from PM Lee Hsien Loong about competitive ministerial pay helps deal with corruption in the society. However, the reason is overly simplified to “so they don’t succumb to temptation” and “so that we can attract talent”. Here is a little more explanation to why they see a need for a higher salary. (P.S. This piece by no means supports nor disapproves of their salary, my intention is to offer an additional perspective).
A salary pegged to the highest paid people in Singapore means that we will not have to be at these rich people’s mercy.
The rich tend to have it all. Money not only allows them to buy anything or anyone. For some, it also gives them a sense of self-entitlement that no one else can comprehend. They might feel that they are able to use their money to manipulate the rules in their favor. Traffic fines are small change to them, and who is the government to tell them what to do?
Being of similar wealth, especially with richer individuals who see the world in price tags means that in their eyes the political holders would have some sort of credibility. These are people they are unable to convince with money or bribes.
If our ministers were easily convinced with money/bribes, imagine how many things will go in favor for the rich people? They would just buy our decision makers luxury cars and watches every time they want to see a policy change to their favor.
Basically, a salary pegged to the highest paid people in Singapore means that our government will be taken more seriously by the rich.
To them, this is probably also important because the rich can start companies and bring their businesses to Singapore. Them starting businesses here gives us jobs. It helps with our economic growth.
I would think that a better questions to ask would be, how rich do you have to be to sit at the rich men’s table? Are our ministers’ current salaries above this benchmark? How much above are they? Is money the only way to prevent corruption?
Is the high salary actually attracting the right talents (or are we just attracting people who primarily is looking for wealth)?
