Chief Justice says: "Greed Works Most of the Time"

last SG · 2007-08-19T12:42:21+00:00

thanks you for your post ... however ... the mental image of the unscrupulous, rapacious lawyer is not something that can be easily erased from my mind eas...

sunnytv SG

Now, we know why LKY choose to join politic instead of being lawyer.

Gazelle SG

1) Didnt PM Lee annouce that he will donate his pay rise to Charity?

2) Our life are mostly driven by greed. no? Were you happy with your last bonus?

3) Yes, it is 1000 millions and both BG and WB are worth around S$76,000 millions each. Suppose PM Lee is paid S$3m a year, it will take him 25,333 years to be as wealthy as BG or WB.

4) To be a ministers is is not just about drawing million dollar salary, it is about the sacrifice you and your family need to make to be one. If you are not willing to be a civil servant, what make you think they others will?

Lin Yu SG

why only after 33% increase in salary?
Laughing

Gazelle SG

1) We already have enough discussion on Minister salary, I dont see a need to talk about it any further.

2) What makes you think that ministers only contribute to charity after pay increase?

countdracula SG

the want for improvement is very different from greed...greed is a negative attribute of human nature, it is a monster that is insatiable and disregards consequence.....

if being a millionaire is not rich, then you are sad...$3 million a year is what 99% of the population does not earn....

Gazelle SG

It is not about being a millionaires is not rich, it is about comparing our PAP ministers to what the richest man in the planet does.

If you are trying to preach buddhism, yes Greed is a monster, however in life majority of singaporeans are 1 way or another driven by greed to make more money, to buy bigger house, drive a powerful car, have a big wedding, honeymoon, and to acheive them faster.

sunnytv SG

Greed is one of the Seven deadly sins. Twisted Evil

Gazelle SG

and thats not the only one the world is living with.

sunnytv SG

But greed is enough to make one become corrupt and become devil . Twisted Evil

Gazelle SG

what the CJ is trying to say is that $ will draw talent. You should try to dispute that instead of trying to be too philosophical about the word Greed. There are many type of greed, some are good some are bad, it really depends on the situations.

lotus999 SG

what goes through my mind? greed is pervasive in singapore!

sunnytv SG

Chief Justice says: "Greed Works Most of the Time"

He oredi give u a hint, Singapore will become corrupted sooner and later. Just prepare some money to bribe them when the time come. u will be free to go. Just kidding. Hahaha

tanjun SG

Money makes the world go round. People are working and investing for $$$. Or else why do we need to study? The increasing importance of $$$ causes greed.

countdracula SG

so greed does work ya? as i’ve mentioned oft enough, greed doesn’t care about consequence…imagine the greedy lawyer wanting to charge $150k for something that insignificant….and the cj is now finding it ‘troubling’....lol

AndrewPKYap SG

In A victory for the common man, a primary school teacher has won a long drawn battle over $120,000 in legal costs which arose over a $60 dispute.
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The Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that Jonathan Lock (picture), 35, will not have to pay the exorbitant sum, most of it to his former lawyer Andrew Hanam.
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Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, one of three judges who heard the appeal, also directed the Law Society to determine if an inquiry is needed to look into Mr Hanam's conduct in handling Mr Lock's case.
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In the Court's grounds of decision, CJ Chan said: "This is an incredible case. We've not seen one like it in all our years in the law. It has brought no credit to counsel involved and the legal system as a whole."
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Apparently he changed his mind or contradicted himself.

4getmenot SG

He was probably trying to imply that 'Greed works most of the time, But not this time.." Mr. Green

oxford mushroom SG

Far from it. Greed is what drives innovation and entrepreneurship....but every lawyer knows that it must be done within the boundaries of the law. Those who want to have a comfortable, safe job and knock off at 6pm everyday has no business becoming rich.

Go read 'Poor dad, rich dad'. Mr. Green

AndrewPKYap SG

Rolling Eyes How do you account for the fact that the two riches men in the world at the moment are also arguable the biggest philanthropists the world has ever seen.

Money is so hard to give away - Lessons from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet

Heard @ a dinner address tonight :

Bill Gates amassed such a fortune which at one time was valued at almost US$100billion.

When one such as Bill comes to such a level, you can only imagine that money starts to lose its meaning.

So what did Bill decide to do as the worlds richest man?

Give it all away, and got his mum, dad, and rest of his entire family to help him do it.

And boy did he find out that its so hard to give money away properly! As in giving it to the right cause and making sure that it will be used rightly with minimal wastage. Its definitely easier for Bill to make money instead of giving it away!

Obviously the fact that they become the world's richest, by their acts of charity, they did not become rich because of greed but from a much higher motivation. Greed destroys people and money that comes from greed can never satisfy as well as money that comes from doing a decent day's work or building a successful enterprise.

Otherwise LKY would be the happiest person in the world. Is he, obviously not, he just despicably decided to take even more public money when there are so many suffering in this society!

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, giving away their own money, and LKY? Taking MORE public money. Rolling Eyes

robertteh SG

One of the cyber counter agents at the other site has posted the news of the Curry Puff hawker in Yishun as if all hawkers are earning big monies and ministers are underpaid and should be allowed to take more from the tax coffer.

This is only to be expected as what we have is a system where our ministers and top civil servants like Chief Justice seem to have no compunction in taking tax payers' monies by wrongful means like making biased comparison with the successful hawkers or stock brokers or estate agents.

People must expect them to continue to publicise news like the curry puff hawkers who make tons of monies indirectly implying that ministers are not earning enough and people should allow them to plunder into reserves and surpluses to take their own salaries of any amounts in order to match these hawkers.

The Chief Justice in giving his legal officers the latest salary increases and bonuses is doing the same. He would rather keep quiet about the many legal officers who are laid back and not deserving their higher pays and concentrate in talking about those who are getting higher salaries in the private sector.

We can expect our morality to go the same way of our public servants and ministers with this kind of self-taking of own salaries going on ad nausem.

When citizens are not even earning enough to pay for the necessities and utilities or transportation, we are seeing ministers and top civil servants taking away their monies with all the excuses and half-truths that private sector people are doing well.

Can they really like the curry puff hawkers create employments for the people who are underpaid or unemployed?

Can they stop importing cheap foreign labors to come in and take away their jobs or take away their retirement monies and pretend to be giving them back only after they are dead or near dead.

It is sad that all our leaders and top public servants are now getting from bad to worse behaving in this manner. Yet the Chief Justice being our legal and moral custodian cannot see it is wrong for them to take tax payers' monies using falsehood in this blatant manner. It is a case of wrong being portrayed as right through use of power and position.

The hawkers at least earn their monies honestly with their efforts, and entrepreneurship unlike those who use power to take their own salary increases and bonuses and annuities from the public tax payers' surpluses squeezed from the people with artful and unsubstantiated comparison which is a much bigger crime deserved to be punished by firing squad.

That is why once the leaders become greedy and envious of what curry puff makers are earning they will eventually lose their morality and can no longer govern with respect and support of the people.

How can the president being people's moral guardian sing poetry about the placid negara when this sort of misuse of power is happening ?

rmyfrm SG

....

TS is such a sensitive ...

Our honourable CJ is merely speaking the truth; would you rather he lie and propose not a practical solution?

Mind you, the legal community loves and supports our CJ. He is a man of brilliance and on par with his predecessor.

Don't read too deeply into what he says - that's what judges do; they lay the facts bare for all to see, and then come to a decision based on past precedents, community standards and policy.

Here, our honour has laid for us:

Bare fact = Firms overseas offer a much better remuneration package for junior lawyers (whereas here, real $$$ only starts coming in once you make partner - especially in the larger firms such as A&G, D&N, Rodyk).

Decision (not exactly, but as a generic term) = Firms should offer more so that we stop losing our legal talents to other countries, like HK.

Ratio = Ah I'm too lazy to type everything out - go read and figure.

Funny how globalisation works yea - we have heaps of Chinese come into Singapore as labourers, yet we lose our finest to them. Not just lawyers too, doctors, architects, artists, bankers etc. - this issue arises all the time: why is it our talents are always leaving?

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