ahead, the bottom is falling behind and the middle is feeling
the pressure."
Prime Minister Lee's proposed pay increase is clearly aimed at
keeping the ruling PAP class in Singapore's upper wage-earning
tier. The question is whether the move is controversial enough to
create substantial political turbulence.
Three weeks before Lee spoke about the need to raise his
politicians' pay by 83%, the government had defended as sufficient
its recent decision to increase social welfare to the destitute by
S$30 per month. Minister for Community Development, Youth and
Sports Vivian Balakrishnan told Parliament during the budget
debate: "An elderly recipient, living alone, currently receives
about $260 [US$171] a month. We will increase that to $290 a
month."
Even the ruling PAP's own backbenchers were underwhelmed by the
marginal boost - cognizant, perhaps, that growing wealth disparity
was a hot-button issue taken up by opposition parties during last
year's general elections. Member of Parliament (MP) Lily Neo,
responding to Balakrishnan, told him: "My single constituents told
me that they needed to skip one meal a day to live on the $260 per
month. And now, [the ministry] is going to give them $1 more a
day."
Indeed, this "30 dollars" giveaway is the source of much sarcasm in
public comments about the proposed ministers' pay raise. Others
think it beggars belief that Singapore's civil servants and
ministers deserve to be paid multiples of what their counterparts
in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia
earn.
Suspect calculations
To some, the high figures that the benchmarking formula
dispenses makes the formula itself suspect. For example, it has
been pointed out by many that the top 24 or 25 earners in the six
designated fields are not the same individuals from year to year.
Different individuals appear within this set, as it often depends
on extraordinary bonuses and stock options that individuals receive
in one year, but not necessarily the next.
Ministers, on the other hand, are rarely changed through elections,
so the same individuals get the high benchmarked salaries year in,
year out. Some also wonder whether the formula attempts to compare
apples with oranges in that the private-sector compensation used
for benchmarking refers to total compensation.
However, the benchmark is believed - and official clarification is
rather lacking in this regard - to be used for ministers' and top
civil servants' basic salaries exclusive of their total
compensation packages. That said, it should be noted that there is
a one-third discount in formulating the MR4 benchmark, it being
two-thirds of the 24th and 25th private-sector high-flyer.
Civil servants and ministers also get bonuses on top of their basic
salaries, amounting to as much as four months' pay in years when
the economy performs well. The result of all these combinations and
permutations is that it is actually very hard for ordinary citizens
to grasp exactly how much their political leaders pay
themselves.
What they are left with is an uneasy feeling that all these
statistical complications and permutations, and a perceived
official reluctance to lay out the bare-bone details, could be
masking even more shocking financial realities for taxpayers.
Consider, for instance, pensions.
Nearly all Singaporeans save for their own retirement,
while ministers get life-long pensions if they have held office for
a minimum of eight years and have reached 55 years of age. Again,
there's a complex formula for determining the pension amount, with
a cap of "two-thirds of the highest annual salary of any office"
held by the individual in question.
The shocker was momentarily revealed in June 2004 - though
the mainstream media did not highlight it then nor have they since.
That was when an opposition MP asked then deputy prime minister Lee
Hsien Loong whether it was true that a "serving minister who turns
55 actually receive[s] both salary and pension at the same time".
Lee, in answer, said yes. There are currently eight cabinet
ministers aged 55 and above, including Lee himself.
Alex Au is an independent social and political commentator,
freelance writer and blogger based in Singapore. He often speaks at
public forums on politics, culture and gay issues.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ID05Ae02.html
