Singapore cannot afford to have a "revolving door" style of
government where top leaders change every five years.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said the country needs good, competent
people who will stay.
And this is why they must be paid market rates.
Mr Lee was speaking to reporters in Sydney at the end of his visit
to Australia and New Zealand.
From parliamentary secretaries to ministers, the top level in the
civil service is paid a total of S$46 million annually.
That is 0.13 percent of the total government expenditure or 0.022
percent of GDP.
On Monday, the civil service pay review will be announced in
Parliament.
The Minister Mentor warned that the Singapore economy would be in
jeopardy if it does not pay top dollar for top people.
He said if this S$46 million was cut to maybe S$36 million or S$26
million, the country would save S$20 million but in the process,
would jeopardise an economy of S$210 billion.
"So for the average family earning S$1,500-S$3,000, we are talking
of astronomical figures but for people like me in government, to
deal with the money which we have accumulated by the sweat of our
brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate or the
man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or
Goldman Sachs and you would have an incompetent man and you would
have lost money by the billions," said Mr Lee.
While other countries may have leaders who are paid less, Mr Lee
said rewarding Singapore leaders well is a system that has worked
and is above board.
He said: "If you are going to quarrel about S$46 million up or
down another S$10 to S$20 million I say you don't have a sense of
proportion."
And when it comes to benchmarking, Mr Lee said his own annual
income, which is S$2.7 million, is a fraction of what the top
manager in the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC)
earns.
He said: "The cure for all this talk is really a good dose of
incompetent government... your asset values will disappear, your
apartments will be worth a fraction of what it is, your jobs will
be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will
become maids in other persons' countries - foreign workers."
When asked to comment on the perception that political leaders
should not be in it for the money, and instead, be ready to make
that extra sacrifice for the good of the people, the Minister
Mentor said it is an admirable sentiment.
But he added that it had taken much persuasion to get leaders like
Dr Ng Eng Hen and Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who had lucrative private
practices, to give it all up to join politics, with no guarantee of
success.
