Thursday April 5, 2:35 PM
FEATURE-Singapore ministers set for million-dollar pay hike
By Koh Gui Qing
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SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - The salary of the prime minister of
Singapore is more than three times that of U.S. President George
Bush and about four times that of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe. But that is not enough.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong may soon be getting a
hefty pay rise as part of a controversial ministerial salary hike
that has infuriated many Singaporeans.
Lee, who is estimated to earn about S$2 million (US$1.32 million)
per year, said last month that the salaries of Singapore ministers,
top public officials and judges have fallen way below benchmark
private sector salaries and may need to be doubled.
"It is critical for us to keep these salaries competitive, so as to
be able to bring in a continuing flow of able and successful
people," Lee said in a speech in March.
Lee said that Singapore ministers, who currently earn about S$1.2
million (US$800,000) a year, should be earning S$2.2 million
(US$1.45 million). Details of the new ministerial salaries will be
announced in parliament on April 9.
Since 1994, the salaries of Singapore ministers have been set at
two-thirds the median pay of the 48 best-paid bankers, lawyers,
accountants, engineers, and executives in multi-nationals and
manufacturing firms.
But the latest salary hike, which comes at a time when income
disparity in Singapore is wider than ever, has sparked an outpour
of unusually blunt criticism from Singaporeans.
Hundreds have signed an online petition and the readers' letter
columns of the state-controlled newspapers -- one of the few
outlets for dissenting views in the city-state -- have published a
series of letters protesting the planned hike.
"GOVERNMENT ALWAYS WINS"
Some Singaporeans argue that the six lucrative professions on which
ministers' salaries are based do not reflect the country's economy
or the government's performance.
"No matter what happens to the economy, the government always wins
because it takes only the best results," Jacob Tan said in a letter
to the Straits Times.
And given that a 2 percentage point rise in sales tax from July
will further hit the poor, some said the government plan is
tactless.
"I am rather disappointed with the government's insensitivity,"
reader Vanessa Teo said.
But the sharpest criticism was online. The "awesome raise on top of
their already obscene pay is completely unjustifiable," read an
online petition that has gathered 304 signatures.
Given the rare public outcry, analysts said the government may now
hesitate to raise salaries by the full S$1 million.
"I would be surprised if they implemented the full formula that
would give them over S$2 million," said Garry Rodan, director of
the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University.
The government defends the high salaries as necessary to attract
the brightest people and to prevent corruption.
"If we don't do that ... corruption will set in and we will become
like many other countries," Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean was
quoted as saying in the Straits Times last week.
Singapore government officials' salaries are set by different wage
formulas, depending on their seniority. The figures are not readily
available to the public, but the prime minister earned S$1.94
million in 2000, according to the Straits Times.
Ministers' wages were last raised in 2000, but were cut in 2001 and
2003 during the economic downturn, although the cuts have since
been reversed, the Public Service Division said.
"ABLE GENERALS"
Some argue that Singapore ministers are not overpaid, but that
ministers elsewhere are underpaid.
Singapore is an oasis of wealth, peace and law and order in a
region rife with poverty, violence and corruption.
The island state is Asia's second-richest country after Japan, with
a gross domestic product per capita of about $31,000.
The World Economic Forum ranks Singapore as the fifth-most
competitive of 125 economies in 2006, while Transparency
International said the city-state was the fifth-most
corruption-free nation out of 163. Isn't that worth a price?
"According to a Chinese proverb, an able general is worth more than
10,000 foot soldiers. So too is the worth of our leaders if they
have the wisdom to help us weather global competition," reader Yik
Keng Yeong said.
But critics say that the prosperity and security enjoyed by
Singaporeans are not that different from other Asian first-world
economies such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where government
ministers do not command such high salaries.
Finland, for instance, beat Singapore in the WEF and Transparency
International polls -- as second-most competitive and most
corruption-free country -- but its Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
earns about a sixth of Lee's estimated salary.
What irks Singapore's opposition parties is that the million-dollar
salaries are only accessible to members of Lee's ruling People's
Action Party. Opposition politicians have been crippled by
defamation lawsuits brought by government ministers and no
opposition party has ever held a ministerial post.
The opposition also argues that a million-dollar pay hike is
unwarranted for leaders of a country that has no legal minimum wage
and where 20 percent of the population earns an average monthly
salary of S$1,500 ($991).
But Lee Kuan Yew -- modern Singapore's first prime minister, who is
still the leading voice in his son's cabinet -- will have none of
it.
"The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent
government," Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday, adding
that it is "absurd" for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial
pay and warning that Singapore would suffer it the government could
not pay competitive salaries.
"Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in
other people's countries," he said. (Additional reporting by Sakari
Suoninen in Helsinki, Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Joanne Allen in
Washington)
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