Wanted: MPs with courage and ability to speak out

last SG · 2007-03-26T15:17:52+00:00

A sample of backbenchers exuberant praises included generous and forward looking, good intentioned and made in heaven, a landmark budget, wonderf...

4getmenot SG

“they who seek power, does not deserve to be in power”

<Precious> SG

Being a 'Yes' man and bootlicker will enable them to rise faster up the ranks ma than a sharp-tongued dissident nowadays......... Sigh! Rolling Eyes

<Precious> SG

Ministers keep comparing their pay with the private sector's. This is not the correct motivation for ministers leh. If they desire the pay they would get in the private sector, they should not be serving as ministers but go join the private sector!All the talk about high pay being necessary to fight corruption blah blah is akin to blackmailing the country! Who are these ministers loyal to - the country or money?Time to recruit foreign talent to be our ministers! Laughing

SevenEleven SG

frankly some can never see this type of pay if they hadn't become a poddle
Mad

oxford mushroom SG

in the same way as some fear GST will go up to 50% Rolling Eyes

lightphobia SG

Vote for the opposition in the next elections.

I think the three WP mps are doing quite well, though they got whacked 90% of the time.

Eunice Olsen is also quite a pleasant surprise.

LazerLordz SG

that one is frankly, in the clouds. Laughing

AndrewPKYap SG

agreed...

red herring
n.
2. Something that draws attention away from the central issue.

=======================

The logical fallacy of false dilemmaalso known as false choice, false dichotomy, falsified dilemma, fallacy of the excluded middle, black and white thinking, false correlative, either/or fallacy and bifurcationinvolves a situation in which two alternative statements are held to be the only options, when in reality there exist one or more other options which have not been considered. The two alternatives presented are often, though not always, the two extreme points on some spectrum. Instead of such extreme simplification and wishful thinking, considering the whole spectrum, as in fuzzy logic, may be more appropriate. A typical false dilemma is the assertion "You are either for us or you are against us." The fallacy of this type of argument is that it tries to eliminate the middle ground.

charlize SG

If increasing GST is to help the poor, why is 50% not plausible?

Doesn't the government want to help the poor more? Laughing

LazerLordz SG

in a loving and compassionate way so that we may stay together and move ahead with help from strong families and our foreign talent friends? Very Happy

pinkish purple papayas SG

If someone raises my pay from $1.2million to $2.2million, i would certainly shut up.

and i will say things like

"This budget is the most generous, heavenly budget ever made, it is indeed god sent."

oxford mushroom SG

What qualifications or experience you have that make you deserving of that salary? Baclay Bank's boss Bob Diamond earned £22m (S$65m) in just one year...in 2006 alone! If you can do his job, paying you S$2.2 m a year is peanuts in comparison.

Here's the BBC Business editor's take on the widening gap between the rich and poor:

"Diamond has turned Barclays' investment banking arm from an also-ran into a contender. No one in his game doubts that his contribution to Barclays highly profitable global debt business has been significant. And he's probably being paid more-or-less the market-price for his kind of talent.

But it's arguable that the market itself doesn't work terribly effectively, that it tends to over-value certain sorts of people - investment bankers, hedge-fund managers, chat-show hosts, former residents of the Big Brother house, Premier League footballers - while undervaluing the contribution made by millions of others.

However, some (but not all) investment bankers and footballers can point to the substantial incremental profits they've generated for their businesses, and they can claim with some credibility that their personal remuneration represents value-for-money in that context (actually, it's pretty difficult to make that claim of Chelsea superstars, in view of the huge financial losses incurred by the club).

We live in an era when financial capital is staggeringly cheap and the profit-generating skills of humans are relatively scarce and highly prized. It's why the gap between the wealthiest and the vast majority is widening in a way we haven't experienced for a hundred years.

There may be social and moral arguments against the widening in that gap.

But its hard to make an economic case against it, unless you believe that the prevailing global version of capitalism that rules almost everywhere (barring Cuba and Venezuela) is inefficient, unsustainable and will whither. "

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/]

charlize SG

It is interesting to see that the people at the top are more interested in narrowing the gap between their salaries and the private sector's.

Rather than narrowing the gap between the poor and the rich in Singapore. Laughing

Rock^Star SG

The root of all elitist thoughts stems from here. Laughing

foomwee88 SG

Good point!!!

kilua SG

They already have many times higher than the second highest country, but i guess human greed knows no bound.

Ministers pay
How Singapore tops the world
Before planned hike, leaders already earn far more than those in the richest nations. By Rana.
Mar 25, 2007

Singapore ministers are currently paid S$1.2 million (US$790,000) a year, but that's not enough. They have to be paid more to close a 55 per cent gap with the private sector, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.

Ministers' salaries have remained unchanged since 2000, he added. The Straits Times in Singapore explained:

A minister should be drawing S$2.2 million a year or more, according to benchmarks approved by Parliament in 1994 to ensure competitive salaries for a competent and honest government.

The prime minister didn't specify how much the salaries would be raised, but said details will be disclosed on April 9 in Parliament.

I wanted to find out how much leaders in other countries are paid. Here are some figures:

USA (All in US dollars):
President: $400,000
Vice President: $208,100
Senator: $162,100
Representative: $162,100
Majority and Minority Leaders: $188,100
Speaker of the House: $208,100
Supreme Court Chief Justice: $208,100
Supreme Court Associate Justice: $199,200
(Source: 2005 figures from Infoplease)

UK
Prime Minister - £187,611 (US%368,655)
Cabinet Minister - £136,677 (US$268,570)
Minister of State - £99,908 (US$196,320)
Leader of the opposition: £130,312 (US$256,063)
Member of Parliament: £60,277 (US$118,444)
Speaker - £136,677 (US$268,570)
Solicitor General - £126,846 (US$248,860)
(Source: Nov 2006, UK parliament)

Australia

Prime Minister: $309,270
(Source: Since Nov 2006, Wikipedia)

Hong Kong
Chief Executive: $420,000
(Source: Jan 2003, New York Times)

Japan
Prime Minister: $300,000
(Source: April 2004, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty)

Please note some of these figures may be out of date.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a 30 percent pay cut when he came to office in September 2006 and lowered other top officials' pay by 10 percent. But the reports didn't mention their actual pay.

European prime ministers as a rule are paid at least five times less than European business leaders, according to a 2005 study.
Posted by rana on March 23, 2007

Fingolfin_Noldor SG

Tell me again why they need so much money in the first place? Are ministers sooo hard to come by?

Heck, Benjamin Sheares didn't want to serve as a President, and only did so only because LKY begged him. It wasn't even pay that was the motivating factor. Frak he even rejected the higher pay. Why is it the ministers lack that sort of flair?! Heck, has LKY even forgotten that man? I can imagine him turning in his grave.

LetterboxMind SG

Precisely. Remember:

"Only the Sith deals in absolutes".

Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:
agreed...

red herring
n.
2. Something that draws attention away from the central issue.

=======================

The logical fallacy of false dilemmaalso known as false choice, false dichotomy, falsified dilemma, fallacy of the excluded middle, black and white thinking, false correlative, either/or fallacy and bifurcationinvolves a situation in which two alternative statements are held to be the only options, [b]when in reality there exist one or more other options which have not been considered. The two alternatives presented are often, though not always, the two extreme points on some spectrum. Instead of such extreme simplification and wishful thinking, considering the whole spectrum, as in fuzzy logic, may be more appropriate. A typical false dilemma is the assertion "You are either for us or you are against us." The fallacy of this type of argument is that it tries to eliminate the middle ground.[/b]

ShutterBug SG

In music, when you join a band you can only play and sing the songs the band leader writes. Otherwise, you're out...

But when you form your own band, you get to sing and play your own songs.

4getmenot SG

Originally posted by oxford mushroom:

What qualifications or experience you have that make you deserving of that salary? Baclay Bank's boss Bob Diamond earned [b]£22m (S$65m) in just one year...in 2006 alone! If you can do his job, paying you S$2.2 m a year is peanuts in comparison.

Here's the BBC Business editor's take on the widening gap between the rich and poor:

"Diamond has turned Barclays' investment banking arm from an also-ran into a contender. No one in his game doubts that his contribution to Barclays highly profitable global debt business has been significant. And he's probably being paid more-or-less the market-price for his kind of talent.

But it's arguable that the market itself doesn't work terribly effectively, that it tends to over-value certain sorts of people - investment bankers, hedge-fund managers, chat-show hosts, former residents of the Big Brother house, Premier League footballers - while undervaluing the contribution made by millions of others.

However, some (but not all) investment bankers and footballers can point to the substantial incremental profits they've generated for their businesses, and they can claim with some credibility that their personal remuneration represents value-for-money in that context (actually, it's pretty difficult to make that claim of Chelsea superstars, in view of the huge financial losses incurred by the club).

We live in an era when financial capital is staggeringly cheap and the profit-generating skills of humans are relatively scarce and highly prized. It's why the gap between the wealthiest and the vast majority is widening in a way we haven't experienced for a hundred years.

There may be social and moral arguments against the widening in that gap.

But its hard to make an economic case against it, unless you believe that the prevailing global version of capitalism that rules almost everywhere (barring Cuba and Venezuela) is inefficient, unsustainable and will whither. "

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/][/b]

i like to listen TO YOUR OWN theory if the salary increase in the ministers' pay is justifiable?

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