January 26, 2007
Your Excellency
The Honourable President of the Republic of Singapore
Istana
Singapore
[via e-mail [email protected]]
Dear Sir,
Re: The Compensation for the President
I was surprised and shocked to hear that the Parliament of
Singapore considered it necessary and/or appropriate to increase
the annual salary for the President of the Republic of Singapore. I
appears that an annual bonus is also paid to the said President,
regardless whether or not it is necessary, without consideration
for the numerous needy and financially or medically or physically
challenged citizens.
Any fair minded compassionate individual who cares for his or her
fellow citizens would decline to accept the raise regardless
whether or not Parliament approved the increase and the amount of
the increase. It is not a matter that the President should be paid
a sufficiently high salary to ensure that he is not corrupt,
because I have heard that you are a person with integrity and one
of the most trusted and respected citizens of the Singapore. In
addition, any individual (who is retired) with a net worth of more
than $2 million, if not $5 million, would humbly notify the
government and the citizens that $2.6 million a year is too much,
and perhaps suggest that he or she would gladly accept $365,000 a
year or $1,000 a day (because almost everything is provided at the
Istana), and designate the difference of approximately $2.2 million
a year for fellow needy citizens. Otherwise, I urge you to
forthwith donate the said amount per year to your favourite
charitable organizations, and encourage others to do the
same.
With respect, I urge you to consider changing the perceived
materialistic attitude amongst Singaporeans, including the
extravagantly paid Ministers, very generously paid members of the
judiciary and senior civil servants, who do not consider service to
country and citizens before "market value based" compensation.
Please consider leaving a legacy by changing the materialistic
image of Singapore and Singaporeans.
Yours respectfully,
CKL
Actually I don't just think in the general context of the pay
increase of the President, or the general points.
Obviously the criticism of the pay increase is of well merit, and I
confirm that its very true, and very valid.
But what I'm worried about is that, in the general context of the
tax increases, which funds all these recent pay increases is that,
the new revenue is not for government policies that would help
people, and in some cases, new businesses, but for selfish
intentions such as personal benefits for the politicians in
power.
Any tax increase must have valid reasons, because its affects a
damn well lot of people and their life hoods, and if it was passed
because of selfish financial personal reasons of the politicians
instead of the people, then the motive is extremely questionable
and in severe doubt.
Besides, if the government wants to have more money for the
policies for the people, its very simple: cut government spending
on certain areas and use the saved amount of money to fund these
initiatives. Why don't they? If other governments can do it in
their own countries, why can't the PAP do the same?
Why must they keep on increasing the taxes(that affect the general
population) to fund the pay increases of top ministers instead? Why
can't they save the money?
And why can't they think in terms of people policies, instead of
just of their selfish personal financial reasons? I'm unhappy
because the amount they raise could have helped more people(or in
any case, any non-movement or even a tax decrease too), instead of
just funding selfish reasons.
That's why, in the context of the people, and their sufferings,
this pay increase, and this GST increase are fundamentally
unjustified and very, very questionable. And that's why I strongly
disagree with the tax increases, and the wage increases for top
tier civil servants and the government ministers in general.
