1/16/2012

Ministerial Salary - Day of reckoning

Monday 16 Jan 2011 could be the most significant day in the history of Singapore politics. It is a day when the grossly overpaid compensation package of the ministers, a world record that belittles all other records in the Guinness Book of Records, will be put under the microscope. It could be expected that every single dollar paid under the system will be questioned. But one thing for sure, the world record will stand at least for another 4 years.

What is important is that the ruling govt will have to defend its position and justifications for the high salary at a time when its credibility is under question. It is also a time when there are more than 2 opposition party MPs sitting on the opposition bench, and with everyone of them equally and professionally qualified, to challenge the crème de la crème of Singapore’s hard nose elite.

The whole bunch of PAP MPs will be closely watched on what they say, what they defend, what they stand for and their value system. This will be a day when the truth of what they represent will be hung up for all the people to see. How real are they will determine their fortune in the next GE if they are still around. Who knows, some may feel so embarrassed and may be pricked by their conscience to want to quit prematurely than to go through it till 2016.

What is of great concern is that the people will also be watching the opposition MPs closely. Will they measure up to the PAP? Are they meticulous and reasonable in their disagreement with the high salary recommendations? Are they good enough to form the base for a bigger opposition in the next GE and even to win the next election? They have a tough job and a heavy responsibility to prove to the electorate that they are worth their trust to represent them and are as good as the ruling party in intellect, and better morally, to be the next govt.

The media, mainly the professional reporters and journalists, have an arduous task of keeping the people informed of every pertinent things said by every MP in Parliament, to provide a clean, objective and unbiased account of the debate in Parliament. They too are being watched.

This is the Battle Royale the people are waiting for, with an equally sensitive and emotionally charged agenda on the table. But the people must accept that the battle is strongly against the opposition MPs in numbers. The only big gun they have is the conscience of PAP MPs and the power of the people who will be gunning for justice and equality and will not be forgiving if the PAP MPs proved to be a disappointment. They will be judged by the people, not by any KPI the PM handed to them at his discretion. It is the people’s KPI, the people’s expectation of what is a good MP and what the people want, not what the PM wants.

This is the real KPI that is under scrutiny, the KPI that counts, would not pay them more bonuses, but the electorate will reward them with another term, or they are fired.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

But hor, one thing i dun understand, maybe I 'N' level only not super talent.

Prease explain to me this, can? How come econmy good, can go up 15%, they say they make it go up one and want a lot of money.

But then hor, econmy no good that time, they say ouside country make one and they still want a lot of money.

You understand or not my question? Because hor, i also dun understand my own question. Like that very confuse

Anonymous said...

Best is horr ... you everything oso dun understands , like dat horr ... very easy to be conned by the pigs.

Anonymous said...

There are no OB markers !! It's man made , ermm more like made by that blardy woody. Everything should be put up for scrutiny , starting with GIC/Temmamadesick selling bonds to CPF to raid the people of this land. Can the opposition prease raise this issue as well, prease.

Anonymous said...

They must add that good results obtained due to external factors should be discounted.

Anonymous said...

Somemore hor. Econmy no good that time, they say lucky got them, if not lagi jialat.

Like dis also can, izzit?

Like dis hor, anyhow do also can get money one, light or long? Where got like dat one?

Anonymous said...

Light and Long

Anonymous said...

prease and hor yourself to longkang kah

Anonymous said...

Why do I get the feeling that the oppositions will be "cooperative" and not rigorously challenge thir rice bowl?

And the ever two headed media snakes will craftily lean towards their political masters as they deliver their objective reports?

Anonymous said...

Pay not a factor! Many are saying, just tell us how much you want.

Would the 'pay not a factor' gang say, just pay us what you wish?

Anonymous said...

Haha...

Mr Bean is the only ever-optimistic Singaporean alive.
Wishing the Opposition to kick the arses is wishful thinking.
Hoping the PAP MPs to rekindle their consciences is wistful.
Thinking that Sinkies will vote out the Incumbent in the next election is wild imagination.

As for the Official Medias, rest assure that they will be justifying every move of the Authority. They are the main machinery of the Power that is also their Paymaster.

Mr Bean, You can be assured that come 2016, You will still be writing what You have written here.

Anonymous said...

Sigh ... the anon might be right .... I fear with the handful of opp representatives, may not have much impact, we may be in for a big disappoinment. A big wet blanket as usual...

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

You guys maybe right. With a time limitation, is it 15 min, the whole thing could be over in a couple of hours. The Speaker will have to work doubly hard to keep time for each MP to speak.

Anonymous said...

Sinkies are really bad. They make their ministers sacrifice for them and still so ungrateful. Everytime a minister speaks about his sacrifice, you can see their eyes welling, tears almost falling out. They are doing so much for the good of the Sinkies.

The Sinkies should give them a break. Let them go and make all the monies they could and get some other sinkies to do the sacrificing. Please spare them, for goodness sake, from sacrificing their whole career, now no more pension, their privacy, the quality of their family life, and a life time to serve the Sinkies.

It is so unfair.

Anonymous said...

Day of reckoning is still far away.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Grace Fu is a minister without grace and is very ungracious to the city which wrongly and illegally pay her and her fellow ministers so much for doing so little that is worthy to Singapore. She has openly shown her disssatisfaction from her heart and if we are not mistaken she is symbolic of most of the ministers and PAP MPs in mind and spirit in their real colours to serve the country for the sake of money and not for anything else. In the meantime her colleague Tony Tan who ran aground GIC and caused Singapore to lose more than 42 billion dollars can still be a President collecting millions of dollars in obscene salary for the next six years.

Paying themselves obscene high salaries is bad enough but what is worse is that they burden the people with all sorts of unreasonable tax via high PUB charges, high transport fees in SBS and SMRT, high medical cost, high property tax, high cost of COEs and ERPs and a myriad of other hidden charges as in GST.

To top their sin they have ignored the welfare of the people causing untold suffering to hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans who are suffering in silence. Every year thousands of Singaporeans have died unnecessarily from cancer, heart disease, kidney trouble and diabetes because they cannot afford the high cost of medical treatment. For many who survive the diseases they are greatly impoverished as they have to sell their house to repay huge loans from friends and relatives and from loan sharks.

If the PAP government has any conscience it should sincerely lighten the people's burden and suffering by reducing taxes, abolish GST for medical and hospital charges, reduce medical
cost and help the poor and middle class in other ways.

PAP ministers and MPs should wake up and stop being self serving and hypocrital in claiming that they want to serve the people when it is actually the Money God they are serving and that's the reason their obscene high salary is never high enough. They must sincerely change or the people will change them in 2016.

Southernglory1

January 17, 2012 9:49 PM