One day after the Dragon came in with a big bang, the ST today reported that the Commissioner of SCDF Peter Lim Sin Pang and Head of CNB Ng Boon Gay were both under probe by CPIB. This is really startling news to start the new lunar year with a bang. Since the big hike in salary for politicians and civil servants, corruption is more or less a thing of the past. With the kind of salary that is being paid, who would need to be corrupt anymore?
But as the saying goes, greed knows no bound and no matter how much one is being paid, greed will triumph over human weaknesses. And the contrary is that a good man will never succumb to greed no matter how much he is paid, a lot or very little.
If these two cases proved to be true, then there is a lot of rethinking needed on the high salary no corruption policy. And for the CPIB to be involved and for the two men to be under questioning, it is likely that the CPIB would have enough evidence to make the move.
Not a good bang to have from the Dragon.
21 comments:
All ministers and MPs must declare their assets before taking up their posts . When they leave their post it is mandatory that they declare their latest assets again and the relevant government authority must check that everything is prim and proper otherwise they have to be hauled before the court to answer charges for gross anomalies in the status of their assets.
Southernglory1
I AGREED that all high ranking officer must declare first before they take office
PAP .... What happened?
Why like this one?
If handsomely paid officials are involved in inappropriate behaviors, just wonder how are those under their charge???
The part that pisses me off is the fact that they knew this BEFORE the ministerial pay debate. If this came to light BEFORE the debate they would look like fools to have even proposed it. Now that they have debated and passed it now WE look like the fools.
You pay well so that there is no excuse for greed and throw the book at them if found there is cause. Frankly would disagree with you on paid little. Paid comfortably fine. Underpaid well red bean you were claiming you were underpaid in some of your articles and being very annoyed at the least.
They are scholars. They are high flyers. They are paid an obscene salary as compared to the ordinary people. They are given a benz as their official duty car. They are guaranteed for good and fast career path.
See what integrity these civil servants have? What about those on top? The politicians? How rotten is the whole system? So long is legalized corruption is not corruption, these elites will continue to take the public money since the government is not fully accountable and totally transparent to its people. The people have lost the trust on this government.
We are all made fools by the PAP government. The Party manipulates the 60 per cent daft Singaporeans like a child manipulating the plasticine.
By the way, don't blame the two senior servants for corruption. Blame the system and bad governance. Perhaps some senior servants think they are not paid high enough as well as others of the same talent. Perhaps they think they should be paid as high as the ministers, the PM or the President. The question is when is high salary enough or how high is high enough to stop temptation from corruption. The Party and the government must now search its soul for an honest answer. Is it salary is never high enough or is it the system of bad governance or both. Perhaps talent and high salary is not enough to deter temptation from corruption. Why not get expert psychologists to look into the character of every potential candidate for high office be it ministers or senior civil servants before they are appointed.
Southernglory1
Hey! Who is the Minister in charge of the two departments? The Minister in charge must hold the ultimate responsibility and resign forthwith.
No corruption, my foot. There will be corruption at the highest levels if the governance is not accountable and transparent. Abuse of power is also a form of corruption. The obscene pay without people's consent is also form of corruption.
CPIB should be independent rather than reporting only to the PM. CPIB should report to the people. Who checks on CPIB? Who checks on PM? There is a serious flaw in such dynasty system.
CPIB should not just investigate these 2 officers but must go upwards because the top must know what is going with these 2 officers. If not, the top needs to be responsible for not ensuring corruption-free and should resign since the top people are paid such obscene salary. Integrity of the whole MHA is the responsibility of the minister in charge.
SCDF and CNB are just 2 tips of the huge iceberg lah. Just need to be accountable and transparent, open all the secret books to the public, there surely can find many more such case. Why not check on SPF and all government departments as well? First of all, CPIB must be detached from PM and become a truly independent body reporting to the people.
Clearly, the PAP system in finding "good men" for the top posts is not full proof and therefore, in question.
If they can screw up such an important position, how can we be assured other equally important positions are not being occupied by "corrupt" office holders?
Smart people can outsmart the system or be merely corrupt, no?
CPIB = Guardians of Singapore.
So who guards the guardians?
[Singapore Management University law lecturer Eugene Tan pointed out that corruption cases are "almost inevitable since they involve human frailties".
"What is more important is..."}
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120125-0000053/Allegations-of-serious-personal-misconduct-against-SCDF-commissioner,-CNB-director
Hi Theonion, welcome to the blog. And a happy new year to you and everyone.
What is enough is relative. To many there is no such thing as enough. Personally, a household income of $20k pm should allow one to live a pretty comfortable life here. Some will sneer at me and say i am talking nonsense. A tai tai would need $100k a month to amuse herself.
So it is not surprising that $50k is not enough and would degrade the quality of life of some.
Look at it from another angle, it is like telling those earning lesser that they have no quality of life or a much lower quality of life.
Then look at those earning $2k or $3k, might as well tell them that their lives are not worth living. But they are saying this is the best place to live even if one is earning a few thousands a month. And live within your means.
And would people living a $50k pm lifestyle really understand what it is like living with a couple of thousands a month? They may think these people don't even exist, or inhumans, poor souls that need to make do with that kind of pittance.
See, without the high pay, it could be worst. More will be corrupt.
The myth of "High Pay equals no Corruption" needs to be debunked , good start with this latest fiasco involving law agencies ... what irony !!!
Oh, come on! Corruption is everywhere at every corner around the world. Sin is no exception la!
True, no need to be alarmed.
Why is the identity of this woman such a guarded secret? Is she Mongolian?
Post a Comment