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3/20/2015
Out of this world’s ministerial pay under pressure
This is another take on the poor minister’s salaries. The ministers are feeling tremendous pressure from the ground to raise their out of this world salary to another level. They were hinting that they wanted to do something about their pay being stagnant for 3 years but fearing a call to raise their ridiculous pay higher would precipitate an end to their PR status in Parliament.
In 2011, there were signs and indications that they were looking forward to another round of fat increases but the whole plan was shelved after the set back in the GE. A Ministerial Salary Review Committee was hurriedly assembled to readjust their pay downwards and the 24 months lucrative bonus scheme was scrapped and replaced by a more ‘Spartan’ watered down version with less than 12 month bonus scheme.
This set back was painful and a minister threatened to leave politics as the pay would affect the lifestyle of the family. The minister was subsequently promoted and regained all the lifestyle missed as a result of the salary cut.
Three years have passed and with the high cost of living, with Sin City becoming the most expensive city on earth, how could they make do with their miserable pay and with no increases for 3 long years? The pain and discomfort must be getting unbearable. It is high time that their pay be revised, after all the handout budget is giving so many billions to the people, why were the ministers left out in the cold? Oh, they also get some of the handouts from the budget I think. But those are pittance really. What could a miserable couple of thousand dollars do when some were yelping what is 10 million?
The problem, would the people allow a small increase of say 10%, mathematically speaking, only 3% per year to offset 3 years of drought? Only 3% mah? Is the ground sweet for an increase? Let’s test the water first. The people’s mood must be good, with surveys saying the people are very happy with the handout budget.
Should the govt proceed with the next step like reconvening the Ministerial Salary Review Committee? The govt seems to be approaching this issue very cautiously. It is the first time that the weight of the people is being felt by the deaf frogs. Yes, felt, they may not be able to hear, but still can feel. It was ‘just do it’ in the past when the daft were so easy to please or cow. Has anything changed? Is the govt starting to get more sensitive to how the people feel or react to things like asking the people to cough out another plate of char kway teow? Things cannot become so difficult after losing one GRC right? This govt is proud of its ‘just do it’ when it is right, no need to listen to the people. Maybe they know that it is not right yet, not the right time to do it. It cannot be that the people are putting pressure on the govt to hold back their horses on any impending pay hike. They will do it if it is the right thing to do, be sure about that.
Which is which? What is holding the govt back from giving themselves another raise when thing are going so well. How about making it as part of the SG50 Celebration, to make the ministers happy also since they have been working so hard to make the people so happy with all their well conceived schemes?
What is holding the govt back from giving themselves another raise when thing are going so well.
ReplyDeleteRB
So that they can do better in the next GE than only the 60% they got in GE 2011 lah. Or maybe even making a clean sweep of all seats in the next GE, just like in the good old days before 1981.
Now if u were PM Lee, don't u think it is worth holding back on another raise, if it can help PAP to improve on the 60% they got in 2011?
That PAP will win the next GE is assured, as long as no Sinkie opposition leader announce his/her party will contest 100% seats next GE as one party.
ReplyDeleteI repeat hor, "as one party". Because even if the opposition contest 100% seats with as many parties as there are now, that will make the 60% even more scared to vote PAP out.
Why?
Because seriously speaking and assuming the Sinkie opposition, instead of PAP, together win 93% seats, can u expect Teochew Ah Hia, Hainan Ah Ko, Aung Juan Soon Chee, son of JBJ, the Chiams, and the "party hopping frogs", etc to work together to form a better govt than PAP?
"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
ReplyDeleteOliver Cromwell
If only Cromwell could speak in the Singapore Parliament.
I mean PAP Parliament ... not Singapore parliament.
ReplyDeleteIf only Cromwell could speak in the Singapore Parliament.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:27 am
If only the 60% existed during Cromwell time.
Their one month salary can buy 10000 plates of char kwe teow.
ReplyDelete5000 sacks of rice, 1000000 rolls of toilet paper
Still not enough???
Want Io buy the whole of Sentosa cove????
ReplyDeleteBe Very Generous! Don't Be Stingy!
Of Course! Of Course!
Our ministers deserved the raise
in their salaries and bonuses!
They worked very very very very
very hard!
Be Very Generous! Be Very Generous!
Don't Be Stingy! Don't Be Stingy!
TGIF. Cheers.
The biggest strategic mistake of the PAP is the astronomical ministerial pay. This is the cause of all the unhappiness. With high pay, people expect commensurate performance. With low pay, lapses here and there and inadequacies of infrastructure can be tolerated and even excused. But not when you demand top-of-the-chart pay. This will eventual prove to be the downfall of the PAP. Sigh.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe 10.15am pls note.....
You are correct with the theory.
But there is another theory.
If there are enough HIGH salaried
voters in this tiny city state,
the high-position-high-salary
model may be "sustainable"!
And, those low-position-low-pay
can only kpkb, but very sorry,
no one cares!
This is life!
The biggest strategic mistake of the PAP is the astronomical ministerial pay.
ReplyDeleteThe 10:15 am
But if that does not come with the the big risk of PAP being voted out, then it is no mistake, let alone biggest and strategic one.
And if the risk did not happen in GE 2011, why should the risk be any different in the next one? Especially for daft Sinkies, the PAP now is better than the PAP of 2011?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete/// And if the risk did not happen in GE 2011, why should the risk be any different in the next one? Especially for daft Sinkies, the PAP now is better than the PAP of 2011? ///
Rome wasn't built in a day. GE2011 was only the start - they lost one GRC, didn't they? And one GRC with 3 ministerial material. Their winning margin has been whittled down to 60.1% (66.6% in 2006, and 75.3% in 2001). Several GRCs and SMC were won by the PAP with very slim margin.
The slide is on. That's why they have to belatedly throw some sops to the hoi polloi (Pioneer Generation Package, SG 50 pork-barrel celebrations, etc.)
Let's wait and see if the risk is increasing or decreasing for next GE, shall we?
I am one bugger who has consistently DEFENDED the sky high obscene and jaw-dropping ministerial pay.
ReplyDeleteKeep the gangsters happy lah. Pay them off. Then you can do whatever shit you want :-)
Legendary hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones II gave a dire warning about the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the US during a sold out TED Talk in Canada this week.
ReplyDelete“Now here’s a macro forecast that’s easy to make and that’s that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest it will get closed.
History always does it.
It typically happens in one of three ways– either through revolution, higher taxes or wars.
“Higher profit margins do not increase societal wealth. What they actually do is exacerbate income inequality, and that’s not a good thing.”
"I’m pleading for recognition that with increased wealth or profits should come, has to come … greater corporate social responsibility.”
SOURCE:
http://www.businessinsider.sg/paul-tudor-jones-on-inequality-2015-3/#.VQuQF-HiOFs
I actually wrote a piece about historical precedents to a revolution. Will post it when convenient.
ReplyDeleteredbean, the world is very different now. I'm not so sure historical precedents will apply.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say "very different" I mean, very FUCKING different. Even human nature is slowly changing. We are more and more entangled with our machines....to the point we cannot exist as we know it without them.
That's the real game-changer. We are fast becoming a "hybrid" or "integrated" species.
Got selfie-stick?
The deaf frogs will not listen.
ReplyDeleteAnd they will not repent.
Especially the Founding Deaf Frog; Die, die will not repent.
Likely he will just say to God "I stand corrected."
Unlikely he will say "I was wrong. I am sorry for what I have done."
And we can now add Matilah to the long list of idiots repeating the mantra "This time it's different".
ReplyDelete"This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly"
Book by Carmen Reinhart
http://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Different-Centuries-Financial/dp/0691152640
The so-called "gap" between rich and poor in 1st world cuntrees is a little bit of a chimera.
ReplyDeleteThe poorest person in a rich 1st world cuntree is already wealthier than a king was 200 years ago. The poorest people in rich cuntrees have access to healthcare, education, basic entry level jobs, basic food, basic shelter...and a reasonable amount of security.
Consider the same person's plight even at the beginning of the 20th century: probably still a peasant or a beggar, no healthcare, no education, forget about jobs or security. Food is probably a luxury, and shelter depends largely on luck, or charity.
@ 1155:
ReplyDeleteSo you think Reinhart is an idiot? Have you read the book or not, because I have. It is excellent.
P.S. BTW if you didn't get the joke in the book's title from Rogoff & Reinhart, then you are beyond help, and the joke's probably on you ;-)
ReplyDeleteMatilah Asshole.
ReplyDeleteYou walked right into it you pseudo-LKY apologist.
- Reinhart & Rogoff admits their Excel spreadsheet error.
FAQ: Reinhart, Rogoff, and the Excel Error That Changed History
SOURCE:
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-18/faq-reinhart-rogoff-and-the-excel-error-that-changed-history
Posted in another blog:
ReplyDelete-------------------------
The tiny tiny town of Zug in Switzerland is the exact mirror image of what our leaders would like to achieve. See how it drove out the local residents to the outer land.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904875404576528123989551738
Over here in SG, the writings are clearly on the walls already. The old are retiring in JB and middle class are living in JB to commute to work and earn in SG. That is quite an achievement don't you think, within 2 decades between the Seat warmer and the Pinceling. More swiss standard anyone?
http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/johor-sultan-singaporeans-will-live-johor-and-work-singapore
Many things changed. People also changed. Some more, some less. Some changed to move forward. Some changed to move backwards.
ReplyDeleteKelatan just passed a state law to go back to chopping off hands and legs. This ISIS want to go back to the time of the Caliphate.
Revolution today does not mean the same kind of revolution of yesterday but can also be the same.
@1237
ReplyDelete>> You walked right into it you pseudo-LKY apologist.
Hahaha...you think so? OK lah. Go "reward" yourself a beer, with your Paul Krugmans and other Keynesians lah.
Their research still is excellent. So what if they made a few calculating errors? Big deal.
Anyway, I get it: you don't like capitalism. I do. It has rewarded me quite nicely, thank you :-)
Once LKY goes to rest, his pension and wages and savings in medical costs can spread out to those ministers as bonus. This is a win win.
ReplyDelete" The poorest people in rich cuntrees have access to healthcare, education, basic entry level jobs, basic food, basic shelter...and a reasonable amount of security."
ReplyDelete- they are many eu people without those things in a rich eu country. they are homeless or live in squatter camps . imagine what is winter for these people. some are even children. some authors are living in another planet or trying to give people a wrong impression of the real world.
"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776156/Shanty-town-UK-Inside-squatter-camp-London-river-home-30-Romanian-migrants.html"
@ cherry-picking the data, b:
ReplyDelete>> they are many eu people without those things in a rich eu country.
There are many more who do have access. Sure, there'll always be poor people, no matter how rich the cuntree gets. However most of them are poor by choice; or rather bad choices, and occasionally bad luck. However it is easier to "recover" in a rich, mature liberal western-style, capitalist democracy...you have so many options available to you. Being poor is temporary. There is really no valid excuse for staying poor.
I shall repeat again that they can pay themselves whatever amount THEY WANT.
ReplyDeleteSo long there is no one starved to death or any make to slave for their WANTS OF MONEY, GO AHEAD AND MAKE YOUR PILE WITH CONSCIENCE.
JUST BE REMINDED THAT CURRENCIES OF THE HUMAN WORLD ARE NOT LEGAL TENDER IN OTHER REALMS.
patriot
Once immoral and unethical thinking and behaviour can be passed in a Parliament to become legal and lawful, corruption has become a well polished and well oiled modus operandi of the Highly Intelligent Crooks in the Existence of Mankind.
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