Ministerial Salary Review - Time to ask the minister

How much do you want? As the salary or money issue continues to engage the daft Sinkies, I would suggest that they get real. Throw away all the fictitious and fallacious assumptions and formulas. There is no right or wrong answer. What is right to the ministers may not be right to the people and vice versa. What is right to one minister may be wrong to another.

Let’s just ask them how much they want and spare everyone from ridiculing themselves and their credibility with all kinds of rubbish proposals. It is a very destructive exercise. It destroys respectabilty and dignity when people came up with packages that are just good for a laugh. I would suggest the ministers themselves come out with 3 options, be it $3m, $5m, or $10m (no more complicated formulas or bonuses) and let the people, the small shareholders of this piece of rock, to vote for it. Oh, include another option for ‘Sorry, reject’. No need for more deceptions, pretensions and contrived logics to be morally correct, righteous, upright, need to pay talent or attract talent, need to prevent corruption, etc etc. No need any explanation or excuses. No bull shits, no high falutins.

Just simply say how much and vote. Better to put up during a GE and save one more voting process. Let’s not waste any more time and effort on something that nobody has a good or acceptable answer. I think it will be more dignified to tell the world that the people approved the salary and voted for it, instead of all the goose pimple explanations that people would only snigger in the toilets and became the butt of silly jokes in cocktail parties.

The blessing of SMRT breakdowns

In every dark cloud there is a silver lining. And the SMRT fiasco is no exception. Many good things came out from it. Never did the authority know that there were so many faults and maintenance issues that need to be rectified and put right. Didn’t the authority know that there are so many emergency procedures that were put to a real test and found wanting. It was all a big lapse.

Nevermind, it is better that it happened in a case like this than a real and nasty one and caught everyone with his pants down. We were given time, grace, to put things right. The only thing we do not want it to happen again is that another incident blows up and a spate of committees and inquiry boards are formed again to find out what went wrong and how to put them right again. Let this be the early warning, a concession given, an opportunity to clear the road blocks and put things in order.

A pleasant point to note after listening to Tuck Yew’s speech in Parliament is that our train cabins are built like a space capsule, insulated. Commuters are safe inside if there is poison gas attack from the outside. The capsule is sealed and the poison gas would not get in. I think the ventilation must also be circulating air that is in the cabin and not from the outside.

As to the suggestion by Yaw Shin Leong to consider having ventilation windows that could be opened by the commuters during an emergency is a questionable thing. Commuters who are suffocating inside a train cabin could be tempted to open the vent without knowing that there were toxic and poisonous gas outside.

This train capsule is an added protection for the commuters. Now I know how safe I am when taking the train.

The unfairest cut of a clean wage bill

The debate on the world’s highest ministerial salary continues. What is unfortunate is that all the nitwits are stretching their discussions to both ends of the extremes, that we should not pay our ministers out of this world salary or pay them to be paupers. When one starts to argue on the premises of extremes, the argument becomes silly and so do the nitwits. None is trying to ask the simple question of what is enough and decent for the ministers.

After reading all the comments I have come to the conclusion that the ministerial salary is fair and not out of this world. It cannot be as it is a reality within this world.

The favourite comparison is the President of the US and his pittance salary. But his overall income is unclean, a lot of hidden perks especially a White House to stay. Never mind if he would to be booted out in the next election. Then his Air Force One. Never mind if America is a continent. Never mind if Air Force One is a command post and not a Ferrari to drive around to eat wind over the weekend. And yes, we are a piece of rock. That is exactly the reason why we should pay our politicians that kind of not out of this world salary. It is so difficult to govern a small piece of rock. And Obama has an army of staff to help him to make his job so much easier. He can be a dummy, but the music will be just as good.

In our case, the poor ministers have something like 20 or 30 portfolios to be responsible for. I am exaggerating of course. Nothing of the sort. Now many of you did not know that right? He needed 29.5 hours a day to do those jobs. It is inhuman to subject them to this kind of workload.

There are many things we did not know, even the clean wage. We did not know that they are paid Special Allowance Bonus. And only for a miserable one month bonus for being so special. And how could the Salary Review Committee removed this allowance? This is definitely unfair. The Special Allowance Bonus should be at least 6 months to be special and deserving.

Then there were also 2 months of Leadership Allowance Bonus which none of us know until now. But as ignorant masses, how could we know if we don’t read the Hansard or the media. They must have been reported somewhere as these are official and legally paid. And what is there for the people to know? All ministers are leaders and paying them Leadership Allowance Bonus is as natural as durians on a durian tree. And how could the Review Committee removed this too?

Now whoever put these bonuses into the salary must take it up with the Review Committee and demand that they should be reinstated, including the Special Allowance. And both should be raised to 6 months each. Unless the Review Committee can convince everyone that they are not special and have no leadership. Then it would be fair to remove them.

I could go on with the Performance Bonuses, the GDP Bonuses and whatever bonuses that I did not know. The point is that these are legitimate rewards and all transparent and clean. Why should they be removed? Anything wrong with them? The Review Committee must explain to the people’s satisfaction that they are wrong before they can remove them. They are uniquely Singaporean and a creative and innovative way to pay our ministers. Countries of the world can learn from us. Now they could only be envious of our Guinness Book of Record, not only of paying the top salary in the world but also the best run and corruption free country, with clean salary.

Are we saying that the existing salary is not clean and need to be replaced by a cleaner one? I protest. We have the cleanest salary package for our ministers at a discount, and the poor ministers would now have to suffer the indignity of their salary being questioned and arbitrarily slashed by an average of 36%. This is simply outrageous.

What needs to be cut are the perks of those political leaders that are unclean and hidden, like Air Force One. I think the Americans are starting on this, maybe from 3 Air Force One to only one. And the American President will henceforth travel on roads instead of flying around for fun.

The Ministerial Salary Review Committee has overdone their cuts and embarrassed our ministers. Our minister’s salary is fair, decent and above all clean and transparent. Everyone knows how much they are getting as reported in the media. No hidden or unknown perks.

Malaysia entering a new phase of freedom and accommodation

I was curious when the police allowed the rally in support of Anwar at the High Court. It could be a very serious demo if Anwar was found guilty. Now that the truth is out, very likely the verdict was already known and the goodwill for approving the rally was the final touches to a happy ending to a bad saga.

The opposition should appreciate this new openness and freedom they are enjoying under Najib and may they move forward towards a more inclusive society minus the vibes and acrimony of the Mahathir era. They could bury the past and be less combative and abusive towards each other.

Anwar can then go and contest the general election as a new man with a new ethos. Hopefully less of the bad blood will flow this time. What I don’t understand are the few bombs that exploded. Someone is still unhappy and did not want the party to go on. Someone wanted the bitching and fighting to continue, I guess.

Yesterday’s mantra, today’s high falutin

How things can change overnight. Many great arguments, uncontested and unchallenged, were elevated to become the daily mantras of Sinkies. Overnight, after a heavy storm, the dull Sinkie minds seem to have brightened after the rain water flooded them. Now they are calling all the mantras high falutins. They don’t believe in any of them anymore.

The first to fall is the high salary for super talent. This brought along the demise of high salary to prevent corruption mantra. This is amazing. As they said, real gold is not afraid of fire. But gold plating is a different thing altogether. How many high mantras are going the high falutin way?

Maybe the Sinkies are going crazy and the old mantras are still valid but the Sinkies could not appreciate how valuable they were.

Welcome to the Third World

Is this what is happening to Singapore? Or is it just a case of a little bad govt for the testing to remind the Sinkies not to pray pray with what they already got?

For nearly 30 years, the train was running quite near to clockwork precision or as good as you can get. Any disruption was minor and not something to be expected. Over the last few weeks, train faults, delays, slow down etc etc were a daily affair and is now expected. A trouble free ride is something that one can count to be lucky to experience.

What the shit is going on? It looks like the whole system has been allowed to decay and finally everything is breaking down, irreparable. Or all the parts have reached their shelf life and either the whole system be replaced or living with a rackety train system is the new normal?

A crisis like this needs a superman to appear at different places at any time to get things done and get going. Are Sinkies ready to live with slow mass rapid transport? I am seeing many are already readjusting their expectation of what a mass rapid transport system is all about, a bit slow, frequent interruptions and delays, long waiting time, and a crowded platform and train whenever there is a disruption.

The slide down to Third World is moving faster by the day.

The new corporate raiders

Soros and his company were once the typical corporate raiders the commercial world was used to. They have been superceded by a new brand of corporate raiders that are running and ruining many corporations to bankruptcies. The new corporate raiders are the senior management of corporations, hired to run the corporations but ended up raiding the corporations.

The lack of accountability and the dilution of ownership of the majority small shareholders who could not cast their votes together to prevent the corporations from be robbed from beneath their noses is happening to all big organisations that are public listed. The new owners are actually the senior management working hand in glove with the board of directors.

With full power and authority in their hands, the two groups pay themselves crazy with all kinds of justifications, through share options, bonuses, golden handshakes, severance pay, and perks. Can’t imagine anyone could contribute so much to earn $100k a month, while some of these turkeys conveniently helped themselves with a million or more a month. Would these turkeys be able to tell how productive they are to earn their keeps? Imagine paying one $10m a year which will add up to $100m in 10 years!

Oh, they made decisions that are worth billions. True. But the billions are not only OPM, they could lose billions and not having to pay a single cent for it and still collect their ransoms. It is a disproportionate reward system where the turkeys keep filling up their pockets with the funds of the organisation no matter if the organisation is making or losing money. They could even cook the numbers to feast themselves. And they pay themselves over the moon when there is a little profit, genuine or fictitious. And when they lose millions or billions, they will argue that the organisation could lose more if not of their expertise and contributions. It is a head they win and tail you lose formula. The security guards of Fort Knox should be paid millions too.

The real owners of the organisations have been robbed daily, under bright daylight by these corporate raiders all across the world, using the western model of operation and system. Never have employees been allowed to dip into the coffers of organisations at will, and help themselves to as much as they want.

So British PM David Cameron is trying to curb these abuses, to return control of organisations back to their rightful owners, the minority shareholders. The same formula can be applied to running countries when rogues took over the govt. The citizens, the real owners of the countries would lose all control of their countries to the minority of rulers who just help themselves to the wealth of the nations as if it belongs to them.

Would David Cameron be successful and right this corporate corruption and change the ethos of corporate governance and the reward system?

Obama fighting for more money

He told the Americans that this is a tough battle. He needs money, and more money. And he has to fight Congress for it. No, he is not fighting for his own pay. If he does, I would recommend him the Singapore formula and the Singapore system. Just tell Congress that there is this wonderful model that works, and it pays the head of govt a basic of $3m with 27.5 months of variable bonuses as backup in case he performs well in his job.

He can then submit it to Congress to do all the cuts Congress wants. A 50% or 70% cut will still find him richer than the miserable $600k he is getting now. Unfortunately the American Congress is not so easy to deal with. There are opposition camps, there are also many checks and balances, above which, no one is allowed to write his own pay check or approve them.

My apologies, I digressed. Obama is fighting for more money for the American soldiers to conduct wars everywhere. As an American President, the top responsibility and the most important job is to conduct wars to feed the war industry and the soldiers. Nothing is more important than this. Not even fighting for his own pay rise. Anyway, his pay will only be decided by Congress and even if he admired the Singapore system and wanted it, he would not be able to do so.

It is a different culture. Asian culture is such that everyone is presumed to be corrupt. To be corrupt is in their blood. The only way to protect a guy from being corrupt is to legalise his payouts at whatever amount he thinks it will be needed to prevent him from being corrupt.

Can’t imagine Obama or any American President go in front of Congress or the American people and demand to be paid in millions to keep him from being corrupt. The Americans will laugh themselves to death before they could even put it to a vote. That is how strange their culture is. They don’t believe in corruption and will not pay for corruption.

Who should public institutions serve?

This is a non issue for commercial enterprises selling hamburgers, shirts, mobile phones or chicken rice. Their primary preoccupation is to serve their customers, make them happy with their services and products to boost their bottom lines. And they can only boost their bottom lines if the customers are satisfied with their services.

None of these enterprises can hope to compete and exist in the market if their only interest is profit to please the shareholders. And the shareholders know too, that without the customers, they can forget about profits and the business.

In a monopoly, things get a little hazy. They can dump the customers, cut corners, provide substandard services and products and still get away with it. The customers have no choice. And they can blatantly carry the shareholder’s interest around to spank the customers. ‘We are answerable to the shareholders you know!’

If they are selling IPad or IPhone that are in demand, and the customers die die must have, no issue. Willing buyer willing seller, even if it is a monopoly, they can still have their cake and eat it. What if it is a public service like transportation? I can see eyes popping out now.

A public transport company has to serve the customers and the shareholders and also the national interest. Let me take the first two first. Between the shareholder’s interest and the interest of the customers, which is more important? Silly me to ask. If it is a monopoly, they can screw the customers and tell them they need to make profits for the shareholders first. Customers come second or third. What can the customers do? This is the reality of life, just lump it.

What if the money to build the facilities and the business first came from the customers, indirectly through the public coffer? Now this will make the customers angry for sure. Using public money to start a monopoly business and tell the public that the first priority is to serve the shareholders.

Do they care if the customers are transported to their destinations fast, comfortable and safe? Can any of these be compromised? You tell me.

The more important role of public transportation is to provide an efficient transport system to lubricate the economy and social activities. The economy depends on the efficient and safe transportation of people and workers all over the island, for economic and non economic activities. Failing to do this is undermining the economy and the social fabric of the society. A country can be crippled by a major breakdown of public transportation. Can a transport company carry the shareholder’s interest on its head and say, my shareholder’s interest comes first, the train can be slow, uncomfortable, unsafe, these are secondary? Can a transport company price the fares so high that people find it too expensive even to travel, or to go to work?

The top priorities of a public transport company, started with public money, must be national interest, the moving of people safely and efficiently, at a reasonable cost, and also the comfort and interest of the commuters. The shareholder’s profit must come last, and incidental to providing a good and efficient service. The shareholder’s interest cannot be the first and top most priority of a public monopoly. But this is just my opinion. I may be wrong or I am wrong. The shareholder’s interest is all that is.

And don’t forget the uniquely Singapore logic that it can only be efficient if it is privatised. No wonder non privatised institutions are so inefficient.

I was overwhelmed

The events that were unfolding over the last two days must have numbed many Sinkies. After reading all the information laid out on the salaries of ministers, I am still in a state of shock.

The GE was like a minor earthquake of 5 in the Richter scale followed by an after shock in the Presidential Election. This revelation is like a 7. There will be bigger after shocks, and maybe a tsunami over the horizon. Things are happening very fast. The People’s perception and support for the ruling party is going to take a hit.

As an observer of political events, the GE was a small shake up and a little warning of worst to come. Seven months past, other than Boon Wan, who seems to be sensing something wrong and hastily trying to do some damage control, the rest do not seem to see any urgency for change. The 7 months of grace period to regain lost ground were wasted in a way. The expected hikes in fees and charges are flowing in predictably and in orderly fashion. Even minimum sums in CPF were raised as a non event. There is absolutely no need to consult the people, taking the people for granted.

Now this huge earthquake is going to shaken and loosen every foundation there is, and if a tsunami is to strike, it is going to be a waste land like Fukushima. I am still wondering how this salary thing is going to impact the ruling party and whether they can weather this perfect storm. At the moment there is no answer to the shocking revelation. What was being reported, written in blogs, are just the tip of an iceberg. The true sentiment of the people is simmering inside and would not come out in full, at least for the moment. There are still too much restraints and refrains from telling the truth. The PAP will never hear the truth.

What is more troubling is that there are some who are praising the Salary Recommendations. This will give the PAP a false sense of confidence that the prescription by the Review Committee is the solution they are waiting for. The more congratulatory support for the recommendations the more delusion they will get into. When the imperial physicians diagnosed that the emperor was only having measles instead of syphilis, there was a big sigh of relief and self congratulations. The physicians were brilliant. And the prescriptions were equally brilliant, just a few days of panadol and Vitamin C and the emperor will be back to good health. The diagnosis was what they wanted to hear and the prescription was what they wanted, and the imperial physicians did what they thought was best for everyone, including the emperor and their own good.

Is there any more goodwill left, any more political capital left, for the ruling party to survive this crisis, or I am just imagining things? What crisis? There will be a resurrection! Would the party be given a new lease of life after this storm and come out stronger? Or this is just a tropical storm and nothing more to it, and things will be back to normal in no time, with bright and sunny sky? Those who wanted the diagnosis to be measles would tell you that this is just a tropical storm and will blow over. Let’s hope they will be right again.

As a political observer, my crystal ball is revealing a different story.

Grace Fu, feel sorry for you

I read what Grace Fu said. She came forward to serve the country with a cut in income, her career disrupted, the privacy of her life and family affected, and now this, a further cut in her salary.

This is indeed too much to ask for from a fellow citizen. Lose money, lost out in career and now lose more money. I can understand her unhappiness. I will support her if she chooses to leave politics and go back to advance her career and enjoy her higher income, and all the privacy of a normal citizen.

Sinkies are ungrateful indeed. Let’s all be more graceful and leave her alone. And if she so decides to return to the private sector, so be it, and wish her well. Happiness and peace of mind are important. If a political career is making her life so miserable, she should do what is good for herself and her family.

When would the rogue govt be stopped?

After killing two Arab Presidents, it is now gunning for the third. At the same time it is preparing to start wars in the Korean Peninsula and South China Sea. It is forcing Iran into a corner by all kinds of sanctions possible. Under such provocations, it would be justifiable and expected for Iran to do a Pearl Harbour like what the Japs did under similar provocations and economic strangulations.

The odds at the moment are heavily against the Iranians. Cornered and isolated, separated from the world, and with no countries to come to its aid as it faces the rogue Americans with Israel and Nato tagging alone. This is the same formula for successful intimidation and invasion of countries by the western powers.

Divide and isolate a country and mount an attack with a coalition of forces. The UN is helpless, and the best thing to do is to put on the blinkers and see nothing, hear nothing. When would the rest of the world stand together to face this rogue nation and its rogue allies before their turns come? The world would need a counter coalition of countries to stand up to the rogue nations of the world, or one by one will face the same fate if they dare to disobey the Empire and the western gangs of bullies.

At the way it is going, Iran is going to be another sacrificial lamb in no time. When they came for Iraq, everyone kept quiet. Whey they came for Libya, everyone turn to look the other way. When they came for Iran, all ran away. When they came for you, be assured, you will be alone at the mercy of the rogues.

How much is the right amount to pay our ministers?

This question keeps popping up in every discussion after the discovery of how much the ministers are getting under the current formula. And when this question was asked, many would want to say $200k or $300k or $500k. But all were too shy to say it. They know that these numbers would not be accepted by people used to earning millions and have millions as their base reference point. The best example is what Gerard Ee quoted, that his peers would tell him not to kacho them for anything less than a million.
They would only be comfortable with millions and millions, nothing less.

And it is only right that these millionaires should not be coerced to suffer by going into politics to earn less when the heart is not there. Or else when they come in they would quietly devise all kinds of schemes and formulas to ensure that they get back what they want and more for the big sacrifice to go into politics. Money minded people will only think money even if they tell you money is not important or not a consideration.

A cat will say it would not want to eat mice. But eating rats is ok. Rodents, big ones, better still. Just don’t give it any mouse. They could even cut out the big rats or rodents into many pieces and tell you they are eating only a leg or a piece of steak. No mice. So the myth will go on, cats would no longer eat mice.

As to the question of how much, no amount is right and no amount is wrong. It is only right or wrong to the recipients. And it is also right or wrong to the public from their own perspective and values.

I would want to suggest a generous amount for our ministers. Actually it is a very generous amount in the eyes of reasonable people. Though it is not right to compare a chiku with a durian, if we want to be generous, we should close an eye and pretend that the chiku is as big as the durian and peg it to the durian’s worth. No one can say that this is not generous.
But the people must be brave enough to tell the chiku that it is a fruit and should not try to pick and choose what it wants to compare with. It is time to gently remind the chiku that it is after all a chiku.

Ok, now that we have a little framework in place and in a generous mood, I would suggest that we peg our PM’s pay with the richest and biggest economy in the world. We peg our PM’s salary to the President of the USA. Generous or not? If the President of the USA can live comfortably with his salary in a country where the cost of living is definitely not lower than ours, there is no reason that the same salary cannot provide our PM with a comfortable lifestyle and with dignity. At least he would have the same level of dignity as the President of USA which no one else can come near to. That should be very generous in my view. Anything more than this would be seen as greedy, outrageous and insane. Period.

A chiku is a chiku is a chiku.

The fallacy of getting what you paid for

Arising from the proposed ministerial salary cut, there is this comment by Eugene Tan of SMU, that ‘Often, as in the private sector, you get what you paid for.’ This linkage of monetary value to the intrinsic value that comes with a person’s service, work, or the quality of a product can be misleading.

Not everyone who makes a lot of money is a super talent. Many gamblers make more money than the smartest academics. Making money is a different skill set and depends on many variables. Some don’t need any talent to be making plenty of money or living a life of plenty.

The other linkage that is often misleading is the interchangeability of skills. A top surgeon will naturally be a good national leader. Or a top soldier will automatically be a good ministers. You can stretch this to every profession and the answer is obvious. The different skills and talents required in different profession can be totally irrelevant to the job of a politician. It has been proven that a too clever politician can be a liability instead.

The other disadvantage of attracting talents by virtue of their success in their chosen field to go to politics can be the loss of both professions when the former profession lost an excellent professional who ended up as a mediocre politician. It is true, a fact.

There is no direct correlation between a high income earner and his ability to become a good political leader or a good national leader. Bring in a top notch gambler or thief and he would probably apply his gambling skills to run the country or steal from the country.

You don’t always get what you paid for. This is a fallacy that does not need any proving. Very often than not, a person who is motivated by making more money and can only be attracted by money, is a bad choice to lead the country. And using money to lure people into politics is already a big mistake.

Singapore Ministers not the highest paid in the World

I read this report from a Elena Torrijos in Yahoo News, Singapore. This is her first 2 paragraphs.

Updated (6.24pm)
Singapore ministers, among the highest-paid in the world, should have their salaries cut by 37 per cent to S$1.1 million and their pension benefits stripped, the panel to review political pay said in a press release to the public on Wednesday.

Singapore ministers are only among the highest paid in the world, not the highest. This must be a consoling news from Yahoo.

Is this what the reporter is saying? Or at least this is the impression I am getting. Maybe she knows something that I don't.

What is the maximum payout possible?

The Today paper has a chart listing the amount that could be paid out to a political appointment holder under the current framework.

1. 12 mths basic salary
2. 1 mth NPAA
3. 1 mth Special Allowance
4. 2 mths Public Leadership Allowance

The above are fixed or guaranteed. Thus an appointee will get 16 mths of his basic salary. Below are the variables.

5. 0-1.5 mths Annual Variable Component
6. 0-14 mths Performance Bonus
7. 0-8 mths GDP Bonus

Put the two parts together and looking at the maximum it means that a political appointment holder could get a maximum of 16 mths + 23.5 mths in total annual salary, or 39.5 months.

It would be unlikely that many of them would be getting this full sum, but there should be a few of the super talented ones getting them, 39.5 mths or 3.29 times of annual salary. So if a minister is getting $2m, his annual income could be $6.58m. And if the PM is $3 his annual income could be $9.87m! This is theoretical of course.

Last year was a good year with GDP at a record high, like 15%. How to get such a phenomenal growth rate is short of miraculous indeed. It must be raining gold from heaven. Did any of the good performers get the max, or how many get near to the 39.5 mths, or 36 mths not to be too ambitious?

Own target, own time, fire!

The Americans are superb in mobilizing mass thinking to serve their own interest. They raised a few targets, gave them some names that people loved to hate, and viola, the masses of the world will be attacking the targets and forget about what is happening around them. The silly Asians are hating the Iranians, the Iraqis, the North Koreans happily and obsessively.

In the army, many males Sinkies will be familiar with the command, ‘At your own target, at your own time, fire!’ And the soldiers will be furiously firing at the raised targets in front of them, oblivious of what is happening around them.

What have all these got to do with the current big hooha on ministerial salary review? A big set of numbers are given to the people and all are happily digesting them and firing at them like good soldiers. Does anyone bother to step back and check if the numbers given are accurate or the numbers that they should really be looking at? As an example, the annual salary of a minister is $2,368,500. Is this what the minister really gets as his annual income? Are the bonuses included, and if not, do they want to know what is the total annual income? In other words, what is the real total annual income of a minister, excluding the minor perks? Are there other incomes that need to be included? Does a minister still collect his MP allowance? How many other appointments is he holding and being paid as well?

Are the numbers giving a full and complete picture of the income of a politician/MP/Minister? While everyone is happily firing, do they want to take a step back and examine if they are getting the full picture and firing at the target they should be firing at?

Ministerial Salary Recommendation – My take

We have heard it and everyone is talking about it. Great formulas and reasons given to support the recommendations, but it is still not right. The principles and concepts are all wrong, and as such the recommendations are still stuck in the mud, with basically the same old ideas with a little cosmetic changes here and there. There is nothing innovative or new about the recommendations.

The big mental trap is that everyone is still treating political appointments as an employment. So you have things like AWS, bonuses, performance evaluation, reward for good performance etc etc, and money, money and money.

In the first place we are dealing with responsible adults who stepped forward to serve the people and country in the highest office. There is no issue of performance. Every one of them is expected to be highly motivated and committed. And they cannot afford to slack or skive as they are under the spotlight 24/7. Absence and sleeping in parliament are all being watched. Hey, we are not dealing with 20 year old kids who applied and got employed but not really interested in what they are doing. Political office is a public commitment.

Politicians are elected by the people to serve for a fixed term of office. And the last thing that they should be concerned with is money, how much they could get as extras, how much bonuses to hope for if they work harder or the economy is doing better or worst. The money as a motivation factor should be removed from their thinking altogether. This will free them from the money halo that hangs over their heads, and allow them to do their jobs objectively, without having to weigh the odds of how it would affect their income.

A simple fixed sum should be paid to them annually for the duration of their office. The salary can input all the extra perks, AWS or bonuses etc just a simple package. Period. No complicating and confusing formulas, no worries of more variable bonuses, and no money thoughts in their minds. Remove the money equation and political leaders would not be burdened with the money fixation. It is so pathetic to imagine politicians nervously waiting to know how much they will be getting as bonuses at the end of the year. Stop that.

The remuneration system must build in dignity in public office. Pay them well and do not let them be embroiled like employees begging management for more year end bonuses. Political leaders must be above this and carry themselves with dignified confidence.

Forget about performance appraisal. The assessment of their performance must be by the people, the voters. And the reward and approval for a job well done is to be re elected, no extra money from performance related formulas. They are expected to perform, nothing less.

There is no need for the PM to appraise other ministers or MPs to reward them using public funds. It only introduces subjectivity and biases as there are ruling party MPs as well as opposition MPs. Who is to reward opposition MPs with public money? Without this appraisal by the PM, the ministers and MPs have no obsession to please him instead of pleasing the people by doing a good job.

The PM may want to assess his own ministers/MPs for his own reasons, but who cares? Corporations use appraisal for other purposes, promotion, training, career development, monetary rewards etc. These are irrelevant to political appointments which are elected by the people on a fixed term. After each term, if not elected, out he goes. What career development, training and development and more monetary perks? Now, did I hear some politicians are being trained in office and paid by public money?

Performance evaluation is a party matter, maybe to gauge whether to field the candidate again or to slot him into a minister post. Don’t drag public money into it as in principle it is difficult when OPM is involved. They can pay with their own party funds if they like, then no one will mind.

The idea of employment and terms of employment, of monetary rewards, must be erased totally and be replaced by a simple fixed income for simplicity, transparency and minimal complications. No one needs to double guess what the politicians are getting or what they are up to. The politicians should just do their jobs when elected to office, with dignity, and to seek re election and the people’s approval as their rewards, not more bonuses.

Politicians are elected by the people and accountable to the people for a fixed term of office. The people will evaluate them and decide to elect or drop them. Their evaluation comes once in 5 years, not annually like employees of an organisation.

Aiyo, why cut so much?

Now you people got to go and sayang the ministers. Sakit lah.
I hope this cut will not affect the political system of recruiting the best to stand for election. The good guys who still want to serve should still step forward despite the lower salary. And the concern of corruption if pay not enough, may it not happen to prove that the old belief is right.

Someone please tell them their dignity will not be affected adversely at all. In fact their dignity will get a boost, and a bigger boost if the cut is bigger. And the record of the world’s top 30 highest paid politicians will still stay and unlikely to be broken for another donkey years to come.

Latest on Ministerial Salary cut

This is not confirmed but came out from the wire. The recommendations could see a 28% cut for Hsien Loong, 31% cut for junior ministers and 51% cut for the President. MPs will get a 3% cut.

And this will be back dated to 21 May 2011.