Ministers and MPs were paid 4 months bonus? Or was it 10 months or more?

According to media reports, Hsien Loong made his reply to questions by Leon Perera ‘who had asked about bonus paid to Cabinet ministers in the last five years in terms of the average total of bonus months, and the highest and lowest total of bonus months paid to an individual minister.’ What was Leon Perera asking? What bonus was he talking about? The term he used is so general. Did he know that there are many kinds of bonuses being paid to the Cabinet ministers eg performance bonus, monthly salary bonus, 13^th month bonus, national bonus and a variable component as reported in thenewpaper?  So there are at least 5 specific bonuses paid to the Cabinet ministers.

What was Leon Perera asking, all the bonuses paid to the Cabinet ministers or just the performance bonus? I think he is asking for all the bonuses that were paid to the Cabinet ministers, not just the performance bonus.

Hsien Loong’s reply in Parliament was about performance bonus and he said that in the last 5 years ministers got between 3 to 6 months of performance bonus with the average being 4.1 months and a high of 4.5 months in 2015. All the main media that reported on this issue printed in big and bold headlines that the ministers were paid an average of 4.1 months of bonuses and were silent on how many more months of bonuses they were paid in total.

It is thus easy for the public or readers of this news to go away thinking that the ministers only got 4.1 months of bonuses. Is this what Leon Perera wanted to know or he was asking for the total bonuses paid to the ministers, including all kinds of bonuses? If that was his question, why did he not ask Hsien Loong that he wanted to know not just the performance bonus? Maybe he did raise this but not reported in the main media and the issue was closed. No further question.

Roy Ngerng in his article posted in the TRE, including his computation of all the bonuses gave a different figure.  In 2014 Roy posted this in his blog thehearttruths.com, ‘But do you know that the prime minister is able to earn up to 26.5 months of pay?

This is what he gets to earn: 12-month pay, 13th month bonus, Up to 1.5 months Annual Variable Component, Up to 12 months national bonus.’

In his latest article posted in the TRE titled ‘Comparing the obscene salaries of our DPM and PM against Singapore’s poor’, Roy posted this:

‘Now, let me calculate the prime minister’s salary for you. He does not get a performance bonus because it is claimed that “there is no one to assess his individual performance”. (Shouldn’t his performance be assessed by you – his boss?)

So, what does he get? He gets 2 times the National Bonus (up to 12 months). Here’s the breakdown. [National Bonus (NB) formula: https://www.psd.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/cos2018/annex-b-2017-salary-review-report.pdf]

(1) The base salary of the Singapore prime minister is S$2.2 million.
(2) His 13th-month annual allowance is S$220,000.
(3) Assuming he also gets an annual variable component of 1 month (max 1.5 months), he gets another S$220,000.
(4) The prime minister’s NB is twice as high as the other ministers, so he would have gotten 9 months of NB bonus last year. This would be S$1.65 million. His NB bonus alone is nearly 3 times the salary of the president of the United States.
(5) In total, the prime minister received a total bonus/allowance of at least 10 months.

In total, the Singapore prime minister would have earned at least S$4.29 million. This is nearly 2 times his base salary, and even higher than his base salary of S$3.07 million in 2007.

But this is not even it.

All the ministers also can get an additional Special Variable Payment. There is no stated limit to this payment.’

So, what do you think?

$million Ministers

Recently, Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong incurred the wrath of many Singaporeans by asserting that “ministers are not paid enough” and that it was “very populist” to demand ministerial pay be slashed. To rub salt into wound, he said he had tried unsuccessfully to get two from the private sector (one earning $5 million and the other earning $10 million a month) to be future ministers, before adding that people who can’t even earn $500,000 a year are not minister material and in fact “very mediocre”.   

Netizens predictably gave him a earful.  Not a few pointed to the new bunch of ministers across the Causeway in PM Mahathir’s Cabinet, who are “all taking less than 20k ringgit a month”. In particular, they cited DAP secretary-general and former Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who in addition to being a double degree accountant, also has the distinction of being jailed twice for his political convictions (1987 & 1994) in a lengthy political career. Lim told the press that becoming a minister was something beyond his wildest dream, as must be any thoughts of snaring a big fat minister pay. No less inspiring was the example set by DAP MPs Tony Pua and Dr Ong Kian Ming who volunteered their “half-year, no pay” services to the Finance Ministry to help Lim settle in. Pua was an ASEAN scholar with a degree from Keble College, Oxford while Dr Ong was a Fulbright Scholar from Duke University (USA) with a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Netizens said these are the people we need in government - people who are not in it for the money but for the spirit of public service.  They are right.  However, one must also not forget that Malaysia’s situation is vastly different from Singapore’s.  Malaysia is at the crossroads where the new government has the historic opportunity to lift the country from the morass to which it has sunk. The people are enthused and the leaders (and wannabe leaders) fired with a sense of mission to transform the country. They are at the same stage in which Singapore found itself back in 1965. The new dawn that Malaysians seek today is the survival that Singaporeans sought in our immediate independent years. In such ‘revolutionary’ situations, how much you are paid as a leader meant little to you.  

But two or three generations down the road, if Malaysia is successful and prosperous, it may not be so easy even for them to attract people into politics simply because that impetus for action will not be as urgent or great.  This was what happened to Singapore.  With security and survival no longer a pressing issue, the PAP realised that people were content to let the leaders carry on. Hence the PAP’s self-renewal process that focused (some would say over-focused) on remuneration as a key indicator of one’s qualification for high office. Kevin Lim’s article (“Politics is much more than just a contest at earning millions of dollars”, published in TOC, 5 Aug 2018) rightly asserted that “truly worthy politicians are either thrown up through very challenging circumstances or imbibed with years of high ideals to do something worthwhile for their countries”.  But ESM Goh was also not wrong when he said that “in peace and prosperity where there are no dragons to slay, personal aspirations, freedom, privacy and life-style take precedence”. These are very challenging times for Malaysians but if all goes well for Malaysia, a time may come when KL will have to pay their ministers ‘Singapore salary’ to keep them in government or get people to join politics.

China standing up to American gangsterism

The Americans must be taken aback by the firm and strong stand of the Chinese in taking them head on in the trade war, a punch with a counter punch. The Americans thought the Chinese are still pushovers like before, like the time when they blatantly struck the Chinese Embassy with 4 Tomahawk cruise missiles for no reason and the Chinese could not hit back after suffering damages and lost of lives to the unprovoked attack. The American gangsterism must be stopped and China has been in a hurry to stop these international gangsters from their bullying.
 
The trade war is only the beginning, tit for tat, every move with a counter move and more. China is not going to be bullied again. In the preparation to invade Iran, the Americans have warned all countries to stop trading with Iran. The Nato countries have ignored this sanction. Russia and China too refused to abide by this unilateral and illegal sanction against Iran. Both Russia and China have increased their purchases of Iranian oil to the ire of the Americans.
 
The Iranians have warned the Americans that they would attack American ships and military bases if the American gangsters strike. China did not stop at just saying no to the Americans. For the past decades, the Americans had intercepted Chinese merchant ships in high seas on fabricated charges and even boarded Chinese ships to check their cargoes. This too would not be allowed to happen again.
 
China has sent 100 warships to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, to protect their tankers and merchant ships from harassment by the Americans. The stage is set for a high sea confrontation between the PLAN and the American Navy. Chinese ships are strictly out of bound from the American gangsters and China is prepared to defend its rights for freedom of navigation.
 
Would the American gangsters dare to attempt to intercept Chinese ships again and provoke an open conflict in the Indian Ocean? A 100 warship presence in the Indian Ocean say the Chinese meant business and would react to any American hooliganism against their ships.
 
The Russians too are standing up to the Evil Empire in Syria and the Mediterranean Sea. It is conducting a big naval exercise and telling the Americans to get their warships out of the way or they would not be responsible for the consequences. And against the threat of the American Evil to protect the remnants of IS in Idlib, the Russian, Iranians and Syrians are mounting a final assault to rid Syria from American sponsored and backed terrorists once and for all.
 
The Persian Gulf and Syria could see the Americans triggering a major war with China and Russia any moment.

The Evil Empire threatening the International Criminal Court

According to Wikipedia, ‘The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt)[2] is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The ICC is intended to complement existing national judicial systems and it may therefore only exercise its jurisdiction when certain conditions are met, such as when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute criminals or when the United Nations Security Council or individual states refer situations to the Court.’
 
This court has more credibility and support from the UN than the commercial private arbitration court that the Aquino govt used to judge the South China Sea island dispute. The American rogues are condemning this ICC as ‘unaccountable’ and ‘outright dangerous’ but told its little USAs to blare that the commercial court in the Hague was a UN linked court and its rulings must be abided by like a UN supported court. The little USAs happily accepted this edict from the Evil Empire and went shouting at China as told by the Evil Empire, only to kena slammed by China for their shameless stupidity.
 
The ICC has been directed to charge some American war criminals for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan and the rogues in the US are furious. They are not only above the laws, above international laws, they even threatened to arrest and sanction judges and officials of the ICC ‘if it moves to charge any American who served in Afghanistan with war crimes’.
 
The gangster in John Bolton threatened, ‘If the court comes after us, Israel of other US allies, we will not sit quietly down.’ This is not all. He added, ‘We will bann its judges and prosecutors from entering the US. We will sanction their funds, in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system.’
 
What do these arrogant brags said about the Evil Empire? They are above the laws and can be lawless and no one can do anything to them even if they commit war crimes or crimes against humanity. And more, the Americans would use ‘any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court’. John Bolton is claiming that the ICC is illegitimate! The Americans would not allow any courts, like the ICC, to ‘have higher authority than the US Constitution and US sovereignty’.
 
Compare this to the silly countries that allowed the American courts to impose its will and laws onto them, violating these countries’ sovereignty and constitution. And these silly countries could not see any wrong with it and obediently do what the American courts told them to, like the Najib case, the seizing of his boat in Indonesia.
 
The rogues in Washington has told the whole world in defiance that they do not come under any law or jurisdiction of any international organisation but expect others to do so and to come under the jurisdiction and laws of the Evil Empire.
 
Anything wrong with this? Should the rest of the world accept this state of affair dictated by the Evil Empire? The Evil Empire had made use of the ICC and other UN and non UN agencies to incriminate other people of war crimes and crimes against humanity that are of very insignificant scale compare to the hundreds of thousands or millions killed by the American forces and their cronies. Now the Americans said no one is allowed to charge them for war crimes or crimes against humanity, even their chosen agencies, agencies they made use to do the same thing.

Jack Ma is retiring

Jack Ma is a phenomenon that is short of a miracle. He is lucky that he is born and bred in China. If he is a Singaporean, he would end up in ITE and today may be a security guard or a taxi driver. But with sheer hard work and seizing on the opportunity available and an entrepreneur streak, today he is the richest man in China with a fortune worth at least S$50 billion. I think today Singapore's leaders would be calling him an above mediocre man, earning more than $500k a year and would be good enough to be invited to drink tea at the Istana and the potential of being a minister. And Jack Ma, if accepted the offer, could be a good case of telling the people that he took a big pay cut to be a minister.

Oops, I should not use Jack Ma as an example as it could interpreted as inviting a foreigner to meddle in Singapore's domestic politics. My sincere apologies. Jack Ma, please come here and apply for a Singapore citizenship. Sure get one, and then stand a chance to be invited to be a minister.

I got carried away with my adoration of this man. I brought this up because of his early retirement and opted to do philanthropy.  I hope when our millionaires here earn as much as him, they would also volunteer to do philanthropy, to give away some of their hard earned wealth.

Let me get to the crux of the matter. My first question is whether Jack Ma has gone on a world head hunting trip to find the best foreign talent to head Alibaba. I think this is more urgent as in China they did not have smooth talking talents to be the face of Alibaba. He should follow Singapore's strategy of looking all over the world for such an important position. It would be very good for Alibaba. And with more foreign talents to be brought in by the foreign talent head, Alibaba would look more international. You see, it is very important to have foreigners to run a company that operates internationally. The foreigners would have an advantage with their international exposure. Then Alibaba would be bigger than Apple. If not, Alibaba would remain as it is, cannot grow bigger.

Correct me if I am wrong. I read somewhere that Jack Ma has appointed a Frank Zhang, another Chinaman to replace him. This is a very serious mistake. To go international, Alibaba seriously need a foreign talent, never mind if the foreign talent has not build a company of his own or from the third world. A foreign talent is a foreign talent and an international company must be run by a foreigner. Even our kopitiams and char kway teow hawker stalls would be best to hire a foreign CEO.

Before Jack Ma makes the mistake of his life, he better change his mind and go around the world to hunt for the best man for the job. If that is too expensive, come to Singapore. This island has plenty of very eager foreign talents wanting the job. We may not have top talents among Singaporean. No Singaporean would apply as they have been told that they are daft and their degrees are useless. The only talented Singaporeans are in politics, in the govt. One thing for sure, we have many foreigners that are of top talent calibre here. Jack Ma better hurry up or these top foreign talents would soon be recruited to become ministers to run Singapore or GLCs, after given Singaporean citizenship of course. Singapore's political affairs can only be meddled by Singaporeans, including instant Singaporeans.