"'Salaries is not our starting point in looking for ministers': Goh Chok Tong responds to criticism of comments on pay
SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong has responded to what he described as the “heated reactions” to his comments on how to attract people to serve as ministers and the role salaries play in getting people to serve in Government.
Mr Goh had said that Singapore’s ministers are “not paid enough”. This was in response to a suggestion by a resident, Mr Abdul Aziz, to cut ministers’ salaries or the defence budget to fund support for the elderly.
SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong has responded to what he described as the “heated reactions” to his comments on how to attract people to serve as ministers and the role salaries play in getting people to serve in Government.
Mr Goh had said that Singapore’s ministers are “not paid enough”. This was in response to a suggestion by a resident, Mr Abdul Aziz, to cut ministers’ salaries or the defence budget to fund support for the elderly.
“I am telling you the ministers are not paid enough, and down the road, we are going to get a problem with getting people to join the Government, because civil servants now earn more than ministers. Are you aware of that?" Mr Goh added.
He asked where Singaporeans would want to get office holders from.
Mr Goh then revealed that former lawyer Edwin Tong took a pay cut of about 75 per cent when he became a Senior Minister of State for Health and Law earlier this year.
Mr Tong was earning more than S$2 million as a Senior Counsel, said Mr Goh, adding that he was asked by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to be a minister of state.
"He came to see me,” Mr Goh said. “He said, at this stage of his life, he has got a house, he has got a mother-in-law to support, a father-in-law to support, his own parents and so on, what should he do?
"So I asked him, Edwin, what were you in politics for? (He said) Here to serve. So I said you’ve got to serve, well, you know between S$2 million and perhaps half a million, later on you hopefully become a full minister, S$1 million, you have to decide which is more important."
"So Edwin told me his job in politics is to serve," Mr Goh added. "He said, 'yes, I will take on' (the job), and he felt very strongly that he could do the job."
Mr Goh added, however, that “now we dare not pay ministers a good wage”, and repeated his question, asking where Singaporeans would want to get ministers from.
“From people who earn only S$500,000 a year, whose capacity is S$500,000 a year? So (when) I look for ministers, anybody who wants to be paid more than half a million, I won’t take him,” Mr Goh said.
“You are going to end up with very, very mediocre people, who can’t even earn a million dollars outside to be our minister.”
In his Facebook post, Mr Goh said that he “did not mean nor believe that Singaporeans at whatever level of income are mediocre. Those who have worked with me know people matter the most to me.”
He went on to say that in times of prolonged crisis and upheaval, he had no doubt that Singaporeans will step forward to serve. Money would not be a key vector."
Aah. How should one react to these "sincere n well meaning" comments fr ESM Goh?
1. "good calibre people" = people who earned or hv more than millions?
If this is the case, i wonder WHY we hv so many less than a million x-general, civil servants n other in ministerial posts?
Also why some of us feel that those who took actual "pay - fixed + variable" cut ministers like Dr Ng, Dr Koh, Dr Vivian, Mr Shanmugan n any ministers who used to make more than 2m r THAT outstanding!
ESM Goh's subsequent "clarifications" that he does not mean to say all Sgp people earning less than 1m r mediocre is just SO SO LAME!!
That the veto factors r: characters, competence, motivation n performance, etc. simply get lost with his point of PAY!!
2. Does PM Lee n his colleagues agree with ESM Goh's assertion n asks him to "test water or balloon" (a sensitive term after WP MP Ms Lim's case in parliament) as a favour?
I certainly hope this is NOT the case. As PM Lee commented in Jan when ESM Goh asked the 4G leaders to decide on their leader: ESM Goh has the luxury of commenting on the sideline since he is not in charge anymore!!
ESM Goh's comments r like the infamous thunderous quote by late Mr LKY that got George Yeo's GRC team to lose to WP: U will repent for 5 yrs if u voted WP in!!
3. Has ESM Goh's reply to Mr Aziz convinced him that Sgp must not cut minister's pay to fund help to older people?
I doubt so. It probably made him very embarrassed for suggesting such a ridiculous idea!!
4. Minister Edwin Tong now had my respect for sacrificing his pay cut. Indeed i had -ve vibe abt him when he bloodied the nose of AGC n the Laws Ministry to get CHC leaders reduced sentences after the gov wasted SO MUCH MONEY prosecuting them!
He is brilliant n could hv continued to defence whoever clients he represent!!
For Mr Tong, probably MORE MONEY cannot buy him happiness of serving!!
Maybe we need to publicise SUCH minister MORE in our national values n in schools instead of measuring a person's worth on how much he made in salaries!
5. another key Q that need to be asked is: is making money the same as running a country? can we find out how "successful" r those x-ministers doing 8N THEIR OWN n NOT counting their income fr sitting on TLCs n GLCs companies? Of course quite a few make good money fr their passive investment income fr shares, properties, etc. using tje multi-millions pay amassed fr being ministers; which should not be counted!!
e.g. recent news of x-minister Lim Kim Shan's old home fetching a market price of 100m must be discounted.
I better stop here as this: "pay peanuts n u will get monkeys" simply disregard the possibilities that: "pay big money n u will get 'money never enough' monkeys that won't go away until voted out"!!
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