now that the wind has blown over, i would like to pen here some thoughts about what some of my private sector friends, who had travelled widely and whose views i respect given their experience and exposure to the system of various asian, european and american systems, had said about the outcome...
(1) the latest move was a total disaster to the country. my colleagues and friends from overseas were shocked to see us going backwards in this area! if there's one thing they admire about us was the way we pay our politicians and in the process, ensure our system is clean and efficient.
(2) recently, i went to india, and they wanted to built a 20km highway. after 15years, they managed to built only 10km of it, and it cost them 15billion dollars. even then, it was done so badly, the safety was questionable! reason? the many levels of political approval and the huge amount of monies that each level pocket along the way...
(3) come on people, get real! you sent your brightest to oxbridge and when they come back, you pay them peanuts while their fellow graduates from oxbridge are earning millions in the private sector! and you talk about sacrifice? get real! get real! what a joke!
(4) you pay peanuts, you get monkies in the government. period.
(5) you expect the population that comprises the heartlanders to debate on politician's pay? in the first place, your population is so sheltered they have no sense of realism about what's the market rate, be it in the commercial sector locally/ worldwide, or amongst politicians worldwide!
(6) i had initially high hopes in our opposition parties. but look at them in the debate on politician's pay! can't even get their facts right! what a disgrace! regretful! regretful!
(7) wah ranz!... pay them liddat and expect them to work on weekdays, listen to resident's problems on weeknights, carry babies and shake hands on weekends! in short, no personal life. even if i were offered such a job, i'd say thanks but no thanks!
(8) just look at the amount of perks, allowances, bribery, sidelines, etc overseas politicians enjoy. their published pay is nothing compared to their real income! and here, you bitch about the 1.1million clean wage. joke!
(9) the cut was simply too far and too deep! this is no good for singapore.
(10) i did a straw poll amongst my staff who are in their 20s to 30s. all of them like to bitch about the pay. but when i ask if any of them wants to be a politician, not a single one raised their hand...
well, my friends may not be the men-in-the-street per se given their exposure to the world and their seniority in their respective sectors. but they are certainly very hardcore singaporeans with no clear inclinations towards any specific political parties per se. to them, whatever work for singapore is the best solution, regardless of which political party the idea come from. before the last general elections, i noted they were not the best supporters of the ruling parties. but from their tone now, it seemed like they have seriously swung towards the ruling party and are quite vehement against the opposition party now. the current ruling party is certainly a victim of its own success.
the outcome on political pay is, to me, regretful. but the silver lining here is that as we go about scrutinizing the system and participating in a more open debate about how to tweak existing system moving ahead, the true colours/ capabilities, strength and weaknesses of policies, systems and political parties would be exposed.
it will be an interesting few years ahead before the next general elections.
(1) the latest move was a total disaster to the country. my colleagues and friends from overseas were shocked to see us going backwards in this area! if there's one thing they admire about us was the way we pay our politicians and in the process, ensure our system is clean and efficient.
(2) recently, i went to india, and they wanted to built a 20km highway. after 15years, they managed to built only 10km of it, and it cost them 15billion dollars. even then, it was done so badly, the safety was questionable! reason? the many levels of political approval and the huge amount of monies that each level pocket along the way...
(3) come on people, get real! you sent your brightest to oxbridge and when they come back, you pay them peanuts while their fellow graduates from oxbridge are earning millions in the private sector! and you talk about sacrifice? get real! get real! what a joke!
(4) you pay peanuts, you get monkies in the government. period.
(5) you expect the population that comprises the heartlanders to debate on politician's pay? in the first place, your population is so sheltered they have no sense of realism about what's the market rate, be it in the commercial sector locally/ worldwide, or amongst politicians worldwide!
(6) i had initially high hopes in our opposition parties. but look at them in the debate on politician's pay! can't even get their facts right! what a disgrace! regretful! regretful!
(7) wah ranz!... pay them liddat and expect them to work on weekdays, listen to resident's problems on weeknights, carry babies and shake hands on weekends! in short, no personal life. even if i were offered such a job, i'd say thanks but no thanks!
(8) just look at the amount of perks, allowances, bribery, sidelines, etc overseas politicians enjoy. their published pay is nothing compared to their real income! and here, you bitch about the 1.1million clean wage. joke!
(9) the cut was simply too far and too deep! this is no good for singapore.
(10) i did a straw poll amongst my staff who are in their 20s to 30s. all of them like to bitch about the pay. but when i ask if any of them wants to be a politician, not a single one raised their hand...
well, my friends may not be the men-in-the-street per se given their exposure to the world and their seniority in their respective sectors. but they are certainly very hardcore singaporeans with no clear inclinations towards any specific political parties per se. to them, whatever work for singapore is the best solution, regardless of which political party the idea come from. before the last general elections, i noted they were not the best supporters of the ruling parties. but from their tone now, it seemed like they have seriously swung towards the ruling party and are quite vehement against the opposition party now. the current ruling party is certainly a victim of its own success.
the outcome on political pay is, to me, regretful. but the silver lining here is that as we go about scrutinizing the system and participating in a more open debate about how to tweak existing system moving ahead, the true colours/ capabilities, strength and weaknesses of policies, systems and political parties would be exposed.
it will be an interesting few years ahead before the next general elections.
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