Back in November last year, on my old blog, I had already posted some thoughts about the then-impending salary increase for PAP ministers. The post is remarkably topical today, so I reproduce an excerpt here. Click on link below to read the original post in full.
Elections Are Over! Time to Raise Ministers' Salaries!
".... It must be fun being a minister. Because unlike the rest of Singapore, you'll never have a bad year.
What do I mean? Well, let's say a cardiosurgeon in Singapore does very well in his career this year, makes a lot of money and is the top-earning cardiosurgeon this year.
Next year he may not do so well. Maybe he will have fewer patients. Or perhaps he just won't have so many complicated cases, so he has to charge less for doing simpler surgeries. Consequently, he will earn much less.
That's life. Some years are good, some years are not so good.
Ministers, however, have no such problem. Their salary is pegged to whoever is earning most, in a given year. When our top cardiosurgeon is earning a lot, the ministers will peg their salaries to him. When our top cardiosurgeon has a bad year, the ministers will just drop him out of the list.
They will then peg their salaries to some other doctor for whom 2007 does turn out to be a great year (eg the most successful neurosurgeon or oncologist in Singapore, for example) ...."