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“We need to pay whatever is necessary to assemble the best team in Singapore,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament on Tuesday, about two weeks after a panel recommended deep cuts to ministerial salaries.
Lee emphasized that a good pay structure is essential to secure Singapore’s long-term future. “If you have the wrong system of pay, you will have the wrong team,” he added.
Weighing in on the debate of ministerial pay, Lee affirmed the need to peg ministerial pay to private sectors in Singapore to attract the “most promising ones” as he acknowledged that the transition from private sector to politics is not easy and comes with little assurance.
“Paying people correctly is part of the answer,” Lee said on how to get the best people to form the Cabinet. “It is not a bidding war where if you get the cheapest [minister], you will get the best value for money,” he added.
“Can we afford to risk our country’s future on the assumption that salaries do not matter?” he asked.
He stressed that while it was possible to get good talent such as Worker's Party MP Chen Show Mao -- who sacrificed a lucrative legal career to jump into political service -- it was not about finding one or two of such candidates, but about finding an entire team who could make up a future Cabinet.
PM Lee also said ideally these candidates had to be in their prime years so they could be "vigorous" and "young enough" to form the leadership for many years to come, rather than getting people to switch careers to go into politics after they had made enough money in the private sector.
In his speech, Lee also addressed the public’s concerns over ministerial pay. He noted that some have reservations about the pay’s formula, some are unhappy that ministers are deciding their own pay and others are worried that ministers will lose the ethos of placing Singaporeans’ welfare first.But Lee stressed that the government’s approach has worked well for Singapore as the People’s Action Party has governed effectively, cleanly and fairly, and have improved the lives of Singaporeans.
Lee dismissed the idea of Singapore following the example of other countries as “[Singapore’s] survival and success is always based on our ability to be extraordinary. No one owes us a living if we run into trouble”.
On the issue of accountability, PM Lee stressed that Singaporeans cannot expect ministers to never make mistakes. But when they do, he
said, they must acknowledge their mistakes and fix things.
However, "negligent or
dishonest ministers will be sacked", said PM Lee, while ministers who do not perform well despite
their best efforts "will be moved to a less demanding portfolio, or, if
necessary, phased out discreetly."
He acknowledged, however, that he does not expect his speech to be the last word on ministerial salaries.
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