COMPETITIVE SALARIES FOR COMPETENT AND HONEST GOVERNMENT (Motion)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Debate resumed.

Mr Cheo Chai Chen (Nee Soon Central): ( In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government tabled this White Paper to benchmark the salaries of Ministers and top civil servants with the top earners in the private sector with two objectives: First, to attract the best talents to go into politics and the civil service. Second, to retain good Ministers and top civil servants so as to ensure that the public service can be honest and more efficient. These are the two objectives set out in the White Paper.

Personally, I do not object to the increase in the salaries of civil servants, whether it is the top, middle, or lower grades because their salaries are well below those in the private sector. I do not really mind what method is used to determine their salaries. The important thing is that the Government should be able to formulate reasonable and competitive salaries to ensure that these civil servants can remain in the civil service and work with a peace of mind to offer good and efficient service to the people.

In the debate today, I am more concerned with the question of salaries for the Ministers. I feel that there is no need to waste time discussing pay increases for the Ministers or the benchmark for such pay. Firstly, Ministers are politicians. There is a very special character and nature in their work. Under the democratic system, the Ministers must be elected first by the people as Members of Parliament and then nominated by the ruling party as Ministers. If the people do not elect them, even if they are talented, they cannot become Ministers.

Secondly, politicians must enter politics on their own initiative. They must have the spirit of sacrifice and commitment in the overall interest of the country. They must place national interest before self. Thirdly, Ministers work with the assistance and support of civil servants. Whether the Ministers have any special talent in any particular field is not of very great importance. What is more important is whether they have the judgment, a good character and good moral standards, and a sense of responsibility. Fourthly, at the moment, the Ministers' pay, including other perks, going by the standard of living in Singapore, is certainly more than enough. Our country has not been ill-treating them at all.

The White Paper has emphasised the ways to attract people with high pay. In a society where we place emphasis on materialism, that is the easiest way to do. But I am concerned that if we over-emphasise material rewards to attract and keep talents, it may boomerang, because we may well be attracting talents who are coming in because of money, without the sincerity to serve the people and the country. In the long run, this will not be good for the future of our country. If, unfortunately, we have taken in people who place money above anything else, we will not only be unable to prevent corruption, there will also be another kind of legalised corruption in the Government.

On the other hand, I feel that the proposals in the White Paper have neglected the fundamentals. It is trying to cure specifics without looking at the overall situation. If we want to compete with the private sector for talents, using money as the leverage, then you will be creating a vicious cycle of each one trying to outdo the other. So we must look at the fundamental problem and find out why many people do not want to enter politics. We must find a solution to this problem.

In my view, there may be other reasons why people are not willing to go into politics, quite apart from money. Firstly, education. We have failed to inculcate the correct values in our people. Secondly, the Government is over-emphasising elitism and our universities have closed their doors. Thirdly, the wrong attitude towards politics. They think politics is dirty and our democratic system is not very mature yet. Furthermore, because of the political culture in Singapore, people are afraid of politics and they have no confidence in politics. Fourthly, a political career will make one's personal life uncomfortable because politicians must set an example. So they have all kinds of psychological restrictions on them. Fifthly, politicians are public figures. So they lose a lot of privacy. Sixthly, our economy is booming and there are a lot of opportunities for jobs and employment. Seventhly, the question of personal interest and family problem.

After we have understood all the reasons why people are reluctant to go into politics, I think we can find the solution. We can cure the disease according to the symptoms. I think we can look at it in various ways. The following are more important ones. Firstly, we must strengthen the social consciousness among students, like social participation, social responsibility and social identification. We must start this from primary education to inculcate this kind of value in the children.

Secondly, in the schools, we must strengthen political education. Although we have taught current affairs, we have not done enough in this area. The schools should teach History and organize forums and visits to Parliament, and inculcate the correct political ideas in the students.

Thirdly, we must improve the existing political culture in Singapore. I think the Government can take the lead here. The Government should be sincere in their treatment of the Opposition. Many people may not want to join the ruling Party. They may not agree with their policies but they may want to join the Opposition parties. If the Government does not show sincerity and good faith to them, such a situation will arise and these talented people will not take up politics.

Fourthly, we should not be looking narrowly at elitism. We do not lack talents. It is because the Government has been over-emphasising too much on elitism that we do not have such people. We have a lot of talents and some may have the potential but, for some reason, did not do extremely well in the relevant examinations and were therefore denied admission to the university. I think we should correct the situation by opening the doors of the university to such people to enable more people to have the opportunities to go for further education. I believe that if the Government does this, we will have more and better talents available. Mobility of staff is a normal phenomenon in either the public or private sector. We do not have to worry about it. If we take these remedial measures I have suggested, we will be able to relieve the so-called shortage of talents to some extent. We will have more talents going into politics and the public sector.

In short, I do not support the White Paper on "Competitive Salaries for Competent and Honest Government".