CIVIL SERVICE NWC AWARD, PUBLIC SECTOR SALARY REVISIONS, AND REVIEW OF SALARY BENCHMARKS

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Debate resumed.

Mr Ong Ah Heng (Nee Soon Central): (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the pay revision for civil servants tabled by DPM Lee. This is done in order to maintain, strengthen and continue the system that has stood us in good stead. In the past few decades, our system has brought about an improvement in the quality of life of our people. Ours is an open, transparent system which practises meritocracy. Under this system, our leaders are not allowed to abuse their powers and to amass a great amount of wealth for themselves. Unlike other countries where greed and corruption have become rife and rampant, in Singapore, there is no room for money politics and Ministers do not have dubious extra benefits.

It is pragmatic to link Ministers' pay with those top earners in the private sector as their salaries should not lag far behind those top earners in the private sector. We should attract the most capable and talented people to come forward to join the Government by ensuring that their salaries should not lag far too behind those of their friends in the private sector. We must attract the best and the most competent to enter politics. Of course, they should not be motivated by greed. They should come out spontaneously to take part in the process of renewal of our political leadership.

After the pay revision, our Prime Minister's pay is $1.94 million, which is equivalent to the pay of the 63rd top earner in the private sector. Prime Minister Goh and his team have led the people through the financial crisis and they have been able to turn a deficit of $5.1 billion into a surplus of S$3.2 billion. The Prime Minister's yearly remuneration of $1.94 million is about 50 cents for each of the 4 million people. This is the negligible amount they have to pay to hire a helmsman. Is 50 cents too high a price to pay? Of course, we can each pay 10 cents a year to get a helmsman, but that helmsman is a helmsman of a tongkang or a sampan. And a sampan or tongkang cannot carry four million people.

When I re-read Senior Minister Lee's Memoirs, my belief in the importance of good Government leaders is further enhanced. From the time we entered Malaysia and the time we were separated from it, if not for the Senior Minister's wisdom and sharp political judgment, we would be sitting here today as a city council and not Parliament, and the issues we would be discussing would be to get more financial allocation from the central government or to get loans from the IMF.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I am saying all these just to tell the people of Singapore that what we should worry about is not pay increases for the Ministers, but whether we can get the best people to become our leaders and to practise the system of meritocracy. We must retain the best talent in our civil service and Cabinet. If we lose them, it will be a loss to the nation. Of course, of equal importance is that we should not forget those low-income earners who work hard for the nation. In this respect, I am glad to hear Minister BG Yeo once again assuring the House yesterday that the Government would continue to provide affordable housing and healthcare to the lower-income group, and would continue to invest heavily in education and training, thereby ensuring the employability of the workers.

A good government will ensure that the children of all Singaporeans, rich or poor, will have equal opportunities to be educated and to be promoted to a better standard of living.

Good leaders will make the lower-income people feel, at all times, that whenever they encounter difficulties, the Government would be around to lend them a helping hand.

The politics of meritocracy not only enables the top talents to scale the peak but also continues to provide the lower-income people with the hope and the twilight that they and their children will be led to enjoy a better standard of living.