Here we go again
During my Army days we had this song,
Here we go again, same old shit again.
Indeed never would i have thought that this song could actually be a portrayal of life in Singapore.
Just rewind back to the previous GE. After that transport prices rose and so on so forth. And Mr Tan Soo Khoon, former MP of East Coast told his colleagues that the people wont forget. Then now we forward to GE 2006, and then we had the increase in GST, the sudden increase of His Excellency's Mr SR Nathan pay. Now we have the increase in minsterial salaries.
Of course the ST is in action once again, continuing their nation building campaign, which i take to involve trying to convince people of the necessity of the pay increase.
http://kitana.wordpress.com/2007/03/25/just-pay-them-more-lah/#comments
http://onthereddot.com/ian/2007/03/23/the-service-in-civil-service
http://1moresg.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/its-a-rich-mans-world/#comment-402
http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2007/03/poor-politicians-and-civil-servants.html
The above are links to several posts made by people with regards to this issue. In fact there are more still out there. Besides the argument that the civil service is a public service and getting people using money is not very right, i feel that there is another reason why this pay increase wont serve any purpose save fatten some pockets.
Previously SM Goh talked about the top talent leaving and how there was a leak. Many of us were up in arms and believed that the leak was for all sorts of reasons to do with how undemocratic singapore is and so on. I admit i was one of those who had some sympathies to that view.
However a more persuasive view was that having a free economy, many people are thus exposed to the global market and thus have more opportunities for them. Thus it is unrealistic to expect us to fix the "leak" in the civil service. This is because, like the situation whereby singaporeans leave for better pastures, civil servants will also leave for better pastures if they feel like it. This is due to the global competition for talents; irregardless of whether they are in a pte company or civil service. Thus u can increase the pay all u want but as long as the fella decides to leave he will leave.
And as Ben, author of 1moresg has pointed out, 1.2 million a year is more than what other people are seeing in a life time. If i remember correctly if u can hit 200k a year u are already in the top income. And as Kitana has pointed out its not as if we have Ministers quitting for the pte service.
Next point, what about the pay of teachers and those civil servants who are not that senior? I do not think that they are earning that much cash. However the ST has somehow given me the impression that the focus is on the admin service. As they are harping on the fact that the pay for minsters is below dunno what benchmark. So will the lower grade civil servants be left out? Ur guess is as good as mine.
During my Army days we had this song,
Here we go again, same old shit again.
Indeed never would i have thought that this song could actually be a portrayal of life in Singapore.
Just rewind back to the previous GE. After that transport prices rose and so on so forth. And Mr Tan Soo Khoon, former MP of East Coast told his colleagues that the people wont forget. Then now we forward to GE 2006, and then we had the increase in GST, the sudden increase of His Excellency's Mr SR Nathan pay. Now we have the increase in minsterial salaries.
Of course the ST is in action once again, continuing their nation building campaign, which i take to involve trying to convince people of the necessity of the pay increase.
http://kitana.wordpress.com/2007/03/25/just-pay-them-more-lah/#comments
http://onthereddot.com/ian/2007/03/23/the-service-in-civil-service
http://1moresg.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/its-a-rich-mans-world/#comment-402
http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2007/03/poor-politicians-and-civil-servants.html
The above are links to several posts made by people with regards to this issue. In fact there are more still out there. Besides the argument that the civil service is a public service and getting people using money is not very right, i feel that there is another reason why this pay increase wont serve any purpose save fatten some pockets.
Previously SM Goh talked about the top talent leaving and how there was a leak. Many of us were up in arms and believed that the leak was for all sorts of reasons to do with how undemocratic singapore is and so on. I admit i was one of those who had some sympathies to that view.
However a more persuasive view was that having a free economy, many people are thus exposed to the global market and thus have more opportunities for them. Thus it is unrealistic to expect us to fix the "leak" in the civil service. This is because, like the situation whereby singaporeans leave for better pastures, civil servants will also leave for better pastures if they feel like it. This is due to the global competition for talents; irregardless of whether they are in a pte company or civil service. Thus u can increase the pay all u want but as long as the fella decides to leave he will leave.
And as Ben, author of 1moresg has pointed out, 1.2 million a year is more than what other people are seeing in a life time. If i remember correctly if u can hit 200k a year u are already in the top income. And as Kitana has pointed out its not as if we have Ministers quitting for the pte service.
Next point, what about the pay of teachers and those civil servants who are not that senior? I do not think that they are earning that much cash. However the ST has somehow given me the impression that the focus is on the admin service. As they are harping on the fact that the pay for minsters is below dunno what benchmark. So will the lower grade civil servants be left out? Ur guess is as good as mine.
3 Comments:
At 7:46 PM ,
YCK said...
Did not expect you to mention the junior civil servants. Guess you are the first :)
According to a friend who is bonded to MOE teaching, the attrition rate for teachers is quite high.
He suggested it has to do with the still unfavourable teacher:student ratio (not heard much in the MSM), the high (sometimes conflicting) expectations of parents, students, school and the Ministry, heavy workload of teachers' far beyond just teaching with a lot of wayang stuff etc.
If this is the case and pay raises help, shouldn't the more lowly civil servants get more to make up for their suffering? Maybe the Ministers would be willing contribute to a fund taken from their salaries to support these people?
OK I am being facetious :D
At 9:40 PM ,
Ned Stark said...
Well having had encounters with junior civil and quasi civil servants i find that their pay is not that high and so if we are talking about the pay of the civil service in totality ignoring the lower grade will do them a great disservice as any accusation of having an obscene pay will also fall on their shoulders; despite them not deserving such accusations. With regards to teaching Stressed-teacher.blogspot.com gives an inside view. Anyway as a side note i always felt that MOE would most be alike to MINDEF since all the army fellas end up there and bring all their funny mindsets to the ministry.
At 11:51 AM ,
Anonymous said...
I could only remember Teo Chee Hian being from the regimented organization, now we have Lui Tuck Yew. Maybe it is a sign that they believe that some disipline is good or it could be that they are really out of qualified people.
BTW, any idea if the attrition rate decreases with increasing rank? If so the increase in pay should decrease with rank? I have found the lumping of salary increase of civil servants and Ministers confusing. If you aruge against it for the latter, you could be seen as impoverishing the former.
Thanks for the blog. My friend would be trilled if he is not reading it already :)
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