WP Sylvia Lim: Ministers will be out of touch with citizens

Ms Sylvia Lim:

"As these pay packets are funded from taxes, including poor people paying goods and services tax, how far is the Government prepared to go with this? Does it have a threshold of unconscionability?

The median monthly income of $2,170 was what a minister earned in just half a day, while a graduate's median wage of $4,450 took a minister a day to earn.

As the salaries move up to 88 per cent of the benchmark by the end of next year, a minister would earn in two to three hours what the average worker made in one month.

Does the Cabinet not feel a tinge of discomfort drawing taxpayers' money at such a rate?

Public service had to remain an undertaking for which people are prepared to make sacrifices in exchange for the benevolent power to improve the lives of others.

If we corrupt this by money, we can be efficient but never a country of high ideals.

One's sense of duty must perhaps co-exist with other motives, but where does prudence end and avarice begin?

I appreciate the need to pay ministers well, but in devising an appropriate formula, there is a need to be vigilant, in the light of public unhappiness, to strike a median between austerity and excessive prosperity."