Monday, 2 December 2013

The Unseen Singapore #14 PAP MP Series: Highest Paid Politicians In The World

Singapore politicians are the highest paid in the world! Sounds familiar doesn't it? Is this yet another rant about the PAP government justifying their million dollar salaries?

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/7-highest-paid-political-leaders-160000024.html

In the minds of Singaporeans, there is one common perception about the PAP old guard. The founders of the PAP were portrayed as men of conviction who cared for the common folk. They were thrifty and survived on a modest salary. They slogged their guts out for the sake of this little red dot. But based on our research findings, there may have been an anomaly to this long held truth.

Do you know that Mr Ong Eng Guan, one of the pioneer members of the People's Action Party received a $7,000 monthly salary for his position as Mayor of the Singapore City Council from 1957- 1958? This salary made him the highest paid mayor in the world!

After factoring the total annual inflation, $7,000 in 1958 is a whopping $56,591 in present terms. This amounts to an annual salary of $680,000! However, this still dwarfs in comparison to PM Lee Hsien Loong's current $2.2 million salary!

As we can see, the act of paying politicians an exorbitant salary did not start from contemporary PAP but started since the genesis of the PAP.

The justifications for such obscene salaries may be different but the fact remains, PAP politicians still hold the record for having the highest paid politicians in the world both in the past and at present!

What are your thoughts on this? Share it with us!

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1 comment:

  1. To be fair. If the politician is able to ensure average Singaporean holding a job with a descent pay scale and inflation under control and the country managed properly. The pay would seem worth paying. Under the current system, Singaporean are just paid slaves for the system.

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