The more PAP ministers come out to defend the increase in minister’s pay, the more people are going to be unhappy (unless you are from the YPAP). Granted that the next general election might be quite some time away and I reckon the ministers are hedging the bet that the issue would be all but forgotten by then, it’s still not wise to create such a ruckus. After all, as the Chinese saying goes, 君子报仇，十年未晚 (translation: if a gentleman wish to exact revenge, it’s not late even after ten years). You would never know whether people are going to forget this.

That the PAP isn’t terribly good at PR is one thing, but I think the biggest problem with the entire issue is that we have no check and balance. When ministers make the decision to increase their own pay, who approves? The ministers are the ones approving. In a private company, the pay of the CEO is not approved by the CEO himself, but a board of directors. In the case of ministerial salary, where’s the “board of directors”?

Even with the board of directors, the NKF case has proven to be an instance where problems can still arise. What more when there isn’t one? I’m not about to insinuate that the government is corrupt or anything remotely close to that. What I’m questioning is how do we ensure accountability in deciding ministerial salary?

The idea of key performance indicators (KPIs) is widely used to benchmark performance against salary. The fundamental concept behind the KPI is that top performers get rewarded more monetarily, while poor performers get less. Why is it that KPIs are not even employed for ministers is a mystery (I may be assuming here, but if there indeed exist a KPI for ministers being computed by somebody, why not let people know about it?).

Singaporeans can buy the rhetoric that talented people should be compensated an amount that is commensurate, but what many Singaporeans cannot accept is the lack of transparency on the issue. Singapore takes pride in being non-corrupt and transparent, right? So why are Singaporeans not receiving information showing how talented the ministers are and therefore Singapore should pay them more? All that we are getting now is rhetoric without substance, which is why people are upset.

I personally have no issue with ministers getting another $1 million a year if they are worth that money. Heck, if they are so good, why stop at $1 million increase a year? I say give them another $3 million a year! However, please give me proof that the ministers are indeed worth this amount of money. If I am not satisfied that there’s sufficient justification for a pay increase, I won’t hesitate to fry this up this issue 5 years later.