Singapore Pays

I just heard on the BBC that there is a serious debate here in Singapore right now about a suggested hike of the salaries of senior civil servants, who are already some of the best paid civil servants in the world. The wage increase would be 25%, from 800k to one million dollars, though I’m not sure if that’s American or Singaporean.

Even if we ignore for the moment the fact that I’m obviously not keeping a very good eye on local news - seeing as I had to hear this bounced back from England - this still remains an interesting story. Apparently it has caused quite an uproar among Singaporeans, something that is quite out of the ordinary, in itself (though admittedly Singaporeans have become more outspoken over the last few years).

They feel that this is too much of a good thing and that the senior civil servants are taking advantage of the situation. Some complained that civil servants shouldn’t do it for the money, but for a desire to do good for the community, others felt that there was no correlation between salaries and corruption, the supposed reason for the hike.

Both admirable arguments I thought. Let’s look at the second one first. At lower levels the argument doesn’t hold true whatsoever of course, as even the best people will become corrupt if the only other choice is watching their families starve. I don’t think that was what the person bringing that argument forward meant, however, I think they were talking up at the higher levels. There the argument probably has more merit, as people quickly feel that they deserve what they are getting, if not more.

On the other hand, Singapore is a very clean city with a very low rate of corruption. That is quite admirable in Asia, where corruption is rampant. Part of the reason that this is the case is that they pay their civil servants well. There is less reason for these people to take bribes when they’ve already got a good income.

The first argument is, in my opinion, just fairy tale talk. Yes, in a perfect world the best people sacrifice themselves willingly for the good of everybody else, nobody spits on the street and we give half our meal to those less fortunate than ourselves willingly. This isn’t a perfect world though. The only way you get the best people is by paying them the best salary. This is also true for government.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Government is the most important ‘company’ in a country and its leaders should therefore be paid accordingly. It’s ridiculous that middle managers often earn more than country presidents. The best and brightest, instead of dedicating themselves to their countries, instead dedicate themselves to helping some company make billions.

I’m all for the moral argument. People should dedicate themselves to doing good and helping their fellow man, I just happen to believe that morality can go hand in hand with a good paycheck.