Thursday, May 26, 2011

Some MPs still don't get it

Today's Straits Times (Insight section) had a feature of how PAP MPs are trying to change their ways so as to be (seen to be) more connected to the ground. They featured some quotes from some MPs prominently.

These guys seem not to get it still. It's just an image problem?
And see Zainudin Nordin's remarks - is his job just to "channel feedback upwards"?

"I have always consistently channelled feedback upwards, but now I must put in effort to be seen to do so, there should be more openness in communication in what I'm doing."

These guys seem to get it, though


Sunday, May 15, 2011

JBJ voted against paying pensions to serving Ministers

JB Jeyaretnam spoke and voted against paying pensions to Ministers who are still holding office when the Amendment Bill was passed in 1982. He was the only one. (See the end of the extract of the Parliament debate below.)

The reasoning of the Government was also articulated by then Minister of Finance (Hon Sui Sen), and Goh Chok Tong. Essentially, it is to "remove the financial disincentives for staying on" as a office-holder, as compared with office-holders who retire and take on private jobs (and get their pension at the same time). This is similar to civil service pensioners who are re-employed by the government, after retirement.

(Of course, an interesting question is whether the Ministers/office-holders should be on a pension scheme at all. JBJ said yes during the 1982 debate, but that was in an era when all civil servants were under the pension scheme. That is no longer the case now - only civil servants in the elite administrative service, intelligence service and some judges - there may be a tiny minority of others - that are on the pension scheme now.)

You can read the extract from the Parliament report below.

Extract from the debate in Parliament on 31 Aug 1982 (from Parliament Reports).
PARLIAMENTARY PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) BILL

    Order for Second Reading read.
4.45 p.m.
    The Minister for Finance (Mr Hon Sui Sen): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
    Under section 4 of the Parliamentary Pensions Act, 1978, an office-holding Member must satisfy the following conditions to qualify for the grant of a pension:
    (a) he must have a minimum period of eight years' reckonable service as an office-holding Member;
    (b) he must have attained the age of fifty years; and
    (c) he must have ceased to hold office.
    However, subsection (3) of this same section says that the pension shall not be payable in respect of any period during which he is again an office-holding Member. At the end of that period, the pension shall again be payable and shall be recomputed with the addition of that further period to the period of his former reckonable service as an office-holding Member.
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    These provisions have the unintended effect of penalising the longer serving office-holding Members. Maximum pension of two-thirds of the office-holding Member's highest annual salary is earned when he has given a total of 18 years of service. Service beyond the period of 18 years does not earn more pension despite the provision for recomputation. In fact, as he continues to serve, his expectation of life decreases and the value of his pension benefits which are suspended falls progressively. Should he die in harness, the value of his pension benefits decreases to zero. I hope this will never happen but unfortunately it is more than a possibility for the older office-holding Members.
    One remedy is for office-holding Members to retire after they have qualified for pension and take up if they want, non-Parliamentary or private jobs. Several former Ministers like Dr Toh Chin Chye, Mr Lim Kim San, Mr Jek Yeun Thong and Encik Othman Wok have done this. They are able to enjoy their pensions in addition to what they are paid in their new jobs. But several office-holding Members are needed by the Prime Minister to serve beyond 18 years. They should not be penalized for continuing to discharge their public office. Therefore, a more positive solution, to achieve equity, is to remove the financial disincentives for staying on.
    In the case of Government pensioners re-employed by Government, their pensions do not cease to be paid during their re-employment. There is no valid reason why Parliamentary pensions for office-holding Members should not also continue to be paid to such re-employed Members. The Bill before this House seeks to remedy this by enabling an office-hold-ing Member to draw a pension when he has a total of eight years' reckonable service as an office-holding Member and attained the age of 55 years even though he is still holding office. When he ceases to hold office, his pension will be recomputed taking into account his further period of reckonable. service.
    This Bill also provides for a former office-holding Member who is drawing a pension to continue drawing the pension should he serve again as an office-holding Member if he has attained the age of 55
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years. If he has not attained that age when he serves again, then he will continue to draw pension upon reaching that age. In short, this Bill will place those office-hold-ing Members who have qualified for the grant of an office-holding Member's pension in a position similar to that of Administrative Officers who are re-employed after their retirement at 55 years of age.
    Sir, I beg to move.
    Question proposed.
    Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to ask what is the need for this Bill at this particular moment. We have heard from the Prime Minister not very long ago of the grim years ahead for all Singaporeans, not just for Singaporeans but for most of the world. Steps have been taken in other countries to curb public expenditure, particularly in the form of salaries paid to Ministers and others in the public service.
    What this Bill proposes to do, for all practical purposes - although it is paid in the form of a pension - is to increase the salaries that are already paid to those who will qualify under this Bill for the payment of pensions. If we take the case of the Prime Minister, what it will do is, for all practical purposes, to increase his salary by a sum of $132,000 annually.
    If we take the First Deputy Prime Minister, what it will do is to increase his annual salary by a sum of $114,000. If we take the Second Deputy Prime Minister, what this Bill will do is to increase his annual salary by a sum of $103,995.
    When it comes to Ministers who have served 18 years or more, what it will do is to increase their annual salary by a sum smaller than that of the Second Deputy Prime Minister, but not very much lower.
    For a minute, Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not begrudge the Ministers the salaries paid to them. They have earned their salaries and they have done well for Singapore. But the question still has to be faced whether, in the present state of our financial situation, this Bill should be presented to Parliament to add on to the public debt the payment of
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an increase in salaries, because that is what it amounts to.
    Again, Sir, I have with me, for the information of Members of this House, by way of comparison the salaries that are paid to Ministers, again, in Australia and in our nearest neighbour that is over the causeway. In Australia, the Prime Minister is paid S$253,470. This is his annual salary. The counterpart across the causeway in Malaysia is paid a sum of S$127,443. The Prime Minister of Singapore is paid $230,016, not very far below what is paid to the Australian Prime Minister.
    May I say, Sir, that the Australian Prime Minister's salary that I have given here is the recommendation of their Remunerations Tribunal, which was made recently I think, and this is the salary that has been recommended for him for the future. But I read in one of the papers that, on his submission, this recommendation has been deferred for three months in view of the situation facing Australia.
    If this Bill is passed, what it will do is to increase the salary of the Prime Minister from $230,000 to $362,000 a year for all practical purposes.
    Then if we look at the Deputy Prime Minister's salary, byway of comparison, in Australia the Deputy Prime Minister is paid a sum of S$208,320. This is, again, the recommendation of this Tribunal which has not been implemented yet. The counterpart across the causeway is only paid S$116,361.
    In Singapore, the First Deputy Prime Minister is paid a sum of $203,016. All these figures that I give include the allowance paid to the Ministers as Members of this House. The Second Deputy Prime Minister in Singapore is paid $188,016. So the result of this Bill, if passed, will be to add, for the First Deputy Prime Minister, a sum of $114,000 annually to his present salary, and to the Second Deputy Prime Minister a sum of $103,995 to his present salary.
    If we look at Cabinet Ministers, again, by way of comparison, in Australia a Cabinet Minister is paid S$173,670. The counterpart across the causeway is paid S$105,279. In Singapore it is $170,016,
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again, inclusive of the allowances paid as Members of this House.
    And if you move further down to Ministers and Ministers of State, what do we find? In Australia, they are paid S$163,380. In Malaysia they are paid S$88,656 and in Singapore a Senior Minister of State is paid $127,176 and a Minister of State is paid $109,896.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, I have for comparison purposes not taken salaries paid in other countries in this region. I have not, for a minute, tried to compare the salaries paid in Singapore with the salaries paid, for example, in India. I have taken, I thought in fairness, the salaries paid in Australia. But one must remember that the salary structure in Australia is quite different. There, the salaries are generally much higher for employees and workers and the salary structure is different. Yet we find that what we propose to do in Singapore, if this Bill is passed, is to pay our Ministers far in excess of what they pay in Australia.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, as I said, I do not begrudge the Ministers, for a minute, the salaries that they should be paid. But it is a mistake to think that the only attraction for public service is the salaries that will be paid or the pensions that they will be able to draw. It may, may I say respectfully to this House, attract the wrong sort of persons because one comes into this public service not for what one can get out of it but what one can give to his country and to his fellow men. That, I am sure, must have been the motive which led our Prime Minister and his team, when they entered politics in 1959, to guide the destiny of this country. So I think it will be a folly to think that because they are Ministers, they carry responsibilities, and therefore they must be paid very high salaries.
    This brings me to the point of whether the Government in Singapore is costing the taxpayer perhaps a little too much. The high cost of government, I find, Mr Speaker, Sir, that in salaries alone paid to Ministers, going down from the Prime Minister to the Ministers of State, is an annual sum of nearly $4 million. This is in payment of salaries alone to Ministers in the Government. We have, unique to Singapore, two Deputy Prime Ministers.
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One of them is, of course, in full-time charge of a Ministry. The other would appear to be a supernumerary, super-annuated. And his main task, as I see it at the moment, seems to be to write long letters to the press as the political propagandist for the Government and the People's Action Party.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, I would urge the Minister to reconsider this Bill; whether it is right that the taxpayer should be burdened with these additional sums. They are not small sums. They are quite large sums particularly, I repeat, when the Prime Minister has drawn the attention of Singaporeans to the bleak future facing this country for the next year - I do not know how many years - and for the need to tighten our belts.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, we have had NWC recommendations and this year's NWC recommendations, I need not remind Members of the House, are $18.50 plus 2.5% to 6.5%. The salary increases that are offered for our workers are very, very meagre compared to what increases (i keep saying "increases" because that is what it really amounts to) that are being offered to our Ministers.
    I think it is wrong, if I may say so, Mr Speaker, to try and equate service in the Government as a Minister holding a political office with that of the Administrative Service. It is wrong. For one thing, they are two different things. In the Administrative Service, the officer is paid to do a job and he does not enjoy the authority, the prestige, and the dignity that go with the appointment to a political office. So it will be wrong, in my submission, to try and equate service in the political field with that of service in the Administrative field.
    I have spoken about the high cost of government in Singapore today. I have mentioned about the salaries. I have tried to tot up the sum that is provided in the estimates for Administration, just pure administration of this country of over 2 1/4 million people. I would like to know what the exact figure would be from the Minister, if he is able to give that answer. The figure that I find is staggering, and I would urge the Minister to consider whether it is time that we examined Government
Column: 145
expenditure, particularly in the salaries, and other economies that may be effected. I would propose to the Minister that this Government should give serious consideration to the appointment of a commission now in Singapore to examine Government expenditure to see and to recommend what economies can be effected in Government spending without reducing efficiency.
    We have, Mr Speaker, Sir, in our society unfortunately people who need welfare, people who find it a burden to pay their hospital bills, people who are unemployed and who do not get any unemployment benefits, and people who are aged. I was reading in the Straits Times (I think it was yesterday) the speech made by a Minister about the plight of the aged in Singapore. In my view, it should be possible for some of these savings in Government expenditure to be directed towards caring for the needy and the less privileged in our midst. That is a deserving cause. We should not merely attempt to look after those in our society who are able to look after themselves, who can earn for themselves, sufficient to keep themselves. We should concern ourselves with those who are unable to do this, and we should see whether, with the funds and money available, this can be done. And I say, Mr Speaker, Sir, that it can be done if a serious attempt is made by this Government to examine Government expenditure to see what economies can be effected.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, I oppose this Bill.
    Mr Hon Sui Sen: Sir, I have been listening very patiently to the Member for Anson what he has been speaking on this Bill. May I remind him that this is a Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill and not the budget. I thank him for his advice on how to run a surplus in the budget. But let me assure him that I am able to find from the budget enough money to pay for the parliamentary pensions that are proposed in this particular Bill. I am also able to find the money to pay the Judges, whatever is considered proper to them. Civil servants who have had revisions of their salaries need not fear that there will be no money in the budget
Column: 146
to pay whatever it is that have been awarded to them. My own feeling is that civil servants are worthy of their hire and that they should be paid whatever is due to them. That also goes for the Prime Minister, the First Deputy Prime Minister, the Second Deputy Prime Minister, and so on.
    As I said, these are matters which are irrelevant. In this particular case, all I am asking is that persons who have served Parliament for at least eight years as office holders should be paid parliamentary pensions and which would be due to them if they retire, as he has suggested.
    I do not think I want to answer any point on what salaries are being paid in other jurisdictions to Ministers or Prime Ministers. They are totally irrelevant to this Bill.
    Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I wish to ask a point of clarification from the Member for Anson. Am I right in interpreting that he is not against pensions being paid to Members of Parliament and Ministers? In other words, what is his stand on pensions being paid to Members of Parliament? I want that point to be clarified first. Leaving aside this particular Bill for the time being, what is his stand on pensions being paid to Members of Parliament or Ministers?
    Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I have no quarrel at all with the payment of pensions to Ministers and Members of Parliament if they have served the requisite number of years in Parliament when they cease to hold office. But what this Bill proposes to do is to pay them pensions even while they are still in office, i.e. while they are holding office or have not ceased to be Members of Parliament. This is why I say that, for all practical purposes, what this amounts to is an increase in the salary that is being paid at the moment. Call it pension if you like, but what does it matter? It puts so much extra into the pockets of the Ministers.
    Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, if the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers who have earned pensions, having served the required term, were to retire and a new Prime Minister and Ministers are appointed, they too will be earning a salary. So, is there any saving at all to the Budget? Pensions will be paid to the Minis-
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ters and the Prime Minister who have retired and new Ministers and a new Prime Minister will be earning a new salary. So there is no saving whatever to the total Budget.
    Mr Speaker, Sir, I am trying to pin the Member for Anson down on his point that, given the grim picture which he has painted about the economy, Ministers should not enjoy what is due to them because it adds a cost to the Budget. The point which I am making is that if you were to argue logically, if Ministers who have earned their pension under the Parliamentary Pensions Act were to resign, new Ministers have to be appointed and be paid salaries. So the argument that there is a saving is not logical.
    Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not know quite exactly what the Hon. Minister intends by his question. Of course, if a Prime Minister should cease to hold office, then under the existing Act he will, of course, be entitled to a pension. I am not asking for a repeal of any provision in the Act. We are talking about this Bill which says that even whilst a Minister is holding office he should be paid a pension.
    Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, precisely. If the amendment is not effected, then we are actually asking the Ministers and the Prime Minister, who would have otherwise earned a pension under the existing Parliamentary Pensions Act, to personally sacrifice a large sum of money which is due to them. They would have earned the pension under the Parliamentary Pensions Act if they were to step down from office. Have I put the point across?
    If I may repeat, under the existing Parliamentary Pensions Act, certain Ministers would qualify for pension if they are not office holders, that is, if they step down from Ministerial office. So what we are, in fact, asking them to do is to make a personal sacrifice of what they would have earned, because they could now retire as Ministers, enjoy the pension, get a job outside; and new Ministers have to be appointed in their place. So there is no saving whatsoever on the Budget. We are, in fact, asking the Ministers who have worked very hard for the benefit of the country to make a sacrifice which is not
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very proper. This Bill merely seeks to rectify an undesirable anomaly.
    Question put, and agreed to.
    Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.
    The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Hon Sui Sen].
    Bill considered in Committee.
[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

    The Chairman: Clauses 1 and 2.
    Mr Jeyaretnam: I am sorry. Are you taking the two clauses together?
    The Chairman: Unless you want me to take them separately.
    Mr Jeyaretnam: Please.
    Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 2 -
    Question put, "That clause 2 stand part of the Bill."
    Mr Jeyaretnam: Division, Sir.
    The Chairman: Do you really want a Division to be taken, or a show of hands?
    Mr Jeyaretnam: A show of hands.
    The Chairman: Yes, that is easier. The Question is, "That clause 2 stand part of the Bill." As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". Show your hands.
    Hon. Members (majority hand raised): Aye.
    The Chairman: To the contrary, say "No", and show your hands.
    Mr Jeyaretnam (hand raised): Nay.
    The Chairman: One against. The Ayes have it.
    Clause 2 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Bill reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. 

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Who said Yes to the Casino


Based on the Parliament debate on the casino in April 2005 and various newspaper reports, the below is a compilation of which MPs supported or didn't object to the setting up of casinos in Singapore. [Note: These are only the MPs that spoke up during the Parliament debate, or those who were reported in the newspapers. The Parliament debate took place after Cabinet had made its decision to proceed with the casinos. There was no vote on the casino in Parliament, though several MPs proposed a vote.]

Who said “YES” or didn't say "NO" to the casino?
Party
MP
GRC in GE2011
PAP
George Yeo
Aljunied GRC
PAP
Lim Hwee Hua
Aljunied GRC
PAP
Zainal Abidin Rasheed
Aljunied GRC
PAP
Cynthia Phua
Aljunied GRC
PAP
Wong Kan Seng
Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC
PAP
Zainudin Nordin
Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC
PAP
Goh Chok Tong
Marine Parade GRC
PAP
Lee Hsien Loong
Ang Mo Kio GRC
PAP
Inderjit Singh
Ang Mo Kio GRC
PAP
PAP Seng Han Thong
Ang Mo Kio GRC
PAP
Khaw Boon Wan
Sembawang GRC
PAP
Yaacob Ibrahim
Moulmein-Kallang GRC
PAP
Lim Hng Kiang
West Coast GRC
PAP
Vivian Balakrishnan
Holland-Bukit Timah GRC
PAP
Lim Swee Say
East Coast GRC
PAP
Lim Hng Kiang
West Coast GRC
PAP
Arthur Fong
West Coast GRC
PAP
Halimah Yacob
Jurong GRC
PAP
Lee Kuan Yew
Tanjong Pagar GRC
PAP
Amy Khor
Hong Kah North SMC
PAP
Penny Low
Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC
PAP
Lim Boon Heng
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Koo Tsai Kee
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Yu-Foo Yee Shoon
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Ahmad Magad
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Ang Mong Seng
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Wee Siew Kim
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Ho Geok Choo
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Ong Ah Heng
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Ong Seh Hong
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Sin Boon Ann
Retiring in 2011
PAP
Chew Heng Ching
Retired in 2006
PAP
Ravindran
Retired in 2006
PAP
Wang Kai Yuen
Retired in 2006
PAP
Warren Lee
Retired in 2006
PAP
Tan Boon Wan
Retired in 2006
PAP
Ahmad Khalis Bin Abdul Ghani
Retired in 2006
PAP
Andy Gan
Retired in 2006
PAP
Tan Cheng Bock
Retired in 2006

Who said “NO” to the casino?
PAP
Gan Kim Yong
Chua Chu Kang GRC
PAP
Irene Ng
Tampines GRC
PAP
Tony Tan
Retired in 2006
PAP
Tan Soo Khoon
Retired in 2006
PAP
Loh Meng See
Retired in 2006
WP
Low Thia Khiang
Aljunied GRC
SPP
Chiam See Tong
Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC
NSP
Steve Chia
Pioneer SMC


Interesting points:
1)     George Yeo suggested and pushed for the casino (when he was Minister for Trade and Industry in 2004) – in Goh Chok Tong’s words, he “persisted”.
2)      Only 5 PAP MPs rejected the casino, including DPM Tony Tan. 3 of them have retired. Irene Ng is still around. Gan Kim Yong is now Manpower Minister.
3)      44 PAP MPs spoke up in Parliament on this issue in Apr 2005. Tony Tan didn’t, but expressed his views in the Straits Times earlier.
4)      Many PAP MPs and Ministers did all the hand-wringing in Parliament, citing their many reservations, but explaining their coming round to the view that the casino would bring economic benefits.
5)      The Malay MPs were urging the Malay community to be pragmatic, to move on and focus on other important issues.
6)      All 3 opposition MPs rejected the casino.

Some interesting excerpts:
1) Goh Chok Tong (April 2005 in Parliament):
Right from the beginning, I kept an open mind on the casino question. When the subject was first broached by George Yeo, the Minister for Trade and Industry, PM and many Ministers were against it. The project nearly did not see the light of day. 
But George Yeo persisted. As the Minister in charge of the economy, he had to persist.  I was not for or against the Integrated Resort with casino at that stage.  I kept an open mind.  I was aware of the religious, moral and social objections.  But I also knew the economic opportunities we would miss if we were to forgo the Integrated Resort.  More importantly, I was concerned over Singapore's future as a vibrant, cosmopolitan city.  During those discussions, I said that I would make up my mind only after I knew what kind of integrated resorts there would be.  I did not believe in arguing in a vacuum.  I therefore supported George's proposal to proceed to Request for Concepts stage.  Therefore, those people who think that we have already decided on the casino were wrong.  Many of us did not decide until we had seen the bids from the potential investors.

2) Wee Siew Kim (April 2005 in Parliament):
A week ago, a Secondary 3 student told me that she would deeply miss the Singapore she had grown up in.  She feared that when she grows up, she would inherit a Singapore that is a less desirable place to live in.  Contrary to what one may expect from a young person, she is not interested in a hip and happening glitter land.  Buzz is not important to her.  Her vision for Singapore is that of an incorruptible nation with high moral values and a strong social fabric.  If it is a little staid and restrictive compared to other countries, the benefits far outweigh the costs.  She said that her generation would have to pay a heavy price for the lifting of restrictions on gambling.  She dreaded the accompanying vice activities.  A Pandora's box would have been opened. 
But, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the economics is compelling.  We live in a rapidly changing world, one that would pass us by, if we do not adapt and not only keep pace, but leap ahead of others.  Globalisation is here to stay.  Large numbers of Singaporeans travel on a regular basis.  Keeping our borders sanitised and sterile no longer offers the guarantee of immunity that we enjoyed in the less connected world of the past.  Avoidance is no longer an option.  We might as well take the benefits and manage and mitigate the risks.  That would be the pragmatic approach, the same pragmatic approach that has brought us thus far.

3) See Loh Meng See’s principled speech here.


4) See Zainul Abidin's speech here.

References/Sources:
1) Parliament Report, 18 April 2005

2) Parliament Report, 19 April 2005

3) Parliament Report, 20 April 2005

4) Parliament Report, 21 April 2005
6) Straits Times reports