Ministers in Singapore - like those in Hong Kong - are handsomely rewarded for their efforts to lead the public service. Unlike them, however, Singaporean cabinet pay packets fluctuate widely from year to year, tied both to rates paid for a basket of private-sector posts and the performance of the wider economy.

The result in Singapore has been a stream of salary adjustments to the take-home pay pocketed by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and their ministerial colleagues from the long-ruling People's Action Party (PAP).

In late 2001, for example, when Singapore was gripped by its worst recession in a generation, ministerial pay was lopped by more than 17 per cent. The cuts extended to all political-appointment holders and also to the senior ranks of the civil service.

Announcing the amendments to Parliament - where all but a handful of MPs are drawn from PAP ranks - Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the reductions signalled a desire to lead by example. "(They will) send a clear signal that Singapore was in a grave situation, and show that the government was taking the lead in wage restraint," Mr Lee told the House.

The year before - when the city state's economy was riding a lucrative export boom and grew by almost 10 per cent - the picture was reversed. A revised pay scale announced in August that year saw the prime minister's salary boosted by 14 per cent, while more junior ministers enjoyed a 12 per cent gain.

The sharp rises - which followed a two-year ministerial pay freeze during the regional economic crisis - provoked a rare stream of public criticism in a state where deference to authority is the norm. "As leaders of the country, money is not everything," grumbled one letter-writer at the time.

Such criticism provoked an official rebuttal as Mr Goh told citizens that, spread across the population, the planned rises counted for little in per capita terms. Costed at an extra S$11 (about HK$49) per head the jump was equivalent "to about five plates of char kway teow (fried noodles with cockles) per Singaporean", the prime minister said.

But, rises and falls notwithstanding, the fact remains that Singapore's leading politicians are among the best paid in the world.

Even after the cuts in 2001, the prime minister still earns a reported gross salary of about S$1,030,000 per year, and that is before the variable component is taken into account.

The Singapore pay rate compares favourably with that received by United States President George W. Bush, (US$400,000 per year), and Britain's Tony Blair (US$262,000). They also leave in the shade the remuneration reportedly received by Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra (US$32,000) and Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad (US$65,000).

The official Singaporean rationale for high and variable ministerial pay - the basic mechanism for which was established in 1994 - is that rewards must be high enough to attract the brightest candidates, encourage their retention and deter any tendency towards personal corruption.

International surveys consistently rank the city state as among the least corrupt places in Asia, although the direct linkage between this graft-free climate and bulging ministerial pay are hard to tie-down.

Senior Minister Lee, during the boom years, said: "We are in an era of high growth, with fortunes being made by the enterprising. Do not believe that we have escaped the problems that have plagued the region ... corruption, collusion and nepotism. Our market-based pay and allowances will give no excuse for any slippage."

                                                            Home