Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Is the President's Salary reasonable?

Monday, April 18, 2011

Is the President's Salary reasonable?

A reader wrote to Today paper on the President's salary. The letter was not published. The letter is now published in SGEP.

6 comments:

rex said...: The President is supposed to guard our national Reserve$$$.
Instead he is in my opinion, raiding the Reserves (or potential reserves to be more precise), each month.

Furthermore, lest it be forgotten, a life-long pension is accorded to him as with all other ministers. I can only think of one word, Greed, that is to take more than what is necesary to sustain the same standard of lifestyle till one drops dead.

People who rake huge salaries should correspondingly have huge responsibilities that sometimes affect life-and-death literally. Even a critical issue like whether a drug trafficker may be pardoned ("Presidential" clemency), such a matter is referred to Cabinet for decision. And if the Cabinet some day says that Ministers have to earn 30 times of what they earn today, i doubt it if this Guardian of Reserves would say Stop This Nonsense. It is very sad.

No wonder the lawyer Mr Ravi said, i wonder what is his function.

In conclusion, our president is always the Good Guy. There is no blood on his hands, only the smell of Cash, come rain shine hellfire.

rex; April 18, 2011 3:29 PM
Weng Mao Fa said...: A moral issue:
- subsidisedd patient=laboratory mice
- a medical trainee practice at subsidised ward & subsidised clinic
- Why subsidised patient has to pay high medical cost for trainee to try?
- After X numbers of try, a doctor is certified and register under Board of Specialist. Subsidised patient pay all the ways to train a specialist.
- He/She will serve the private patient who pay higher medical cost.
- He/She will go private practice after 10 years specialist experience. HE/SHE WILL SERVE ONLY SUPER RICH !!!; April 18, 2011 3:49 PM
Lye Khuen Way said...: Not surprisethat that letter never get published. So much for openess /responsible media , blah, blah...
I dare say, no one watching Parliament , including the opposition were vaguely aware of that increase. 26% mind you !
Can the 26% be approx 2 x GDP increase of 14.7% ? What rational was provided, I could not recall reading.
Sad situation.; April 18, 2011 7:35 PM
DareToAct said...: To me, the key issue of the Elected President is not his salary. It is his role(s). He is supposed to hold the key to Singapore's reserves, his approval is needed for certain statutory board budgets, and his approval is also needed for key civil service appointments. To execute his duties, he will need to know how much reserves Singapore has, he will need to know exactly what those statutory boards do, and study those civil servants put in front of him for promotions. He might have done lots of work finding out all he needs to know to do his job properly, or he might have been doing nothing and just takes the cue from the Presidential council and also the signals from the government.

The reality is ---- as Singaporeans, we have no clue.; April 18, 2011 8:55 PM
yujuan said...: The late President Ong Teng Cheong wanted to know the clue, he was immediately asked to resign by MM,
on the pretext of his cancer illness.
But when PM Lee contracted cancer, he was kept, with someone temporarily taking over his job, while he went for treatment.
President Nathan is kuay kuay, and rewarded with a 26% pay rise, nothing to do with his job scope,or responsibilities.; April 19, 2011 5:33 PM
michael13 said...: Since 18th August 1999, many Singaporeans wonder - they are still trying to figure out what true values the President of Singapore, Mr. S.R. Nathan has been contributing and adding to their lives.; April 20, 2011 11:04 AM