Singapore’s prime minister, already the world’s most highly paid head of government, is getting a pay rise worth almost €1 million a year. He says it’s the price of good government.

Gold-plated government

When Singapore’s prime minister Lawrence Wong told parliament on Tuesday that his government was accepting the recommendations of an independent panel on ministers’ pay, he acknowledged the increases involved were more than many Singaporeans earn in a year. But he said even with a civil service that is the envy of the world, institutions don’t run themselves and good government depended on good leadership.

“Companies understand this very well. That is why boards spend so much time on succession planning. They know that people at the top determine the quality of decisions, the calibre of their team, and ultimately what the organisation can achieve,” he said.

The changes announced on Tuesday will increase Wong’s salary from S$2.2 million (€1.5 million) to S$3.6 million (€2.45 million) with other ministers, political office holders and members of parliament also getting big pay hikes. Wong said he would donate his increase to good causes, although he made clear that he did not want to set a precedent that would put pressure on his successors to follow suit.

Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of Singapore’s economic and governmental model since it became independent in 1965, believed high salaries were necessary to bring the best talent into government. Champions of high pay for politicians point to the fact that Singapore is one of the world’s most successful economies and one of the least corrupt.

A system introduced in 1994 and revised in 2007 benchmarks ministerial salaries against the median income of the top 1,000 earners in the country who are Singapore citizens, with a 40 per cent discount to reflect the public service ethos. Ministers can earn a bonus worth up to six months of salary based on four national indicators: the unemployment rate; real income growth for the lowest 5 per cent of Singaporean earners; real income growth for the median Singapore citizen, and GDP growth.

Only MPs can serve as ministers but the ruling People’s Action Party routinely recruits business leaders and senior officials to run as candidates for election with a view to appointing them to government. Wong told parliament on Tuesday that the most important quality in any minister is character and that if someone did not have the integrity, values and commitment to serve, it did not matter how capable they were.

“But character alone is not enough. Ministers also need competence – the judgment, ability and leadership to do the job well. And this is where remuneration becomes relevant. It does not determine who is capable. But it does affect whether enough capable people are prepared to step forward and take on the responsibility,” he said.

Wong said politicians in other countries shied away from the issue of politicians’ pay because of the public backlash but often allowed ministers and MPs to make extra money outside politics. Others saw former ministers earn large fortunes after leaving politics by leveraging their contacts in government as well as their experience and judgment.

“I meet many people around the world who study governments and public policy. Again and again, they point to Singapore as a model of effective government, and an inspiration for others. We have sustained these standards for so long that they can start to feel normal to Singaporeans. But they are not normal elsewhere – and they are certainly not guaranteed here either,” he said.

“We did not build this record of good government because Singaporeans are inherently better than others, or because good government somehow comes naturally to us. We achieved it through deliberate choices made over many decades about how our political system should be designed and how it should work. One of those choices was to deal with political remuneration openly.”

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