There is really no reason to be paying MPs $15,000 per month. Most MPs earn much more in their full time job and if it’s really a sacrifice, why the need to reward them with an ‘allowance’ that’s above the 90th percentile?
We also have MPs like Alvin Yeo who could earn for his firm $100,000 per hour in court so there is really no need for another $15,000 when they are already in the top 1% income bracket?
Left to the PAP, the sky is the limit where remuneration is concerned. And that applies only to the PAP.
From the table above, an MP was getting 16.4 times ($225,000 / $13,710) his monthly ‘allowance’ in 2008. This translates into an additional 4.4 months of ‘bonus’.
But why should an MP be even getting a bonus when he was supposed to be serving?
What’s more obscene is the world was in financial turmoil during the period but MPs were totally immune.
Their collective silence has resulted in insufficient hospital beds and public housing, a poorly maintained and broken MRT system, immigration-related issues, job discrimination against citizens, etc.
In order to remain a PAP MP, one must toe the party line and merely maintain the status quo because there is no accountability anyway. The PAP system is one which entices the greedy and self-serving types. Why put in more effort when one is already paid so obscenely for a part time job to speak up on issues which don’t even affect them?
Phillip Ang
*The author blogs at http://likedatosocanmeh.wordpress.com