After years of lecturing its people of the need for hardship and belt-tightening, it is now the turn of Singapore leaders to do what themselves have long resisted.
In a move that can be viewed as ‘historic’ all Singapore leaders will now take a pay cut beginning with the head of state, Dr Tony Tan along with premier Lee Hsien Loong and all his ministers.
If history is any clue, it was the country’s most famous and controversial political dissident JB Jeyaretnam who first gave vent to unusually high salaries when he was then contesting the Siglap constituency in 1976.
“We are always asked to tighten our belts. Don’t they too need to tighten their belts” thundered Jeyaretnam in an election rally speech that year, only to be accused in latter years of arousing the politics of envy. Full story
