If Only
Readers qualified to be in receipt of annual assessments generated by the Singapore Department of Inland Revenue eagerly await details of a National Wages Council (NWC) monthly variable component (MVC) scheme to be set up and administered in relation to salaries drawn at ministerial level, as compensation for sterling work in successfully (or otherwise) navigating the challenging global political and economic shoals, to ensure “Singapore's success in restructuring itself to meet the challenges of an evolving international economy”, whilst using the resources provided by nationally raised tax revenue. As the NWC has pointed out and surely means its words to apply to everyone domicile in the Republic, “a changing world demands that all adjust their expectations, lifestyles and mindsets”.
“Of immediate importance is the need for wage reform to succeed by focusing on the monthly variable component (MVC) of ministers’ pay. The MVC gives government departments the all-important flexibility to cut wages to survive tough times - and reward ministers when the going gets easier”.
However, the statistics are not reassuring. Last year ministers remained silent on any personal contribution being made towards easing taxpayers’ central government salary burden, during the dark days of SARS. If ministers behave this way, how can employees be expected to make the mental adjustments necessary for Singapore to remain competitive?
It is good that the NWC, a crucial part of this country's tripartite system that brings together management, labour and the Government, has emphasised the MVC's usefulness, encouraging ministers to build it up to 10 per cent of their total wages. It must be added in the same breath, however, that ministers should play fair with employees and keep them informed of their own sacrifices when obliging the workers to make theirs for the good of Singapore. Wage reforms, and economic restructuring for that matter, depend ultimately on the degree of trust that exists between ministers and employees – a trust strengthened by ministerial remuneration transparency and perhaps an explanation of the logic that sees a Singapore prime ministerial salary higher, by significant multiples, than a US presidential salary.