Singapore is a unique country. More I know about it, more I find it intriguing and impressive. The Government, under the legacy and mentorship of Lee Kuan Yew, is run more like a top company. I had a discussion with Michael Parekh on this topic today. And he sent me this article from Herald Tribune.
As the article says:
In this nation where the bottom line truly is the bottom line, the argument goes, you’ve got to pay to get them and you’ve got to pay to keep them.
“If we don’t do that, in the long term, the government system will slowly crumble and collapse,” Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean told reporters last month.
This system is the result of:
It is a pay system created in 1994 by Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, pegging the salaries of government ministers and top civil servants to the money they might earn at the top of the private sector.
Most countries I know think very differently. I can not help but compare it to my birth country — India. Even my current country USA has very different thinking. SInce Singapore has very different system,
Singapore has one of the most efficient and corruption-free governments in the world.
It is Asia’s second-richest country after Japan, with a gross domestic product per capita of about $31,000, and Lee said it could well afford to pay its leaders top dollar.
Singapore is a country with no natural resources but they had leadership that is determined to put their economic future first.
I think this makes Singapore very different from other countries where the emphasis is more on the present.
Perhaps democracy has a part to play in this. Had Singapore been more democratic, you would not be able to carry out all the long term policies that were responsible for bring so much success. Politicians will focus more on the present.