RIP Roh...
Minister Mentor Lee described as “absurd” for Singaporeans to quarrel over the amount the ministers should be paid. “You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government,” he said.
The total cost to pay ministers and other office holders is now at S$46 million a year, which Lee said, amounted to about 0.13 per cent of the government’s total expenditure.
“We are quarrelling about whether we should pay them S$46 million or S$36 million, or better still S$26 million. So you save S$20 million and jeopardise an economy of S$210 billion? What are we talking about?” said Lee.
The proposed salary increase has attracted debate among Singaporeans who are against the move.
But Lee told them: “I say you have no sense of proportion; you don’t know what life is about. And just think, what would your apartment be worth with a poor government and the economy down?”
Asked on his salary, Lee, said he earned S$2.7 million a year as Minister Mentor.
“A top lawyer, which I could easily have become, today earns S$4 million. And he doesn’t have to carry this responsibility. All he’s got to do is advise his client. Win or lose, that’s the client’s loss or gain.”
On views that the ministers should be willing to make sacrifices and not to be there for the money, Lee said: “Those are admirable sentiments, but we live in a real world.”
Singapore's GIC losses about $50 billion
http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/My%2BMoney
These words have been repeatedly quoted by Chinese netizens. In
their eyes, Roh's strong sense of shame is a contrast to the
overwhelming lack
of shame among Chinese corrupted officials and even
in China's society under the impact of
the market economy.
At the same time, many industries and professions in China are devoid of self-blame and professional morality. Chinese people have a deep resentment of this. Every industry and every person should have a bottom line for what behavior is and is not acceptable.
Actually, a sense of shame has a long
history in China and has been cherished for generations. The “four
virtues,” namely “courtesy, justice, honesty and shame,” constitute the
principles of being an upright person.