Civil service?

"We will continue to make sure we will remain competitive both to recruit and to retain. We want to make sure we not only retain those with experience, but also provide challenging careers for those who are well-remunerated and those looking for new jobs," the minister said.

In the name of competition we have to increase the elites' pay and in the name of competition the structurally unemployed have to accept whatever crumbs left over. And how would the elite increase bottom line???? By cutting cost. Slash staff cost of the 'new poor'. Sounds like a vicious cycle to me.

With that and GST increase put together, it is difficult not to suspect that their offset package for the poor is all talk.

I say if people want to leave because somewhere else is paying better, let them go.

Firstly it is because they are in opinion well paid. Plus there are a lot of other expenses under the employment benefits we do not see.

Secondly if a person decides to leave the civil service for a better paying job, it shows that their life is about building their own empire. That person is putting his own agenda before the interest of the nation. His passion is not in serving the people of Singapore but he is asking how much can the country pay him for his services. I think we better get rid of all these talents because they serve their own interest and not that of the nation.

Am I being idealistic? Surely I cannot expect the civil servant to just serve the country and not take care of his own needs. However if we take civil service of other countries as bench mark we would be overpaying our ministers already. I am not sure why the benchmark is not civil service of other countries but the salaries of the top professionals in singapore. We like to compare GST with other countries without comparing their welfare spendings. How convenient when we compare things through our national PR arm.

Singapore has become too mencenary and we like to buy things. We like to buy talents and retain talents but fail to recognise that the talents will leave when the right price is offered. What we need is not talents but people who are passionate for Singapore. People who are willing to make sacrifices for singapore. People who can accept a 10k paycheque when they know they might get 15k somewhere else. This is because their motivation is not in the money but in nation of Singapore.

We seemed to think money can buy anything. I believe money can buy lots of things but not everything. Just look at the Shin corp eg and we will know we've failed miserablely because our investment arm could not understand passion and loyalty for the country. They think with money they can do anything.

I think Singapore has fallen under the influence of the Money god. Everything is measured in dollars and cents. We don't understand patriotism anymore because it is about money. Money can buy talented people but a person passionate for Singapore cannot be bought by money. I am afraid we are attracting the wrong type of people by dangling a fat pay cheque.