I REFER to the report, 'Govt must close pay gap to retain talent: PM Lee - Pay for staff Grade 1 has slipped to 55% of benchmark' (BT, March 23).
While it is important to retain talent, we may need to temper the focus on monetary rewards. Otherwise, we may inadvertently be setting an unhealthy example for Singaporeans in general and sending an undesirable message to our children - that money is everything.
In this connection, Singapore has been ranked 130th out of 178 countries for happiness, 40th out of 41 countries for libido, 30th out of 35 countries for courtesy, fifth in the world for prisoners per capita and 105th in the world for income equality.
Has our over-emphasis on monetary rewards led to us being unhappy because we spend too much time and effort chasing more and more things and money - at a cost of having little time or energy to have sex, an uncaring attitude towards others and an inclination to commit illegal acts to get rich quick, resulting in many offenders?
Recent remarks by the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy - that 'Singapore should stop trying so hard to be world class, simply because it already is' - may be instructive. We may need to pay more attention to trying to improve those 'soft' areas in which we are far from world class - like happiness, libido and courtesy.
Singapore seems to be particularly good in the economic arena, but Third World in the non-economic arena.
Perpetuating the strategy of paying more and more to keep civil servants may be self-defeating. As a small country, we will find it increasingly difficult to compete with bigger, more developed countries that can offer higher pay, perks - and a better lifestyle to boot.
Perhaps we should shift some of the emphasis to the honour and duty of public service, contribution to our country and the pride and joy such service brings - which no amount of money can buy.
Our founding ministers, like our Minister Mentor, worked tirelessly for very little pay to take Singapore from Third World to First World status.
If the most senior civil servants who are now earning $1.21 million a year need to be paid $2.2 million to want to stay, I think there may be something wrong with the values we are teaching in our schools, our homes and our society at large.
Furthermore, benchmarking pay to the top echelons of private sector professions may not be appropriate, because civil servants do not have to face market competition, technological obsolescence, shareholders, investors, etc.
Finally, as long as our parents tell their children to aspire to be scholars and civil servants, entrepreneurship may never flourish in Singapore, no matter how hard we try to promote it.
Leong Sze Hian
Singapore
Note: Fist pulished in Business Times -27 Mar 2007 - LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Time to temper focus on monetary rewards
