Dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today (June 6) defended his S$2.2 million-a-year salaries as “fair and realistic”:
“The country also has a professional public service that is paid fair and realistic wages benchmarked against the private sector, which reduces the temptation to accept bribes. This is unlike many counties, where corruption is accepted as the natural way of things and impossible to eradicate.”
The Prime Minister who is paid S$2.2 million a year – the most well-paid and indisputably the richest politician in the world – was speaking at the opening of a memorial centre for the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
Lee Hsien Loong also added that his government is “corruption-free” and that Singapore will succeed because his party is clean. He said in his opening speech:
“Singapore’s success depends on keeping the country clean and corruption-free… Our founding leaders left us a clean system, built up over more than half a century. It is a legacy that we can be proud of, and we should do our utmost to protect it.”
Lee Hsien Loong himself sits as the Chairman of GIC, overseeing CPF funds, along with his wife, Ho Ching, who sits as the CEO of Temasek Holdings. The obvious conflict of interests is however legalised through his single-party Parliament and puppet President Tony Tan, which he endorsed to become president.
The CPIB is however unable to investigate the PM because they report to PM Lee Hsien Loong. A recent corruption case in his constituency’s town council first reported last year was later covered up with no follow up by the state media.