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A well paid ministr is definitely one of the deterents for corruption. But it is not the only one. There is also the issue of the severe penalty withour fear or favour if caught. Finally, there is the pride in their work.

In Malaysia, even if they are well paid, the temptation to get more is high because their positions gave them even more opportunities to make more. And if you are suspected, you can always trust the authorities to make the cursory superficial investigations and declare "no evidence". As for pride in their position and work, we all know what the answer is.

Here our ministers can earn more than those in S'pore la. RM3million sup sup sui. They would rather stick with their peanuts pay and earn via side income.

What is so bad about giving peanuts when it also allows them to dig diamonds as well? You think any of the Singaporean MPs and PM can put up a place like Zakaria Deros? Surely not is squeeky clean Singapbloodypore! The problem is only monkeys don't mind digging for diamonds and all the smart ones don't want to get dirty. So you opnly get monkeys la...but surely monkeys that are able to build palaces must be smart monkeys, no?

i wish we got monkeys and just that.
but, sad to say, those in power have more than made up the difference in the salary by enriching the wives, children and other relatives through non-public tenders.

let's leave politics aside for a while and enjoy Asian Idol show tonight.

http://sophiesworld-sophiesworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/asian-idol-rock-on.html

Guess the question is, who are the ones running the largest organisation or company in the country... obviously the ministers. So why should they not be paid market rates and for the country to realise the real cost of running it. Paying good wages would attract the best to the job.

What if it's switched? The Singapore cabinet runs Malaysia and the Malaysian cabinet runs Singapore.

Dragon Lee and his coterie will still have to face up to the balancing act here; all the races will have to be catered for - the malays for their perennial sense of being encroached, the others for their need of a better tomorrow.

But what happens to Badawi and his coterie in Singapore? Will things get better? Or, worse? One would expect them to start by doing something for the singaporean malays. But what more can be done that hasn't been done there without depriving the edge that's the legacy of LKY? And what will happen to governance? Will the citizens of Singapore be the ones who will educate the new government to think in straight lines for a change? Will the new cabinet collapse because none of them is by training, experience or attitude equipped to face the do-or-die pressures of that small island-state?

This turn-around questioning provides its own answers to the dilemmas of governance of Malaysia.

It's a textbook situation. Govern well, and the blessings of rich resources and smart people will lift any nation up. Govern poorly, constantly fighting bushfires and raising ire, bleeding the taxpayers funds and running amok with race relations, and any such suffering nation will need to be artificially propped up all the time.

More time is spent trying to maintain form than pursue substance. More money is wasted chasing mirages than investing in competitiveness. More effort is exhausted in deflection, coercion and suppression.

Once these happen, the future of generations to come and the fate of the nation will become dependent on how long the resources and savings will last. A vicious cycle will ensue; smart people leave, investors fly, staff get demotivated, suspicion and mistrust increase, corruption spreads like an epidemic, and that sense of communal cohesiveness we had once known long ago will finally lose its fibre.

Some of Lee's citizens may bitch that the Singapore cabinet is ignoring their income gap plights. But the business model adopted on that island state is about best-up. Not worst-up. And they have benchmarks, targets and performance measures that are the pride of even the best multinational human resource directors.

What do we have?

We are in that situation where politicians and civil servants are deemed to be self-pollinators of side-deals, instead of protectors of the rights and wealth of the rakyat and country.

We are in that situation where they will make more than the Singapore ministers so long as one big deal gets through in their career, perks notwithstanding.

It's messy, murky and malfeasant.

No bookkeeper will be able to balance the records of these artistes who balance races.

Except, perhaps, One.

Someone once said to sum up everything:

"they don't care."

Take your time with those three words. It says they know but choose to look away. They do but choose to avoid the right steps and the best results. They talk but know the rakyat can be hoodwinked to forget.

The other possibility - that they are really 'dopic' (dopically stupid) - would be too insulting to the rakyat who had voted for them.

Who owns the Honda franchise? What happened in Sg Siput before the plan to build that highway? What is going on in the EPU when the NEP target of 30 percent was already reached long ago because so many of the nominee ownerships are the malays, and their shares are defined at par while those of the non-malays have been computed at market value - all the market data have been twisted to make sure the NEP continues to be usable to keep the unsuspecting malay population close to this fighting platform for Umno.

The rakyat know.

Ask what one can see of this country ten years down the line. The inescapable answer will be the same as if the question had been asked ten years ago. And ten years before that.

When others do their best and continue to strive to improve constantly in the way they govern everything, here it's just a line-dance without any rhythm.

Have a good general erection....

(that old sting again).