SINGAPORE : Pay Raise Plan Gets a Rise Out of Public : Salaries of top officials will be linked to earnings of high-paid executives. The country’s premier already makes $797,000.

While American voters have been agonizing over which political course will give them the best government in the 1990s, the question posed here has taken a pecuniary turn: How much should an able politician be paid?

The debate was provoked by a government proposal to link salaries of top officials directly to incomes of the highest-paid executives in private industry. While many Singaporeans accept some form of linkage, there was shock at the size of the pay packages being considered.

Tiny Singapore, with a population of only 3 million, already pays its prime minister $797,000 a year, nearly four times what President Clinton earns. A top Cabinet minister earns $535,000 a year, compared to $148,000 for his counterparts in the United States.

The contrast is even more dramatic with Singapore’s Asian neighbors. President Fidel V. Ramos of the Philippines, for example, has to get by on pay of $1,036 a year.

Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong appealed for public support of his proposal, saying the increase should be seen in the perspective of Singapore’s recent economic success.

Goh said the total cost of salaries for top political appointees is $15 million, which he described as “small beer” when compared to Singapore’s $60-billion-a-year economy. He suggested Singaporeans weigh that “against the cost to you of having an incompetent and corrupt government.”

Singapore’s bureaucracy is regarded as one of the least corrupt in Asia, which the government attributes to its policy of paying salaries competitive with the private sector. Last year, all civil servants received an end-of-the-year bonus of 3 1/2 months’ pay as a reward for the country’s sterling economic performance.

Under the government’s new plan, minister salaries will be set by averaging incomes of the four highest-paid executives in six industries: banking, accounting, engineering, law, manufacturing and multinational firms. In 1992, the average salary taken from tax returns worked out to $845,000. Ministers will have their salary “benchmarked” at one-third less than the private industry average.

“This figure will be a visible demonstration of the sacrifice involved in becoming a minister,” said a government White Paper on the pay proposal.

But a number of Singaporeans seemed unconvinced that ministers are suffering.

Ow Chin Hock, head of the government’s Feedback Unit, a kind of informal polling group that the government uses to gauge reaction to public issues, told Parliament that initial reaction to the pay proposals was “highly negative.”

“Singapore is a small place. People know the salaries of some of the ministers before they entered public service,” Ow said. “If their previous salaries were lower than what they earn now, it is very difficult to persuade these people that the ministers are making a financial sacrifice.”

The outpouring of criticism for a government policy is rare in Singapore, where a single party has ruled since 1959. In the last election, the ruling party’s majority dropped to 61% of the vote, but opposition parties won only four of the 81 seats in Parliament.

The pay debate highlights the extraordinary transformation that has taken place in Singapore in the last 30 years. Per capita income is now $16,000 a year, more than in New Zealand and Spain.

It was left to Lee Kuan Yew, a senior minister in the government and the father of modern Singapore, to have the last word. He said ministers made a difference to Singaporeans’ lives, and citizens should not begrudge them salaries they deserve.

The proposal was adopted by a 61-6 parliamentary vote. Goh promised that an independent panel will scrutinize the private sector figures and the prime minister’s pay annually to ensure they are in line. He said the government will try the formula for five years before it is reviewed.

How Much Is Too Much?

In Singapore, a controversy has erupted over just how much top officials should be paid. The government wants their salaries to be roughly linked to those paid in private industry. But critics note that such a plan would make leaders of this small nation among the world’s best compensated.

How base salaries compare:

Country President or prime minister Top Cabinet minister Singapore $797,000 $535,000 United States $200,000 $148,000 Japan $356,537 $260,141 Australia $242,797 $160,678 Philippines $1,036 $840

Source: Singapore White paper on Pay; Japanese, Australian and Philippines governments.