SINGAPORE \u2013\u00a0When Prime Minister Lawrence Wong decided to resign from the civil service to run in the 2011 General Election, no one had told him what position or what pay package<\/span><\/a> he would get if elected.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that point, I did not know where I would contest, whether I would be elected, what responsibilities I might be asked to take on, or what I would be paid,\u201d he said on Sept 10, recounting his experience when entering politics.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one told me, if you win, this is the position you will get. This is the remuneration package. No one. It was a complete leap of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n PM Wong, who was chief executive of the Energy Market Authority then, said he lost his pension as he was just shy of the 15-year mark to retain it when he resigned.<\/p>\n He was fielded in 2011 as part of the five-member PAP team in West Coast GRC, which won with 66.57 per cent of the vote against the Reform Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n When announcing the salary changes on Sept 8, PM Wong had said he would donate his full salary increase to good causes<\/span><\/a> for the next five years.<\/p>\n The prime minister\u2019s annual salary will go up from $2.2 million to $3.6 million, including bonuses. This means he will donate $1.4 million each year.<\/p>\n In his speech on Sept 10 during the debate on changes to political salaries<\/span><\/a>, PM Wong clarified that he would also donate any tax benefit arising from the donations, following questions about the matter.<\/p>\n He said some friends had asked him if he regrets his decision to join politics, since he might have become a permanent secretary if he had stayed in civil service.<\/p>\n He could have kept his pension, earned more and faced far less public scrutiny, all while still serving Singapore.<\/p>\n PM Wong said his answer was no, adding: \u201cI valued my years in the civil service greatly, and I continue to have the highest regard for those who serve Singapore in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut political service is a different kind of responsibility,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are not just helping to carry out decisions or implement decisions. You have to make the difficult choices, set the strategic direction, bring people along, and ultimately take responsibility for the outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence Wong speaking to the media on April 7, 2011, during the PAP\u2019s announcement of its sixth batch of new candidates at their party headquarters.<\/p>\n PHOTO: SM FILE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n That is why he chose this path, he said, adding that the same is true of his colleagues. \u201cWe step forward to do what we can for Singapore and to serve our fellow citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning to the \u201ctea sessions\u201d that PAP leaders have with prospective candidates, he said: \u201cWhat may be less well known is that we also ask candidates to write something about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n It is an old practice but a good one that the party has kept till today, he added.<\/p>\n He recounted that he wrote in 2011 that having worked as a civil servant, he knew that for Singapore to succeed, every generation \u201cmust throw up its own leaders\u201d \u2013 people prepared to take ownership of the country and to serve their fellow citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I wrote that I would like to be part of that team, to make a difference where it counted, and to contribute to Singapore\u2019s development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how I felt, and it is still how I feel today.\u201d<\/p>\n PM Wong then said he knows there are Singaporeans who feel the same way as he did, and would be prepared to answer the call to serve and take responsibility for Singapore.<\/p>\n \u201cOur task is to find such people, persuade them to step forward, and sustain a political system that enables them to serve with commitment and purpose,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013\u00a0When Prime Minister Lawrence Wong decided to resign from the civil service to run in the 2011 General Election, no one had told him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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