Parliament votes to raise Speaker Seah Kian Peng’s salary, but Singaporeans bring up sleeping incident
SINGAPORE: In Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 6), motions to raise the salary of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers were unanimously approved. House Leader Indranee Rajah had introduced the motions, which were meant to align the salaries with the new guidelines that the Government adopted last month.
This means that the annual salary of Seah Kian Peng will rise from $550,000 to S$900,000, which includes a bonus and variable component. Deputy Speakers Christopher de Souza and Xie Yao Quan, meanwhile, will receive an allowance of around $135,000 a year, equivalent to 15% of the Speaker's annual part-time salary.
These salary adjustments are set to take effect on Oct 15. The internet being what it is, some netizens brought up a recent incident where Mr Seah had fallen asleep during a sitting, for which he has apologised.
During the session on Sep 9, the 64-year-old Speaker had dozed off, and videos of a clerk endeavouring to wake him up were shared online.
On Sep 18, Mr Seah, who has been in Parliament since 2006, issued an apology on social media, explaining that he had been feeling unwell and had therefore taken medication. He added, however, that this was not an excuse, writing that he usually calls for a break between four and six hours into a session, and at the time he had nodded off, the session had already been ongoing for more than four hours.
“This should not have happened, and I take full responsibility,” he wrote, adding that the incident fell short of the standards expected of his position and that he would make sure it would not happen again.
Unfortunately, commenters on the news of his pay increase appeared to be less than forgiving.
“I will get a warning letter if I'm sleeping during working hours. He's so lucky he got an increment,” wrote a Facebook user.
“The one who was caught napping at work got a pay raise of almost 100%,” opined another.
“He proved that he could earn money while sleeping, and no matter how unhappy people were, it wouldn't affect his salary increase,” chimed in a third.
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As a commenter succinctly put it, “Earn more while one sleeps.”
On Mr Seah’s apology post, netizens tended more toward giving him grace, taking a “we all slip up sometimes” attitude and commending and thanking the Speaker for not making excuses.
“We all have moments when we fall short. What matters is being prepared to acknowledge it, take responsibility and learn from it. Appreciate Mr Seah for addressing this openly and directly,” one wrote. /TISG