Keeping the government clean

Following are excerpts from ‘From Third World to First – The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 – Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew’

We all wore white shirts and white slacks to symbolise purity and honesty in our personal behaviour and over public life. The people expected this from us and we were determined to live up to expectations. 

All my ministers except one were university graduates. Out of office we were confident of getting by and professionals like myself had every expectation of doing so.

When ministers commanded the respect and confidence of the people, public servants were able to hold their head high and make decisions with confidence.

We made sure from the day we took office in June 1959, that every dollar in revenue would be properly accounted for and would reach the beneficiaries at the grass roots as one dollar, without being siphoned off along the way.

Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) was set up by the British in 1952 to deal with increasing corruption, especially at lower and middle levels of the police, hawker inspectors, and land bailiffs who had to take action against the many who broke the laws. These inspectors could either issue summons or look the other way for an appropriate bribe. We decided to concentrate on the big takers in the higher echelons and directed CPIB on our priorities. We changed the outdated anti-corruption law and widened the definition of gratuity to include anything of value with more powers.

The most effective change was made in 1960, to allow the courts to treat proof that an accused was living beyond his means or had property his income could not explain, as corroborating evidence that the accused had accepted or obtained a bribe. With a keen nose to the ground and the power to investigate every officer and every minister, the director of CPIB working from the Prime Minister’s office, developed a justly formidable reputation for sniffing out those betraying public trust. 

We got them to vote for us again and again by providing jobs, building schools, hospitals, community centres and most importantly the homes which they owned. 

On the other hand, Singapore has shown that a system of clean, no many elections, helps preserve an honest government. But Singapore will remain clean and honest only if honest able men are willing to fight elections and assume office. They must be paid a wage commensurate with what men in their ability and integrity are earning for managing a big corporation or successful legal or other professional practice. They have to manage a Singapore economy that yielded an annual growth rate of 8 to 9% in the last two decades, giving its citizens a per capita GDP that the World Bank rated in 1995 as the 9th highest in the world. 

With a founder generation of leaders, honesty has become a habit.

My practice was to have all benefits expressed in a lump sum and let the Prime Minister and Ministers decide on what they wanted to spend them on. 

The need for popular support makes the government who have to be elected to office, as a rule underpay ministers and their official salaries, but semi hidden perks in housing, an expense account, a car, travel allowance, fuel, salary, telephone bill, electricity bill, overseas travel allowances make up more than their salary. 

People want a good, honest, clean government that produced results.