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Transcript of Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong's Media TRANSCRIPT OF SENIOR MINISTER GOH CHOK TONG’S MEDIA INTERVIEW ON 2 MAY 2011 AT 6 PM Q: “The opposition has brought up the ministers’ salaries again. The question can it be the other way around for salaries to strengthen the link with the average Singaporean?” Mr Goh: “It depends on who you are targeting. We are targeting the top performers in Singapore who are in the private sector as well as those in the public service to bring into politics. So we therefore use the formula which has been debated many times over many elections as to the ministers’ pay. That means the higher earners and you get the average and so on and give a discount, you see. We can peg it to the people in the lower income group and depends over the pay is. Supposing you peg it to 2,000 as an average, then you times ten or times 100, that depends on what it is. So the question is can you get the right people to come? As opposition has mentioned, it is quite a high salary, we are not able to get private sector people to come. You go and examine the pay of the Chairman, CEOs of the public-listed companies in Singapore - Keppel, DBSBank, OCBC and UOB and so on, Sembawang and all that - every CEO is earning about twice the ministers’ pay, even more. CapitaLand easily they earn about S$10 million. Why should they come and join us in politics? So, therefore, the formula has worked, it has been issue, the key is are we producing results? That is the key.” Q: “Is there a better way to communicate with the majority population who don’t seem to understand?” Mr Goh: “The majority of the population is not very concerned. All they want is can we produce jobs for them? Can we look after their medical care? Can the medical care be affordable? Can we cope with the cost of living? Can we deliver good housing at affordable prices? These are the issues which are of concern to them and these are the issues which the government is addressing which I will come back to later on. So the ministers’ pay is a favourite flogging horse for opposition and it has been flogged for so many times in so many GEs. Of course, it cost us some votes. But by and large the people understand. What else?” Q: “Sir, may be you can tell us more about your reaction to Osama’s death.” Mr Goh: “MFA has issued a statement, in a sense we are relieved that Osama is gone but that does not mean that’s the end of the problem. You may see reactions from the Osama people, the terrorists may not be very happy, so we do not know but at least it is a relief that he has been targeted and he has been taken care of.” Q: “A NSP candidate has said that we should... the army should be downsized and should rely more on airborne and restructure our defence...?” Mr Goh: “Okay, I think that question is useful for BG Tan Chuan Jin to answer. It is an important question which you asked and I think it is time we in Marine Parade zoom in on the manifesto of NSP and this is a very important issue which I will leave it to Tan Chuan Jin to answer.” Q: “You said that the PAP, oh!...” Mr Tan: “Well I think... like I said in my rally speech, I am actually quite surprised because I think what has been quite clear in terms of the lessons learnt in the recent years especially in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in southern Lebanon has been that you need the Army to play a very important role. It doesn’t mean that the Air Force and the Navy doesn’t play a critical role and I think in the SAF has always been building a balanced capability to do what we need to do and I am actually very surprised because the lessons are actually quite clear. In fact, what is quite apparent, the world went through a phase, I think, post First Gulf War where they felt that remote sensors, remote systems, because of the capabilities that air force had developed, technology could replace people. But you could see that that rapidly was found to be wanting, even in Bosnia when the Americans carried out a lot of bombing missions but without committing the Army or ground forces, they actually were able to target very few despite the technological edge. So what has become actually very clear is that the Army plays a very important role. But what is actually I think surprising is that they are prepared in spite of what is clear to throw this part out. To say ‘oh let’s cut the national service, let’s reduce the army size’. This is popular and sometimes they’ll cite countries like Taiwan and Europe but the circumstances are very different and actually we talked to a lot of military professionals. I just came back from a meeting in previous job from a meeting with the Germans. They used to have 4,000 over main battle tanks. When I was the Head of Army Plans, we purchased Leopard tanks because they downsized, they are now left with couple of hundred tanks and a lot of them are actually uncomfortable with the fact that the military has been reduced to this size. The German Army I think is about 60,000-70,000-strong. “Now, Europe perhaps, could cite NATO, could cite the peace dividend from the halt of the Cold War but can you definitively say that peace will continue forever and what happens if something arise. You can’t build an army overnight. So for us I think every country needs to decide for itself. I think it is probably not fair also to comment on other countries but for our needs, I think it is quite clear that the Army remains a critical component as with the Air Force and Navy. So I think what that to me shows is the length at which they are prepared to go to just to get into Parliament, to throw out popular options be it in the economy side of the house, or especially in this case, the national security which I think it is important to find out because while they come out with a lot of calculations, frankly it doesn’t go hold water. And it certainly goes against conventional wisdom of what we have learnt, certainly in the past 10-15 years.” Mr Goh: “But I would not even bother to answer in such details like BG Tan Chuan Jin because he is from the Army. I would just say go and ask NSP reduce to what size. Please tell me. You say reduce it by 100 men, I say that is no problem. They say reduce by half, I say then you have got a problem, isn’t it? Reduce it to 15 months NS, do you know the consequences? Our National Service pool is getting smaller and smaller because of the lower birth rate. So if you reduce it to 15 months, what are the consequences? So I would in fact attack them on this. Please give me consequences of your suggestion. It is very good to just say reduce ministers’ salaries, reduce Armed Forces and so on and put us on the defensive. But I have been the Defence Minister, I am that all defensive of what we do. So I would turn it around and say what details do you have? I am prepared to listen. I am not deaf. I am prepared to listen. Reduce army to what size? So I think go and ask them please, okay” 3 Q: “You said that the PAP now has gone on the offensive rather than to try to defend its position like what you have done over the past few days. So are you suggesting the PAP has been a bit treating the opposition with rather without gloves or...?” Mr Goh: “In the battle, there are several phases. Phase One is when the track record of the PAP is being examined by the people, by the Opposition. And of course, it is the Opposition’s job to try and attack us from all angles. It is their job and to exploit all the weaknesses maybe in our armour. So in Phase One, PAP has to explain and defend ourselves and of course in Phase One, the Opposition is doing all the boxing, all the pummelling. And of course, we are doing all the defending. So we are now entering Phase Two because election is not about boxing. It is about basic issues. So Phase Two now takes us to what the real issues are, not the track record of the PAP but what the real issues are tomorrow? This is where I have the advantage of in the battle, but not in the thick of battle. So I can step aside and examine the issues which are most pertinent to Singaporeans. So in my view, I think the most pertinent issues which Prime Minister Lee and his team will have to face after the election will be the ability to create jobs. Secondly, to tackle the cost of living. That is the real issue. Third, housing. That is the real issue because housing for the new buyers, for those in the, shall we say, young people in the middle-income group.
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