There are Leaders, and there are Leeders

Told missus that the Top 10 Best Paid Politicians should be filled with all Singaporean ministers. I wonder if their salaries include other director fees they had received. They beat even the second-placed Donald Tsang hands down without a blink of an eye! (Read the rest in The Australian)

Anyway, I had a good laugh when there was a proposal to up the pay of Australian MPs. Result? There was a furore and backlash by the public to even dare mention it during this period.

In addition I was following the G20 summit in London. The Australian showed all the other countries' figures. There were Korea, France, Japan, Canada, Germany, even Luxemburg! But no Singapore. Checked the actual countries - no Luxemberg. Luxemburg was categorised with Singapore and Switzerland on the tax havens list. Read here.

Then I realised Singapore was not invited because she was not in the Top 20 largest economies of the world! But her leader sure is paid the highest. Mind-boggling, isn't it? Sheesh we must really be so unique.

Indeed there are Leaders, and there are Leeders.

1. Lee Hsien Loong - Singapore
   Salary in dollars - $2.47 million
   Salary in local currency - S$3.76 million
   
2. Donald Tsang Yum-Kuen - Hong Kong
   Salary in dollars - $516,000
   Salary in local currency - HK$4 million
   
3. Barack Obama - United States
   Salary in dollars - $400,000
   
4. Brian Cowen - Ireland
   Salary in dollars - $341,000
   Salary in local currency - €257,000
   
5. Nicolas Sarkozy - France
   Salary in dollars - $318,000
   Salary in local currency - €240,000
   
6. Angela Merkel - Germany
   Salary in dollars - $303,000
   Salary in local currency - €228,000
   
7. Gordon Brown - UK
   Salary in dollars - $279,000
   Salary in local currency - £194,250
   
8. Stephen Harper - Canada
   Salary in dollars - $246,000
   Salary in local currency - C$311,000
   
9. Taro Aso - Japan
   Salary in dollars - $243,000
   Salary in local currency - Y24 million
   
10. Kevin Rudd - Australia
    Salary in dollars - $229,000
    Salary in local currency - A$330,000