The Rhetoric

“When we have to take bitter medicine. We have to start at the top.”
– DPM Lee Hsien Loong on ministers taking a pay cut, Business Times, May 2, 2003

The Reality

“When asked how the pay cut would affect him, Mr Goh admitted candidly that it would have little impact as his children were grown up and his house paid for, “I do not speculate on the property market. I do not have any oustanding loans. I don’t owe anybody anything. So what I have, I don’t spend very much.”
– Straits Times, on how the 10% ministerial pay cut would affect PM Goh Chok Tong, Mar 23, 2003