Leaders of the Fee World

ON MONDAY July 5th Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, rejected the pay increase he was awarded by the country's parliament last week. MPs had granted Mr Odinga a rise to nearly $430,000 a year, while giving themselves a 25% increase to $161,000. This boost would place Mr Odinga among the highest-paid political leaders in the world. More worryingly, his salary would be some 240 times greater than the country's GDP per person (measured on a purchasing-power parity basis). Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, tops our list of selected leaders' salaries. He is paid more than 40 times the city-state’s GDP per person.

At the other end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking a modest sum from Indian taxpayers.

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Economist

I was taken aback by the above graphic. It highlights the inequality that exists in political leadership and also hints at possible corruption within government.

But it also raises some questions. Is it not enough for these leaders to represent the people without them getting a big fat pay check at the end of the month? Should their pay be based on their performance and decided by the people they represent?

I think leaders like Manmohan Singh set a great example to the rest of the worlds elite. Singh is often considered as the best Prime-Minister India has ever had and yet his pay is considerably modest compared to those before him and others around the world.

Thoughts?