COMMENT | Here we go again with another round of MP salary and pension discussions. If you’ve been around long enough, you would have noticed that the talk about MP salary and compensation has a cycle.

Every four or five years, it refreshes and becomes the talk of the town once more. Come to think of it, the time cycle is similar to our general election. Go figure.

Now, does anything ever come out of this? If the frequency is as such, what do you think? Okay, I don’t want to be the complaining disgruntled journalist in his mid-forties so I will try to contribute something more positive to the overall discussion.

To be fair, it does improve. However, from my observation, the improvements come at a snail-like pace. The change that happens each time is also very minutely significant. But at least change is happening. A quarter of a step, every half a decade is much better than nothing. How’s that for positivity?

I have always been an advocate of high salaries for public elected officials. These are people in power and with influence. If you want to talk about corruption, the temptation is there. So logically, it makes sense to pay them a lot so that they wouldn’t need a...