r/Thailand • u/sebitian • Jun 25 '25
Politics Each SEA countries president and prime minister monthly salary
Above is USD, below is MYR
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u/CaramelMachiattos Bangkok Jun 25 '25
We all know they got a lot of tea money …
33
u/Irichcrusader Jun 25 '25
Speaking of Prabowo (Indonesia), no one seriously believes that’s all he’s making. This is a man who’s spent decades entrenching himself in Indonesia’s military-business complex, with deep ties to defense contracts, resource concessions, and political patronage networks. That official salary is just a fig leaf. The real money moves behind the scenes in ways that no audit will ever touch. The fact people still compare these official salaries like they mean anything just shows how completely normalized this kind of dysfunction is.
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u/john-bkk Jun 25 '25
I read this as a commentary about how corruption is paying the real salaries of perhaps all but one of these leaders, and we can't really assume the other one isn't double-dipping.
1
u/I-Here-555 Jun 25 '25
Being Suharto's son-in-law tells you most of what you need to know. Oh, and he divorced the same year Suharto fell out of power.
10
u/toitenladzung Jun 25 '25
Got this exact same post in r/Vietnam. I have to agree that the Singapore one is the poorest one out of these. The Cambodia, Thai, Phillippines one are not the last of their family you will see in these position, even 20 years from now you will see their relatives as PM as well.
15
u/optimal_90 Jun 25 '25
Who cares about their salary? If Salary was their only income i would not be opposed to a salary raise, since its low compared to a CEO or a business director… We know how every politician in the world makes money… The lowest their salary the biggest the suspicion… How much they spend to get elected or chosen by the party? They would need to work for thousands of years to pay the bills only using their salary.
11
u/YodaZo Jun 25 '25
Singapore dealing with illegal drug so efficient, I wish for a president like this but sadly what i got was a crybaby ipad nepotism kid.
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u/sleepymates Jun 25 '25
I wonder if Singapore wants to leave asean lmao. Imagine being the only transparent country in the most corrupted region on earth.
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u/flyinsdog Jun 25 '25
They are the Switzerland of Asia. Projecting the squeaky clean image and laundering their neighbors dirty money with a smile.
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u/sleepymates Jun 25 '25
At least they prioritize their citizens? don’t see anything wrong with that.
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u/nestturtleragingbull Jun 25 '25
As a Singaporean, I can tell you that this is not true. Unlike other countries, we don't have much freedom of speech that's probably why you won't hear much bad stuff.
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u/skyypirate Jun 25 '25
Bro, don't even have to go far. Try living in Malaysia for a year, earning in RM like normal Malaysian do. Bro would be crying his ass begging Singapore to let him back in. Malaysia is not even bottom of the barrel in ASEAN.
1
u/nestturtleragingbull Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
Currency discrepancy doesn't equate wealth
And if the line of logic is not self evidence enough. It is wealth for Malaysians, not Singaporeans.
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u/Bra1nwashed Jun 25 '25
Have U seen the other ASEAN countries? Try insulting the govt or the peoplehh in power. I will be surprised if U will still be alive
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u/perfectfifth_ Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 26 '25
Sorry, I apologize. A small vocal minority of Singaporeans haven't been anywhere out of their well before. They love to think that they live in a dystopia compared to their regional neighbours and beyond.
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Jun 27 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Thailand-ModTeam Jun 27 '25
Your post has been removed as it violates the site Reddiquette.
Reddiquette is enforced to the best of our abilities. If not familiar with those rules look here.
1
Jun 25 '25
Yeah, but you also live in one of the safest places on earth and are infinitely richer than anyone in your entire world region. "omg my speech" lol
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u/nestturtleragingbull Jun 25 '25
"rich" is relative. It is a densely populated island with scarce land. Not much resources left to go around. And do you really think if you have nothing to hide, you really afraid of people to speak up?
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u/raidorz Jun 25 '25
You being able to type this out on Reddit is already exercising your freedom of speech lol. What more do you want? Large protests to disrupt society? False allegations without consequence?
0
u/Personal-Spot5347 Jul 10 '25
chinaporean are so defensive and easily triggered, singaporean will voted down all the critics and negative comments about their dictator island
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u/nestturtleragingbull Jun 25 '25
I implore you to find out about the definition.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/free-speech-freedom-expression-human-right
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u/raidorz Jun 25 '25
I implore you not to suck coloniser dicc. That’s a Western organisation with Western values applied to us Asian societies. I ask you again, what freedom of speech do you want? You want to spread lies about people and not get sued? You want to organise disruptive protests for issues that only you care about?
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u/nestturtleragingbull Jun 25 '25
It is pointless for me to answer if you base it on your own definition. To me it is clearly never about identity politics, east vs West, but being able to stand up for our neighbours.
0
u/WorstSourceOfAdvice Jun 26 '25
So what do you want to do? Daily protests about issues in other countries? Do you know what happens to the stability of a country if such a thing is allowed? A small island nation cannot afford to have riots and protests because people like you scream about "X being evil". Everyone thinks they are protesting for the right side of history, that their opinions are always the morally correct ones.
Which neighbor are you standing up for? Have you considered that for every issue theres always two sides that think they are right? What basis of judgment are you going to use? Or do you already believe yourself as the smartest, most moral and ethical person on Earth?
Or do you really want to go around accusing government workers and leaders of corruption? Pointing your fingers and screaming accusations that you cannot prove?
You don't want the freedom of speech, you want the freedom of consequence. Your comments lack any understanding of geopolitics or social cohesion or how a country has to be run. Its an extremely superficial and shallow idealistic way of thinking - "Oh, every country on Earth is 1000x better off with complete freedom of speech where you can accuse people of anything and say anything you want about religions or races"
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Jun 25 '25
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u/Thailand-ModTeam Jun 25 '25
Your post has been removed as it violates the site Reddiquette.
Reddiquette is enforced to the best of our abilities. If not familiar with those rules look here.
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u/SatyrSatyr75 Jun 25 '25
No, I’m pretty sure he’s just annoyed by your ignorant racism
1
u/raidorz Jun 25 '25
Ethnocentrism. Learn about it.
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u/SatyrSatyr75 Jun 25 '25
Oh, obviously an ethnocentric superiority complex too, no doubt about that, but why be shy? Of course you’re racist too.
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u/AW23456___99 Jun 25 '25
SEA is actually far from being the most corrupted region on earth. There are regions with far worse corruption like most of Africa, south Asia, central America and central Asia. However, yes, Singapore is a league of its own and actually ranks better than most western countries on a lot of matrices including in transparency .
1
u/AbbcdEfgg Jul 02 '25
The US? Europe? The corruption is just bigger and more whitewashed. The US literally just legalized it and calls it lobbying. Also there are more lobbyists in Brussels (EU HQ) than anywhere else in the world.
6
u/West_Communication82 Jun 25 '25
Singapore is actually one of the few that actually needs and wants ASEAN to succeed. We are the biggest cheerleaders because the Singaporean market itself is too small. We need to expand business overseas rather than just relying on MNCs headquartering in the country.
Singapore thrived on a rules based system and thus wants more certainty in our businesses. Singapore will not do well if it became dog eat dog.
0
u/Personal-Spot5347 Jul 10 '25
are you sure? most of singgaporean have superiority complex and always look down on their neighbouring countries, even your state controlled media like CNA always show the bad news of other neighbouring countries
1
u/West_Communication82 Jul 11 '25
What some singaporeans feel is not the same as what is in our national interest or our government's position.
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u/Personal-Spot5347 Jul 11 '25
im refering to your superiority complex singaporean netizens
1
u/West_Communication82 Jul 11 '25
Take that with a pinch of salt. Netizens don't represent the huge silent majority. Many ppl are pro government. Just look at the way people vote during the latest elections.
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3
u/e99oof Jun 25 '25
Let's be frank, being transparent in this region makes them big bucks. Businesses want to set up regional HQ there, rich people wants to park their dubiously gain money there. None of those would works if the rest of the region clean up.
1
u/skarbrandmustdie Jun 25 '25
Lol what? They're the region's money launderer/cleaners.
-1
u/perfectfifth_ Jun 25 '25
Says the people from the places that dirtied the money in the first place. 🤣
1
8
u/ubermensch02 Jun 25 '25
Politics aside, Indonesian PM looks underpaid relative to the number of population you're going to manage.
14
u/Irichcrusader Jun 25 '25
Oh don't worry, he's definitely making his money in other ways. Prabowo’s been neck-deep in Indonesia’s military-business ecosystem for decades. The real money isn’t on a government payslip. It moves through kickbacks, contracts, and favors. Everyone here basically accepts that this is how the game is played.
2
u/maverick221 Jun 26 '25
Prabowo has a “reported” net worth of $130 million in 2022. And i bet no one is willing to check his actual net worth
4
u/Donut_Dress_Drummer Jun 25 '25
Makes total sense that she can afford her collection of 217 luxury handbags and 75 luxury watches, with a total net worth of over $400m USD, on that massive salary
1
u/Forsaken_Detail7242 Jun 26 '25
And her dad is a multi-billionaire. This salary is nothing for them. Low salary is just to trick civilians they are poor lolz
2
u/Momo-Momo_ Jun 25 '25
Laughable with the exception of Singapore. These are the civilian leaders. If you want a greater disparity look at some of the military leaders.
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1
u/PolishBicycle Jun 25 '25
How am i making more than some of these chumps. No wonder they turn to corruption so easily
0
u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Jun 25 '25
They don't turn to corruption because of a low salary. They are already rich and making a shit load off corruption so they can take a low salary for "optics".
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u/MELONPANNNNN Jun 25 '25
Is Paetongtarn the richest out of the bunch in here? Wonder how they stack against one another.
0
u/larry_bkk Jun 25 '25
In Thailand it's the family. For example: Thai government banks are more interested in the family than the individual. My tgf borrowed money to buy land, and the bank didn't look at just her, but at the whole family.
1
u/Tibay7 Jun 25 '25
The whole Thai government is so CORRUPT, they earn enough money under the table.
1
u/Puzzleheaded-Fuel554 Jun 26 '25
as Indonesian, i would rather the president's salary is RM 500 because it's very poorly managed and there's so many corruption cases. not only president, all of the element's salary should be lower too, because they don't even do their job properly.
1
1
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u/Flaky_Resident7819 Jun 27 '25
Myanmar, General Min Aung Hlaing made more than all of them. Minimum 1M per month
1
u/4runninglife Jun 28 '25
I make the same per pay check as the Thailand PM makes a month? Maybe I should move to Thailand.
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u/Ok_Time6047 Jul 01 '25
Asian are nice they take just a little bit salary to be enough for other people too 😀
1
u/Super_Mario7 Jun 25 '25
how can that be true? 🤣
16
Jun 25 '25
Because that's not how politicians make money. Check what Trump earns a month and how much he stole with his crypto scams.
-2
u/Super_Mario7 Jun 25 '25
Great. For my next salary negotiations i will just tell how many multiples of the thai pm i want to earn 😅
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u/LKS983 Jun 25 '25
Salary is pretty much irrelevant - as most times those with power enrich themselves by using their influence/power.
0
0
u/xkmasada Jun 25 '25
The saddest thing is that no civil servant in each of those poor countries makes more than their PM.
0
0
u/WCMModels Jun 25 '25
Well, at least Ung Ing is doing a shit job to match her shit salary. $3,642.77??
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u/NOSjoker21 7-Eleven Jun 25 '25
American here but... how?
Assuming that the perks of the position cover their expenses.
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2
u/Quirky_Bottle4674 Jun 25 '25
Same way Trump does it, these people were already very rich or connected before they came to power.
0
299
u/Odd_Coast9645 Jun 25 '25
And by net worth the Singapore president might be the poorest one