> Countries like Singapore already figured out that if you pay public servants very well you can attract high quality people to government jobs.

And most highly developed, democratic nations don't pay their highest gov't officials very well. Yet, they continue to attract high quality people. The only "proof" that I can offer: Look at G7 and similarly developed democratic nations (the richest per capita on Earth). If they struggled to attract the best and brightest into gov't, eventually things would decline due to economic mismanagement. Instead: They have not. Those nations have been rich for 50 years and will be rich for many more years into the future because they have high quality people in gov't making effective policy.