Salary controversy could have been avoided

Fortunately or unfortunately, the rakyat expect the Pakatan leaders to behave differently from the Barisan Nasional ones.

COMMENT

The recent salary hike for Selangor state assemblymen, menteri besar and state executive councillors, speaker and deputy was passed smoothly in the state assembly but attracted much attention and criticism outside the august house.

It seems that the sentiment was very high on the quantum of the increment but few have objected to the pending hike.

It’s rightly so, because the quantum of the increment was extremely high in terms of percentage, only second to Sarawak. And the issue was played up out of proportion.

Immediately after the last general election, the Sarawak state government has decided to increase their salaries by 300% across the board. Not only that, the increment was even backdated for 17 months.

But unlike Selangor, there were hardly any brickbats from the public and the hike was implemented soon after it was gazetted by the state government.

If one takes a closer look, he or she will realise that the revised salary scale of the Selangor administrators and elected representatives was not unreasonable and it was only about 70% of their counterparts in Sarawak.

The noise level was deafening in this case simply because the expectations of the rakyat towards the Pakatan Rakyat-led states were relatively much higher.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the rakyat expect the Pakatan leaders to behave differently from the Barisan Nasional ones.

Some overzealous quarters have described the Selangor salary hike as “greedy and self enriching”. That is unfair to the Khalid administration which performed well with a proven track record.

To put it simply, the rakyat set a higher moral standard for the Pakatan leaders. Even those who supported the hikes are expecting Khalid and his team to perform and serve the rakyat even better than before.

The rakyat in general were worked up by the recent spree of price hikes.

They are expecting their political leaders to take care of the rakyat first rather than taking care of themselves in these difficult times . Such state of mind has inevitably added fuel to their sentiments against the quantum of increment.

Gradual increase

The controversy could have been avoided if the salary hike was done gradually over the years.

During my tenure as state executive councillor, the basic salary for a state assemblyman was increased from RM4,000 plus to RM6,000 in 2012.

And there had been no increment for the speaker, the deputy speaker, MB and his executive councillors since 2004.

The time has come for the prime minister and menteris besar and chief ministers to form a joint committee to study and draw up a salary and allowance scheme commensurate with their duties and responsibilities.

I would argue that the current salary schemes for our members of parliament and state assemblies were outdated and certainly need a review.

Now that the top Pakatan leadership has directed the Selangor state government to review the quantum, it is likely that the controversial salary scale would not be implemented until it is revised and retabled in the next state assembly in March 2014.

I hope our elected representatives would continue to perform dutifully and their enthusiasm to serve the rakyat would not be dampen by this episode.

Ronnie Liu is former elected rep for Pandamaran and former state exco in charge of local government. His FMT column is called Nutshell.