Umno reps back pay hike for political foes

PENANG ASSEMBLY In a rare move today, Penang Umno assemblymen supported a pay hike for their sworn foes, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and other state executive councillors.

During the debate, Muhammad Farid Saad (BN-Pulau Betong) said Lim (left) should be given a 10 percent pay hike, on top of the 88 percent (or eight percent per year since 2004), which all assemblypersons will enjoy.

"The CM works so hard that he has no time and must send a representative to attend meetings on his behalf," said Farid, much to the amusement of the other assemblypersons.

He was backed by Mahmud Zakaria (BN-Sungai Acheh), who proposed an even higher percentage - 15 percent - for Lim and the excos.

"Since this side (opposition leader Jahara Hamid) got a pay hike (100 percent increase), the other side (Pakatan Rakyat) should get it too," Mahmud said.

"It is timely for Jahara to get the pay hike since there are many challenges for her to face, especially when there is so much discussion about gender issues in this session," he added.

Mahmud thanked speaker Law Choo Kiang (right) for allowing the debate on gender in the state assembly yesterday.

On Monday, Jahara (BN-Telok Air Tawar) found herself in aquandary, having to retract her remarks, allegedly deemed "racist" by her opponents, on two occasions when she questioned the selective demolition of illegal businesses based on race and the renaming of Pulau Jerejak to Pulau Mahzu (after a Chinese sea goddess) that never took place.

She was then criticised by Lim as an "unreasonable and racist grandmother" but Lim was in turn was slammed for the remark. He later apologised for calling Jahara a grandmother.

New state rep's salary is RM11,500

Last week, Lim proposed that the allowance for Jahara (below, right) as opposition leader be increased from RM1,000 to RM2,000.

Meanwhile, both BN and Pakatan assemblypersons also approved the passing of the Members of the Administration and Members of the Legislative Assembly Enactment (Remuneration) 1980, also known as Statute Paper 1 2013 Penang, tabled by state exco Chow Kon Yeow.

Chow (DAP-Padang Kota) tabled three amendments to the (1) assemblypersons' remuneration (2) allowance of the opposition leader and (3) death and disability benefits for assemblypersons, which was passed unanimously by all representatives attending the session today.

The 40 state representatives will be getting a salary of RM11,500 a month (including allowances), with their basic salary being raised from RM4,112.79 to RM6,000.

They will also enjoy a fixed allowance hike from RM2,000 to RM5,500, the amount of which will be gazetted with the amendments.

The pay hike will be backdated to June 1 this year.

Supporting the salary increase, Ayer Itam assemblyperson Wong Hon Wai said the system should get competent people in the prime of their careers to enter politics, who would devote a substantial part of their lives to serve in political office.

"But politics is not a career promotion but a calling to serve society," said the chief of the Backbencher's Club.

"But this is not a motivation for just for anyone to be politicians but financial sacrifice should not be too big until it discourages people of calibre to join politics to serve," Wong said.