The worth of good service

 

Salary slashes and cash cuts – they may be academic, but it’s at least a start.

THE Prime Minister has announced that he will forego his monthly salary and decided that his Cabinet members will take a 20% pay cut.

The leaner line-up, while not massively significant, will also mean extra work for the ministers.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the Cabinet agreed that in the spirit of concern with the plight of Malaysians, the salary slash would only be reviewed when the economy recovers.

While it’s merely a symbolic move, we should, nevertheless, welcome the PM’s decision.

But even with the pay cut, our Members of Parliament are still better paid than most of us.

It’s not just their monthly salary but the many allowances and claims. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

The PM’s monthly salary is only about RM22,800, while his deputies get about RM18,170. But the claims and allowances of a PM can reach RM80,000 a month.

By Malaysian high-level corporate comparison, it would certainly be very low. So, some talented leaders may not wish to go into politics for this paltry sum.

A Minister gets about RM12,800 while a Deputy Minister earns RM8,840.

But don’t forget that the Ministers would still be entitled to their MP salaries, about RM16,000 monthly, while Senators earn RM11,000.

According to reports, MPs are also entitled to a host of allowances and claims from meetings, entertainment, special payments, monthly travel, driver, meal and living allowances.

In the 2022 Budget, RM148mil was allocated for the operations and running of Parliament.

In her popular column, So Aunty So What?, June Wong quoted her detailed findings from the Statute Paper 235 of 1983 on the Official Portal of Parliament of Malaysia (bit.ly/malaysia_mp).

First off, an MP’s monthly salary is RM16,000. He/she also has a phone allowance of RM900 and a fixed travel allowance of RM1,500 a month, without needing to submit claims.

An MP is also eligible to receive RM400 a day for attending Parliament and RM300 a day for official meetings, workshops, briefings, seminars, etc; a daily subsistence allowance of RM100 while on official duty within the country or RM170 outside Malaysia; food allowance of RM340 for every night spent outside the country; hotel charges of not more than RM400 a night, if the fixed allowance is not enough to cover all these claims.

That’s not all. MPs were not entitled to pensions or gratuities until the passing of the Administration and Members of Parliament (Pensions and Gratuities) Act 1971.

That Act was repealed and replaced by the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980 [Act 237], which provides for pensions, gratuities, benefits and allowances.

There is also a “special payment” of RM1,500 a month for MPs who aren’t members of the administration as defined under Clause (2) of Article 160 of the Federal Constitution, meaning he is not a minister, deputy minister or political secretary.

Wong, who covered Parliament for many years as a reporter, wrote that “if they travel by air on official business, they are entitled to business class seats, and every month, they get allowances for fuel (RM1, 500), toll (RM300) and entertainment (RM2,500).

“They get a driver’s allowance of RM1,500 even if they don’t hire one, so they get paid for driving themselves. Extra benefits include getting a motor vehicle licence or a firearm permit FOC.”

There are many other perks, like allowances for medical care, warm clothing, ceremonial and black-tie attire, and loans for cars, housing and computers.

“The above salary and allowances, which amount to at least RM25,700, while not really exorbitant, is still a very high income for most Malaysians,” she revealed.

She wrote that MPs, after completing 36 months of reckonable service, get a pension after they turn 50.

What she has written was corroborated by Muar MP, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, former Youth and Sports Minister, who called for the review of pension entitlements and allowances for assemblymen, MPs and ministers, which the Parti Muda president said could exceed RM100,000 per month for some.

Ministers, he said, even get plate numbers that could be sold for hundreds of thousands of ringgit, and two APs (Approved Permits) to bring in luxury cars.

He said that ministers also get gratuity of up to RM1mil to RM2mil, which is based on their years of service as MPs.

Wong shared that “from my years as a journalist covering Parliament meetings, many MPs are seat warmers who hardly ever speak on anything, spend more time in the cafeteria and lounges and even leave before the day’s sitting has ended.

“That’s why the hall is often very empty, barely making the quorum of 26 MPs from the total of 222.”

I would add further that some well-known names, especially the veterans, are guilty of poor attendance.

Perhaps they think these Parliament meetings aren’t important or they have more urgent matters to attend to.

We can understand if they are Cabinet ministers, but these guilty MPs are often those who no longer hold positions.

Then, there are those who would create a ruckus to ensure their names get mentioned by the media and then disappear, based on my experience as a Parliament reporter.

Several of them, unfortunately, have included well-known lawyer MPs, who were suspected of having court cases to attend to and ended up getting themselves suspended.

To be fair, our lawmakers are not exactly the best paid when compared to their counterparts in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Even in Britain, the MPs have more Parliament meetings to attend to justify their allowances.

If we want clean and talented parliamentarians, then they ought to be properly compensated. We surely don’t want politicians to use their positions to enrich themselves.

As the saying goes, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, but we also don’t want MPs who behave like outrageous primates in Parliament.

It’s a relief that some of these serial recalcitrant reps were not picked to defend their seats, while some even lost badly in the recent general election. - Star