MB: Pay decision final, Selangor’s hike smaller than Sarawak’s

 

Khalid: If you disagree, leave it or donate it. 

(fz.com) – “The pay rise is final.”

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said there is no question of withdrawing the big salary rise announced for assemblypersons, pointing out that it had been approved by both Pakatan Rakyat and BN representatives.

He said the hike is justifiable as it is based on the recent sharp rise in the salaries of Sarawak assemblypersons.

“During the budget meeting, I did say I’m worried about this (pay rise), so I explained to the them (assemblypersons), that if both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional members agree, I will consider using Sarawak (assemblypersons’) salary level as the base for calculation, but the rise will be lower than that.

“And everyone agreed,” he said in response to the Selangor Backbenchers Club (BBC) chairperson Azmin Ali’s call earlier today for the pay hike to be postponed pending a review.

Azmin had said that there was supposed to be a study carried out to examine the pay hike proposal, but he hadn’t seen it at all. Hence the pay rise should be reviewed.

Khalid however, dismissed any possibility of withdrawing the decision.

“It is his (Azmin’s) right to defer salary payment. For example, if there is a parliamentary salary increase, there are people who accept the rise but then donate it to charity. So they can do this.

“If you disagree, leave it or donate it,” said Khalid.

“Salary has been decided and people will decide if we perform or not,” he added.

The menteri besar said that the rise is justifiable because Selangor contributes 25% to the nation’s GDP.

In comparison, Sarawak contributes less than 10%, and yet the revised slaries for Selangor is lower than Sarawak’s.

“What we did was, we take 75% of Sarawak (assemblyperson’s) salaries as the basis of our calculation. So we are not the highest in Malaysia, Sarawak is.

“And then of course we are very transparent, we adjust it to the previous salary, if you look at this, the way Sarawak did, their speaker’s pay jumped from RM9,000 to RM39,000, (state) minister’s pay rose from RM9,000 to RM 27,000. Our increase did not exceed theirs,” he said.

He added that economists were of the view that salaries of elected representatives in Malaysia is very low, so the hike was reasonable.