Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email I first heard the suggestion about reducing salary of ministers via an email sent to TV3, last week. And voila, the PM announces a 10% reduction in entertainment allowance for cabinet ministers plus limitation in vacation destination. This is being followed by other states such as Pahang, Terengganu, Malacca, and Sarawak. Sarawak even plans to reduce salary of its ministers, BN assemblymen, state speaker etc. by 10%, while Pahang MB hinted at 30% reduction of entertainment allowance.
Lim Kit Siang was talking about reducing more“why stop at just 10%” and asked to cut allowance by half, so I wonder what the Pakatan states will do. Follow suit or do something else? How will the opposition MPs show their support? Will they sacrifice more or will they just sit back and blame the government for the situation?
UMNO Youth member suggests cutting 10% of salaries of all ministers, deputies an civil servants. Hmm, then how many civil servants will be under poverty line again?
Looking at the responses on TV, print and online media (even Kalabakan MP Ghapur Salleh Kinabatangan MP Bung Mohktar acknowledged), the rakyat themselves are not fooled by this superficial reductions. They would feel that leaders should “leader by example” and not do damage limitation exercise by announcing such matters after people are angry over price hike.
I personally think that all ministers and MPs should be forced to use public transport. Let them ride in RapidKL or Metrobus, along our Indonesia and Bangladeshi workers, students, wage earners, and pensioners. Let the ministers take Star LRT or Komuter, and get “close” to the rakyat. Komuter carries 90,000 people daily, LRT and Star 300,000 people, and RapidKL about 400,000 people according to this report. Imagine the amount of PR the ministers and MPs can generate.
Ask them to return the government cars and just make monthly claims for transportation costs. Oh, worried about crime and time being wasted? Well, welcome to the real world! If ministers in other countries can take public transport, I don’t see any valid reason why ours can’t do so. We are not a war-torn or under-developed country. Our police have high success rates. Our citizens are polite and helpful people. We have first class facilities. So, why not?
Can leaders of respective parties who are cabinet ministers take the initiative and forfeit their salaries for the rest of the year? Hmm…that would be interesting. Leader is one who make the most sacrifice and lead by example, not one who ask others to “change lifestyle”.
Now, how about our royal families? Perhaps they could also show that they care and willing to share burden with rakyat by donating all or part of their allowance back to the government. Their noble deeds should be published so that the rakyat know our royal families are the best in the world! Hmm… we may even enter Guiness Book of Records if this can be recorded. This came to mind after listening to our Agong’s speech on his birthday last week:
KUALA LUMPUR: Be patient and prudent in facing the possible rise in food prices resulting from the recent fuel price hike.
And if necessary, Malaysians should change their lifestyle to help reduce the impact of the price increases on them.
This was the advice given by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin in his address telecast by Radio Television Malaysia in conjunction with his birthday today.
“I acknowledge that a rise in prices puts great pressure on the livelihood of the people.
“Nevertheless, I hope that the people will exercise patience and prudence in facing the situation,” he said.
Tuanku Mizan hoped that the Government would monitor the situation and take every measure to ensure that the problem could be controlled and overcome.
“God willing, our patience and prudence will enable us to ride this problem and emerge as a more mature and resilient people,” he said.
Again, I hope this does not fall under seditious category!
hmmm…. to give advice is easy and it is always meant for others.
I want to see how Lim Kit Siang and Anwar plan share the pain of rakyat. So far they old been talking but not doing anything of worth.
In fact I would like to see the govt to cut the allowance of MPs (including the Pakatan Rakyat folks).
However, I think most Malaysians are missing the point if they only looking at the govt, ministers and MPs. They should be changing themselves rather than looking at and questioning others.
what kind of changes u expect from the poor rakyat?
there’s a leadership concept called ‘lead by example’ . Not the other way around (though it’s common among ruling politicians)
People wont listen to a minister whom travels via super jet (bought via tax money) whom asking lay citizens to eat ubi instead of rice . Ridiculous !
on the contrary, most malaysians are hitting on the right point now. They are not able to change anymore. How to change the lifestyle after this? Walk to work like those workers in India after bus drivers organised a strike yesterday? Plant/rear own food source and harvest them? I think it is nearly impossible for a family of 4 with two school going kids to live with income of 3k now. Even middle class is being classified as earning 6K or more, but I’m not how that was derived.
Malaysians are starting to realise that they have been hoodwinked all this while by the government. More and more educated Malaysians (especially those in the know) are coming out in the open to dispute statistics and facts revealed by government. Oil industry staff, statisticians, academicians, financial analysts, traders, etc just have to send an email out, and within days it will be circulated to many people. Gone are the days where people are not able to verify government’s action and facts, and had to take things at face value. People are asking what happened to Transportation Master Plan, what happened to RM4 billion saved last year, why oil-producing country is being compared with non-oil producing countries, why cars have high import tax, why public transport don’t get more subsidy, why…, why…, why…, so many whys that is drowning the government.
The administration is also not doing itself a favor by making a mess on convincing the rakyat. I guess things are going to go downhill from here.
Dear Poobalan
We can close our eyes and blame the govt for all we want but that not going to change. I am too keen to see the so-called stats and data you had mentioned. There is no way to justify keeping the petrol subsidies. No economists I have known (the prominent ones) had supported the subsidies, only the opportunists politicians making such idiotic claims.
As for comparing with non-oil producing countries, hello bro, wake up. The issue here is not whether oit fuel is cheaper or more expensive, but if the country can afford it. It is stupid to make comparison with countries with massive fuel subsidies but with the quality of living far below us (Egypt, Venezuela,etc). The ME countries and Brunei can subsidise it because they have massive revenues from oil and flushed with cash. There are countries too with oil revenue but dearer prices than us.
I understand people’s hardship and I am affected too. I have made my adjustments long ago since the last price hike. However this pain is felt all over the world and not just in Malaysia. Read the news. Imagine the impact of this in India, China and Phil for example (bear in mind that they have much lower income per capita).
the issues not only petrol hike and subsidy . It’s how the elected brains work to order to mitigate the problem .
I would not mind if the petrol goes to market price IF :
– gov had constructed good publin transport network (like Singapore)
– gov fund (inlcd those subsidy allocation) used for good deed instead of useless mega projects like space tour , putra jaya ….etc
– political corruption in control else the hard earned tax money flushed into pockets
kudos to BN which failed to perform …. and thanks to all the BN jalras…
maya reply on June 12, 2008:
what kind of changes u expect from the poor rakyat?
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Well, I am not in a position to advise people on how the should run their lives. But look at this way. There is nothing to be gained by sitting down, crying and complaining. It would be more useful to think on how we can move forward.
There is a lot of things people can do to change their lifestyle. For many of us, we had been living beyond our means in terms of cars, houses and lifestyle. The many poor people in Malaysia hardly can be considered poor when you compare them with other Third world nations. In fact the car ownership in Malaysia is one of the highest in the world. And don’t blame the poor public transport for that. Although ours is not world-class, it can hardly be termed as poor. It is just that Malaysians are just plain lazy and pampered. People talk about HK and Singapore but if you live there you know that you still need to wak several kms to get public transport. If you live in countries like US, it is no better than Malaysia unless you stay in places like Manhattan in NY.
i agree with u.
well, one example of the stats is comparison with the countries. in the first place, govt should have clearly explained why they are comparing with those countries they compare with. what are the basis? when the opposition or public compare with oil producing countries, the govt is quiet. but good to hear from you, the rebuttal – that oil producing countries are generally having quality of living far lower than us (except ME and Brunei). i can accept that. Venezuela and Egypt, for example have higher unemployment rate, lower income per capita, and more poor people. whereas in our country, these figures are still in acceptable level (minus the Gini value of course). however, that leaves us with a problem – with whom can we compare? comparing with UK and US is ridiculous as well. I think the question that the govt finds most difficult to answer is that why were there no foresight to improve public transportation, to reduce subsidy on petrol earlier, and to make petronas accounts more transparent. now only want to buy bus, and review transportation services. its kind of “nasi sudah jadi bubur”. The govt is getting punished for its mismanagement in one way or another. the effect of price increase is actually a symptom of a deeper problem.
still, the government should be explaining about all the above instead of comparing with ASEAN countries, UK, US etc. People also get fed up and more irritated.
well sir, even if you are affected, imagine the common folks. it is very hard to explain to people earning 2/3k and below. what i worry most is that some quarters will give up adjusting and resort to crime – either violent or cheating type. the impact if price hike is far reaching, more than just increase of food and materials.
yes, the impact is all over the world. and we can see protests taking place everywhere. india, europe, south america, etc. won’t be long before govts are changed. whichever countries having shaky majority, fragile coalition, or weak leadership may see changes. unless oil prices drop drastically.
well, i’ve been in singapore and did not walk several km for access to public transports. even in cases where i walked about few hundred metres, there were proper walkways and shades. if we were to walk in klang valley, one may soon get respiratory disease due to smoke and dust, need to carry a change of clothes (and shower too), and it takes nearly double the usual time to reach the destination. we can’t just look at people working in klcc, putrajaya, mid valley, etc, where public transport is in close proximity. there are many people who travel from outer kl, changing buses, lining up for 20 minutes at LRT stations, waiting at unlighted bus stands in early hours of the morning for bus, and so on.
i think malaysians are becoming more speedier, but the transportation is pulling them back. one of the reason for personal transport. followed by cramped transport, sexual harassment, dirty conditions, long waiting/transit time, etc. just look at my own situation – if i drive, it takes 20 minutes on average. if i were to take public transport, need to drive 7 minutes to bus station and take 3 buses to office. a total of nearly 2 hours.
as for moving forward, we can see more people take up second or third jobs, be more enterprising, reduce luxuries like vacation and eating out.