LETTER | It’s time to plug leakages and trim the fat

LETTER | Government of the people, by the people and for the people appears to be an elusive dream and a distant ideal, as what we have been having is “Government of the people, by some people and for some people.”

Decades of mismanagement and self-serving politicians have driven Malaysia to this current critical situation despite the fact that she was luxuriously endowed with bountiful natural resources and an entrepreneurial populace. 

A large proportion of the population is finding it extremely challenging to have three decent meals. Thousands of SMEs have ceased operations and just as many are struggling to stay open. This sad scenario is a combination of the pandemic, political uncertainties and sub-standard economic management on the part of the government over the last few years.

As if these were not fatal enough, we have reports of serious leakages of public funds, purportedly by political leaders. It is now time to plug the leakages and trim the fat.

The new government led by Pakatan Harapan offers a glimmer of hope that these woes would be addressed. We are confident that the new government will be more practical and professional in its management, but due to the old malpractices being so entrenched, positive results will take some time.

Having said this, there are areas where remedial action can be implemented almost immediately. The most important and immediate task of the new government is to alleviate the misery of the B40 and towards achieving this, the PM has set the pace by getting the parties involved to come up with strategies for lowering the prices of essential goods within two weeks – a most welcome act indeed.

Just as important is to formulate economic revival policies for the country. We need foreign investments to drive the economy. We need life-saving strategies to assist the thousands of SMEs as the SMEs form the backbone of our economy. In short, nursing the country back to economic health is the most important immediate task of the new administration.

Another glaring waste of public funds is the amount of money accorded to elected representatives, both at the federal and state levels. MPs and state assemblypersons enjoy a long list of allowances on top of their salary and many, if not most are ridiculous, both in terms of amount and allowance justification.

The total amount of allowances received monthly is more than the salary of a senior manager in the private sector. They get paid for attending parliamentary or state assembly sessions. Why should this be? Aren’t they elected to do so?

A Selangor assemblyperson even had the cheek to suggest that state reps be given attendance incentives a few years ago. This is extremely self-serving and selfish when they are supposed to care for the people. In fact, for each parliamentary or state session that they are absent from, a penalty should be imposed, whereby a painful amount is deducted from their monthly allowance or salary.

It is ridiculous to note that for the last government, there were MPs whose attendance was as low as 25 percent and they get fully paid, along with all the superfluous allowances. I call this plainly obscene.

And these absentee MPs and assemblypersons enjoy pensions upon retirement. Small wonder why every Tom, Dick and Harry fights tooth and nail to get elected.

MPs and state assemblypersons also enjoy pensions. In fact, it has been reported that MPs or state reps who are also appointed as speaker or MBs or other positions, get multiple pensions and gratuities once their tenure ends.

If all these retired MPs and state reps are entitled to receive a pension, it should be just one pension, regardless of whether they have been MP, state assemblyperson, speaker or what have you before retirement.

Thus, a retired lawmaker who had held other positions may enjoy pensions totalling RM50,000 to RM100,000 a month. A secondary school principal gets a pension of RM5,000 plus upon retirement, and that is after serving the government faithfully for 30 years, and with sterling attendance.

My question is, “Is this justified or right?” Isn’t this a blatant waste of the taxpayers’ money?

It’s high time the new government takes a hard look at the issue of multiple pensions and superfluous allowances, which, in the eyes of the ordinary rakyat, are simply unjustified to the point of obscene. 

It’s time to plug all leakages and trim the fat. The country cannot afford to be Santa Claus.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.