LETTER | Bonuses for elected reps not a good decision

LETTER | Dear editor, did I hear it right? One month’s bonus for state assemblypersons and two months for state executive councillors?

I may be wrong or forgetful, but I have not heard of such an act by any state government for the last 50 or more years in our Malaysian history.

A two-month bonus may be justified if it was for civil servants but giving bonuses to state executive councillors and state assemblypersons is just too absurd and very irregular in any circumstance.

Paying a bonus is quite different to raising the salary or allowances of elected representatives every five years.

Also, it may not be a good practice when they are paid bonuses as compared to ordinary salaried staff.

Giving a bonus to an elected representative in any government is just not a good decision at any time - now, or even later when the country is in a more stable economic situation.

The state government is not financially stable enough to justify that monetary reward.

The irony is that no one in the state assembly, be it assemblypersons or executive councillors, from both the government and the opposition, raised any ‘difference in opinion’ of the wakil rakyat bonus.

The assemblypersons from all political divides in their august house were full of praises to the menteri besar.

Alas... that is the original kind of politicians we have when it comes to defining the words ‘money’ and ‘politics’.

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