YOURSAY | All must tighten belts in hard times, including govt servants

YOURSAY | 'Cut ministers, civil servants pay as their jobs are guaranteed.’

Dr M suggests 10pct salary cut for high-earners, distribute to those in need

Mano: Although all MPs might be aware of the hard times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they do not feel the need to do something for Mary, Ah Moi and Aminah from the B40 (bottom 40 percent) group.

It is a basic right of any family to have access to food, shelter, basic utilities and healthcare. No family should be without these four basic needs.

The BNputras and PNputras are apparently stuffing their pockets and filling their bank accounts.

There should be immediate cost-cutting including:

1. Cut the cabinet size

2. Cut the salary and perks of cabinet members

3. Cut the salary and perks of all MPs and Aduns (state representatives)

4. Cut funding for the Special Affairs Department (Jasa)

All politicians should vacate their cushy and plush government-linked company (GLC) jobs. They are not adding any value to the GLCs.

It is blatantly and obscenely obvious that they are placed there to get support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and for personal benefit.

Let the posts be filled by technocrats who are also willing to do national service at a fraction of the pay.

All salaries, perks and bonuses of GLCs must be slashed. The employees must be made to appreciate that they still have jobs, unlike many other rakyat.

These are unprecedented times and we need unprecedented measures.

Mazilamani: Is former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad keeping in touch with what is already happening on the ground?

Most employers have already asked its top-level staff to take pay cuts ranging between 10 to 25 percent, therefore his ‘intelligent’ suggestion is out of time and tune.

Many companies are already beginning to downsize their lower-level workforce.

Quo Vadis: It is all so very ad hoc. Doesn’t anyone have an overall plan, to meet the short-term demands and encompass a long-term strategy for the long haul?

There is a report of salaries of assemblypersons being raised, and not so long ago, new cars were made available. In the Budget, there is an allocation of RM85 million for government spokespersons and cybertroopers.

What next in this challenging time of jobs losses and daily struggles to put food on the table?

Gaji Buta: The private sector has been financing and supporting the bloated civil service all this while.

It is time for the civil service, if they have a conscience, to show their gratitude and pay it forward to all those in the private sector, who are in difficulty now, by contributing 10 percent of their salary.

Entertainment allowance during Covid-19? Let's start by removing the RM2,500 entertainment allowance for MPs.

Please use your brains to see what wastage can be cut first, before suggesting blanket sacrifice by all high earners. After all, the civil servants still have their jobs and income. Berat sama dipikul, remember?

OrangeHawk3664: Pay cut should come from the public sector, that is the government and civil servants. Regardless of pandemic or recession, these people won’t lose their jobs, unlike those in the private sector.

All ministers, PN or otherwise, will get to keep their jobs and high pay till the next general election which could be three years away. They won’t have any fear of losing their position even if they don’t do a single thing.

So, they should be the ones to take a huge pay cut, followed by the rest in the civil service.

RedWolf4463: The size of the cabinet should be cut by 30 percent. The salaries of all the PN and BN MPs should be cut by 50 percent as that reflects the actual work they do.

Those who took government money should make a contribution of at least RM1 million each once every two years to the national coffers. That is only a drop from all the money they have plundered.

The size of the civil service should be trimmed by 30 percent as they are overpaid and underworked. All the pensions of the former MPs and state assemblypersons should be cut by 30 percent. The whole pension scheme for the politicians should be reviewed.

Sentinel: If the 10 percent cut can be accrued as a credit on my taxes and matched with an adjusted inflation modifier for the particular month, then we can start talking.

But, quid pro quo. In return, let us have transparency on government expenditure (line item visibility), reform of government procurement (speed and transparency from initiation to disbursement). And don't try to justify the Jasa nonsense.

In the Nordic countries, they actually show you where your money goes and how it's spent. I certainly think we can discuss and compromise but to hope that the government would listen to our suggestions… nah, I don’t think it will.

Ruslan Bahari: How about this, Mahathir?

From the list of Malaysia's top 100 richest, force them to liquidate 10 percent of their net worth (or donate an equivalent value) to a fund. Let’s call that ‘Dana Terkaya’). And we will include you and your family... can?

The federal government can then match that total to further build the fund on a one-for-one basis.

ReaHawk7908: Yes, why not lead by example and get your billionaire sons to donate 10 percent of their wealth to those poor people irrespective of race and religion?

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