KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim assured that all decisions involving civil servants would also apply to political appointments within the government.
Come February 1, 2024, pensions will be abolished for all new civil servants, which would also include future political appointments, he said.
“There are also other issues, like those (politicians) who have become menteri besar, ministers, and deputy prime ministers as per the constitution; we will study this; we can’t make retrospective changes.
“Before we reject, let’s listen to the suggestions, give our opinions, improve on them, and debate their effectiveness, and only after that will we decide what to do,” he told reporters during lunch at Pelita Nasi Kandar Restaurant in Desa Sri Hartamas.
He added that, in principle, he agrees that whatever decision is made regarding the civil service should also apply to politicians.
“However, final decisions can only be made after a detailed study of the matter and should be brought to the cabinet for consideration.
“Previous governments and former prime ministers have also emphasised that any country with an unstable economy will not endure if (corrective) measures are not taken,” he added.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan had earlier announced that civil servants under the existing pensionable scheme were not affected by the soon-to-be-finalised public service remuneration system.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported as saying that the government had to spend some RM120 billion to cover pension payments by 2040 if new salary schemes for hiring public officers were not introduced.
He added that the government would introduce a new civil service hiring policy, which would include a new pension scheme.
He said that under this method, new intakes into the civil service would contribute to retirement schemes such as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Social Security Organisation.
The Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services Malaysia had also disagreed with this and said it should not be made compulsory for new hires in the civil service to contribute to EPF like workers in the private sector as the public sector salary scheme is still low.
Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman today called on Putrajaya to remove the pensions of elected representatives and to raise civil servants’ salaries first before phasing out the pension scheme for newly appointed civil servants.
He said the government’s move is inappropriate as prospective civil servants will no longer receive their pensions while politicians who are elected representatives will still receive tiered pensions, which, if combined, can reach RM100,000 per month. – January 26, 2024