KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — Arguing the adjustments to be “too high”, the Selangor Backbenchers Club (BBC) urged the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state today to postpone the January 2014 salary revision of its government leaders, including the legislative assembly speaker, deputy speaker and assemblymen pending a review.
Its chairman Azmin Ali claimed the BBC had not been consulted before Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim made the pay hike announcement at the state assembly yesterday.
“We suggest that the increase be delayed and reviewed so that it is more reasonable, and to explain to the people the need for the increase,” Azmin told reporters at the Parliament lobby here today.
“We don’t reject the need to increase salaries, but the salary increase is too high and we ask for an explanation from the state government,” added the Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman.
He added that backbenchers had also not been informed of the findings of a purported study to review salary schemes in Malaysia’s wealthiest state.
Khalid announced yesterday salary increases for himself, the state speaker and deputy speaker, state executive councillors, as well as assemblymen, by up to 400 per cent to mark Selangor’s healthy finances.
The increase is set to take effect from January 1 next year.
At a separate news conference, the embattled Khalid was reported to have refused to defer the salary increases for the state government officials, saying the decision had already been passed in the Selangor legislative assembly.
Azmin said that Khalid, during his Budget 2014 speech on October 19, had proposed a study to review the salary scheme, pension, gratuities and allowances for the legislative assembly speaker, deputy speaker and assemblymen.
“The BBC welcomes the proposal for such a study. But what shocked us is that in less than a week, the study was completed and debated yesterday without discussion with the BBC or Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Selangor,” said the PKR deputy president.
“I discussed with Shah Alam and Seputeh. They were also shocked with the government decision as there was no discussion,” added Azmin, referring to the PR federal lawmakers, Khalid Samad from PAS and Teresa Kok from the DAP respectively.
Azmin’s call for a freeze on the pay hikes comes after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also told Khalid to explain the increase, saying he found it “a bit high”.
Khalid more than doubled his own monthly salary from RM14,175 to RM29,250 and gave a whopping 231 per cent pay hike to his state executive councillors from RM6,109 to RM20,250, according to a report by English-language daily The Star.
The monthly salaries of Selangor state assemblymen were almost doubled from RM6,000 to RM11,250, two-thirds of whom are from PR.
The legislative assembly speaker’s monthly pay was more than tripled from RM6,109 to RM22,500, while the deputy speaker’s monthly paycheck more than quadrupled from RM3,327 to RM15,750.
“The rates must be reasonable. If it’s a 300 or 400 per cent increase, I’m not in a position to defend it,” said Azmin.
When asked what would be a “reasonable” figure, Azmin said a discussion was necessary to decide on the appropriate increase.
He also denied reports claiming that the Selangor BBC had called for a pay rise, stressing that the memorandum handed to Khalid on October 7 merely revolved around development projects in the state.
“Selangor has a huge surplus, which we should translate to programmes for the people,” said Azmin.
“We are not attacking Khalid, please. To be fair, Tan Sri Khalid has done a good job. There’s a huge surplus, but what is our priority? Floods, education, housing, roads - these are the problems,” he added.
PR retained Selangor in Election 2013 with a stronger majority under Khalid’s administration, after the country’s most developed state fell from Barisan Nasional’s (BN) grasp for the first time in the tsunami of the 2008 general election.
Khalid, however, has been criticised by Anwar over his purportedly tight-fisted management of Selangor’s reserves that touched RM2.8 billion in May.
