KOTA KINABALU – Sabah Pakatan Harapan (PH) reps could not overrule the ruling bloc on its 40% salary increment even if the opposition alliance was against it, said the state’s PH chief Datuk Christina Liew.
Liew, who is also Sabah PKR chief, reasoned that the number of elected reps from the ruling bloc outnumber the members in the opposition camp.
“So what can we do as PH reps? The only thing is to make use of the money. For one, we could increase the number of our welfare programmes and activities in our constituencies.
“Two, we already announced that the additional funds will pay for the legal cost of our originating summons on the 40% revenue entitlement case in court.
We cannot fight them (the ruling bloc), because they are the majority. So we will use it to do more charity work,” she told The Vibes when met at the Karamunsing police station here, yesterday.
The Sabah Legislative Assembly passed the bill to amend the Members of the Administration and Members of the Legislative Assembly (Remuneration) Enactment 1981 on Tuesday.
It served to raise the pay of ministers, assistant ministers, assemblymen, speakers, deputy speakers and political secretaries.
The remuneration for Sabah’s chief minister has been increased from RM23,595 to RM33,033, state ministers and the speaker from RM16,335 to RM22,869, and assemblymen from RM7,950 to RM11,130.
Meanwhile, PKR’s Inanam rep Peto Galim said the opposition members had mixed views on the pay raise.
He said that the RM3,000 increment was not much, but could still be a morale booster for the assemblymen.
“It also could make it better for us to carry out our duties as elected reps on the ground. Besides, we also supported the pay raise in order for us to fund the legal cost of our originating summons,” he said.
Meanwhile, when asked about her absence in Parliament to defeat the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, Liew, who is Tawau MP, pointed to the need to be present at the Sabah assembly, which ended today.
She had said she would be flying to Kuala Lumpur yesterday to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting from Monday.
“I have to be in Parliament before July 28 because we have to vote on the anti-party hopping law. It is very important for us,” she said.
Speaker taken to task over ‘rudeness’
Meanwhile, Warisan’s Tg Kapor rep Ben Chong Chen Bin expressed unhappiness at the alleged “rudeness” of Sabah speaker Datuk Kadzim M. Yahya.
He dared Kadzim to repeat outside the assembly the manner in which he treated elected representatives while the House was in session.
He took heart at the way Kadzim acted throughout the four-day sitting, saying that the speaker was far from being courteous and polite.
Other assemblymen and I are disappointed by his attitude,” Chong told reporters after the session ended yesterday.
“The way he reprimanded assemblymen was very, very rude,” he claimed.
Chong said Kadzim lost his well-mannered character when he shouted “shut up” and “sit down” to assemblymen. Although Chong admitted that Kadzim has total authority in the assembly, he said the same cannot be said outside of the building.
“If he is brave, then he should show his bravery outside too. Not just in the assembly hall. You (Kadzim) are treating us unfairly,” said Chong, adding that Kadzim can respond to his call anytime. – The Vibes, July 22, 2022
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