KOTA KINABALU – Sabah’s legislative assembly has passed the bill to increase the wages of its state ministers, assistant ministers, and assemblymen, today.
The bill to amend the Members of the Administration and Members of the Legislative Assembly (Remuneration) Enactment 1981 also provides for an increase in the remuneration for the speaker, deputy speaker, and political secretaries.
The remuneration for Sabah’s chief minister is 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.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor (Sulaman-Bersatu) said the increase in remuneration had been discussed since Barisan Nasional’s administration (before 2018) and had been studied carefully by a committee before the bill was tabled.
He said the amendment was tabled considering Sabah’s large size and constituency, taking into account the current situation, which sees assemblymen bearing more challenging responsibilities.
“The core (of the amendment) is to allow the people’s representatives to provide good service to the people.
“The government must have a good policy to ensure the people’s standard of living is elevated.
“Assemblymen in Sabah are visited by the people every day. We want our assemblymen to be able to serve the people better,” he said.
Hajiji also said the government expects that the bill will be criticised by the people, but the most important matter at this time is for the government not to forget the people’s struggles.
“Moreover, the financial implication (of the amendment) may not burden the government, with only RM5.6 million a year,” he said.
Earlier, Justin Wong (Sri Tanjong-Warisan) opposed the bill, saying that it is not the right time to be raising wages for state ministers and assistant ministers as the people are currently suffering from the impact of inflation and rising prices of goods.
Phoong Jin Zhe (Luyang-DAP) suggested that in line with the increase in state assemblymen’s wages, they should carry more responsibilities by extending the duration of assembly sittings or adding the frequency of the sittings.
Datuk Yusof Yacob (Sindumin-BN) and Datuk Rubin Balang (Kemabong-independent) stood up to say that Chan, as an assemblyman based near the state capital, here, may not understand the struggles of assemblymen in the interior areas, as they cannot be present for their people in their constituencies when they go for state legislative sittings.
“Maybe the Luyang rep is not frequented by his people for bus fares to go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (like the interior reps are).
“Moreover, there are allowances for reps to attend state assembly sittings, which are not free. More sittings mean more money has to be used,” Yusof added.
The bill was however passed with the majority of the reps agreeing via voice vote.
The amendment is deemed to have come into operation on March 1, 2022. – The Vibes, July 19, 2022
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