Big pay hikes for Selangor's leaders

SELANGOR, Malaysia- Malaysia's richest state, Selangor, is tripling the salaries of its 13 state Cabinet ministers and doubling the salary of its chief minister, citing their increased responsibilities.

In addition, Selangor, which is governed by the Pakatan Rakyat federal opposition alliance, has nearly doubled the salaries of its 56 state legislators or assemblymen, said Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim on Wednesday.

Members of the state Cabinet, or executive councillors, will see salaries rise from RM6,109 to RM20,250 (S$7,860). Tan Sri Khalid's pay will go up from RM14,175 to RM29,250 - the first wage hike for the chief minister's post since 2005.

By comparison, Prime Minister Najib Razak gets RM22,826 a month while his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, gets RM18,168.

"The increase was decided upon following the insistence and demands of the assemblymen. The amendments to the remuneration were implemented based on these concerns," said Mr Khalid on Wednesday.

Yesterday, he defended the move in response to comments from parliamentary opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim that the increase was "quite high".

"It's not 'quite high'. We do not raise the salary unnecessarily. In fact, the salary in Malaysia is quite low," he was quoted by news portal Malaysiakini as saying. Datuk Seri Anwar said on Wednesday that the Menteri Besar should explain the basis for the increases.

Pakatan assemblyman Xavier Jayakumar defended the pay hikes as well, saying: "Experienced professionals earn RM10,000 or more. Top executives with telcos and housing developers earn RM20,000 to RM30,000, not including bonuses."

Selangor, which surrounds the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, is Malaysia's most industrialised state, attracting big manufacturers such as Intel and Sony. It also hosts the country's biggest sea gateway of Port Klang. Its reserves grew to RM2.7 billion this year from RM400 million in 2008.

Some observers think compensating politicians with high salaries will help reduce corruption, but others feel the quantum is too high, especially at this time when the public is concerned about inflation and the government is planning to start the 6 per cent goods and services tax (GST) in 2015.

"Does the government think people are going to just keep smiling about this, after petrol prices went up and with GST coming?" asked Petaling Jaya businessman Charles Chan, 48.

Selangor is the second of Malaysia's 13 states to raise salaries following the country's general election in May. Sarawak tripled the salaries of its state ministers and assemblymen less than two weeks after the elections. Assemblymen's salaries were raised from RM4,500 to RM15,000 and ministers' pay from RM9,000 to RM27,000.

"If you want to raise anything, this is the best time to do it," said political analyst Shaharuddin Badaruddin from Universiti Teknologi Mara. More salary hikes for elected politicians could be on the way - in the 2012 Budget, Datuk Seri Najib proposed raising monthly salaries for federal elected representatives from RM13,000 to RM35,000.

The proposal was shot down by the opposition, which cited the country's burgeoning national debt, but analysts expect the issue to be raised again soon.

Professor Shaharuddin said the federal government could continue to face significant resistance to raising pay for MPs as it is battling a Budget deficit, which is just two percentage points under the 55 per cent constitutional limit.

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