Over the past decades, Barisan has kept the pay for legislators and state executives artificially low to deny them of financial freedom. The pay hike is commensurate with the positions and responsibilities of legislators and state executives. The pay hike could effectively serve as a deterrent to lawmakers succumbing to the temptation to seek illicit or unethical means of augmenting their salaries.
Anwar Ibrahim should has the audacity to view the pay hike in positive light and stop acting ambiguously over the pay hike issue. Anwar should realise that living off the present wage is barely living for all the legislators in the country. The current pay is just a wage earned by part-timers.
Something has to be done that represents a total change in how the Legislature is run. We should ensure that the legislators and the state executives cease to be designated as part-time, and accept strict limitations on outside income and more stringent oversight of their potential conflicts of interest.
The pay hike will attract people who are excited to be a full time legislator that will clear them of potentials for conflicts of interest with their career paths.
I reiterate my call for the Penang state government to embrace the Selangor or the Sarawak state government's idea of raising the minimum wage to RM12,500 or RM15,000 per month for the state legislators.
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