BUKIT MERTAJAM, Aug 5 — The matter of graduate pay will be part of discussions at next week’s meeting on the review of service and remuneration scheme for civil servants, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali had decided that a committee would discuss salary adjustments at a meeting to be chaired by the prime minister next week.
“We will consider all these matters. Generally, the wage and salary rate for civil servants, including police, armed forces and non-pensionable soldiers, is low. InsyaAllah with economic capability we will raise it in stages.
“Traditionally, this committee was supposed to meet once in 10 years but it has not met for 12 years already,” he told reporters when asked on graduate pay which is deemed to have dropped to minimum wage level.
He was speaking after opening the 16th Malaysian National Economic Conference here today.
In his speech, Anwar said the country’s economic growth was considered crippled if it did not have inclusivity by marginalising certain segments of the community.
“While we acknowledge that the country should be driven by meritocracy, we should not sideline communities that are not able to compete in a fair manner,” he said.
Citing an example, Anwar said he was among the first ASEAN leaders to recommend Vietnam’s adoption into the ASEAN family through a minor and independent paper (not representing government) One Southeast Asia, urging the grouping to not bow to the United States, which was then marginalising Vietnam.
Anwar said immediately after being appointed as Deputy Prime Minister in the 1990s, he led a big delegation to Vietnam for talks and it then opened the doors for Malaysia to set up banking operations there.
“When I visited Vietnam again last month, I saw that the growth figures and changes there are far better than ours in terms of investments, gaps and poverty rate. By all accounts, they have left us far behind,” he said.
