{"id":1027,"date":"2017-07-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/civil-service-vote-for-barisan-not-guaranteed-union-leaders-say\/"},"modified":"2017-07-21T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T21:00:00","slug":"civil-service-vote-for-barisan-not-guaranteed-union-leaders-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/civil-service-vote-for-barisan-not-guaranteed-union-leaders-say\/","title":{"rendered":"CIVIL SERVICE VOTE FOR BARISAN NOT GUARANTEED, UNION LEADERS SAY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Malaysian Insight<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
20\/2017<\/span><\/p>\n

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THERE is no guarantee that civil servants will still vote for the government in the coming polls despite the assurance given by Umno president Najib Razak to his division chiefs that civil servants are returning to Barisan Nasional, trade union leaders have said.<\/p>\n

The rising cost of living has apparently outstripped much of the goodwill brought on by previous policies, even last July\u2019s minimum wage increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want a wealthy life. We want our welfare taken seriously by the government,\u201d said Zainal Ismail, deputy president of the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Service (Cuepacs).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 10 years, the price of fish and vegetables, and other costs have gone up almost 80%. Although we received RM2,000, we cannot afford a house due to this higher cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Najib told Umno division chiefs last night that a majority of the 1.6 million civil servants were returning to support the BN government in a hastily called meeting of his Umno warloads in Putrajaya last night.<\/p>\n

Najib also said he had received a briefing on the civil servants\u2019 growing support at a meeting at a retreat centre in Janda Baik, Pahang, two weekends ago, The Malaysian Insight reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot deny we have received a lot of benefits \u2013 especially the minimum wage, additional housing allowance and annual increments \u2013 but they\u2019re not enough. We don\u2019t want a wealthy life, but the living and housing allowances, as well as the wage levels have to match the living costs.<\/p>\n

Effective July 1 last year, civil servants earned a minimum monthly wage of RM1,200, compared to RM837 previously. Combined with existing allowances, employees in this grade can see a take-home pay of about RM1,500 or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now give more than 100% in work performance. We have proven ourselves to the government. We want them to look after the civil service. We will always be supportive of the government if they can do this,\u201d Zainal said.<\/p>\n

Andrew Lo, Sarawak secretary of Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) said civil servants were not as comfortably well off as people might think.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is able to cope. In fact, while you normally hear people talk about low-income earners suffering, but the economic situation is such that the middle-income group is struggling the most. And the middle-class includes civil servants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lo said the middle-class was the most affected by rising costs: \u201cFrom the top, they have to pay more taxes, which now includes the goods and services tax (GST). And from the bottom, they do not get any of the government assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of living in this group has increased more than for those at the top. They have car loans, housing loans etc, but the cost of employment, going to and from work. It\u2019s all gone up substantially,\u201d he said, adding that these costs id not include tuition fees for children, college and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are animals in a zoo, you have to vote for the zookeeper. There is an alternative, but the reality of the situation is, many of them do not know that daily problems stem from the leadership,\u201d Lo said about whether civil servants should feel indebted to the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cNajib is the main problem. His guilt is not the issue, but because of the 1MDB scandal, the ringgit has dropped, and a weak ringgit has directly caused costs to increase,\u201d Lo said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, BowerGroupAsia analyst Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani said many civil servants are \u201cheavily in debt\u201d and are struggling with the increasing cost of living.<\/p>\n

Asrul Hadi added that although civil servants may be aware of the scale of the 1MDB scandal, that might not translate into votes for the opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also to have to remember, why should a civil servant vote for the opposition when they have been harping for years on wanting to cut what they call a bloated civil service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asrul Hadi does not believe Bersatu chairman and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad would be a factor in attracting voters among the civil servants.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps only among the retired ones, as there is still a sense of loyalty to the former prime minister,\u201d he said. \u2013 July 20, 2017<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Malaysian Insight 20\/2017 THERE is no guarantee that civil servants will still vote for the government in the coming polls despite the assurance given by Umno president Najib Razak to his division chiefs that civil servants are returning to Barisan Nasional, trade union leaders have said. The rising cost of living has apparently outstripped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dari-cuepacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persatuan.utm.my\/kkautm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}