KOTA KINABALU - Sabah opposition leader Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has stated his stance at the state legislative assembly sitting that he disagrees with the salary increase for members of the state's administration and assemlymen.
During the debate on the Bill to raise the salaries of the assemblymen and governors in the state, the Senallang assemblyman had sought for an explanation on the formula used for that purpose.
"I see that this needed to be clarified. If you want to be specific, state that for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the increase would be RM5,000 and for the state assembly an increase of RM3,000.
"The Speaker and Deputy Speaker have no constituences to look after and they get a raise of RM5,000 while the assemlymen get only a RM3,000 increase when they have many constituencies under their care," he said at the state legislative assembly sitting on Tuesday.
The former Sabah Chief Minister admitted that during his administration there was a proposal to raise the salary, but at the time the country was not facing crisis.
"I know the assemblymen need the finances available however, I just want to raise the question of whether this is the right time because I know this is worrying at the grassroots level," he said.
He said although the state government has a lot of revenues at the moment due to the increase in collection from tax revenue and royalty, in an economic situation which was increasingly burdening the people, it was not an appropriate move to be implemented.
"I know compared to the other states, the salaries of the Sarawak assemblymen and ministers are much greater than ours, however is this matter appropriate for our current economic situation? Even the country's debt is increasing.
"I actually do not agree with what is being done here," he said.
On Tuesday, the Sabah state assembly had approved the Members of the Administration and Members of the Legislative Assembly (Remuneration) (Amendment) Enactment 2022 for the increase of emoluments or salaries of the state assemblymen and members of the state's administration.
The salary increase included the salaries of the Chief Minister, his deputy, ministers, Speaker, deputy ministers, Deputy Speaker, assemblymen and political secretaries.