'For people's sake', Sarawak reps reward themselves with triple pay hike

Ana Ghoib Syeikh Malaya 6:32 PG
The people who are educated in Sarawak are angry but the rural folks will rejoice because they think after the three fold raise the village folks will get a 3-fold help. They do not know that the government is doing this to prevent the MPs and ADUNs from jumping ship as there are already rumours of that happening anytime.
[pullquote_left]Congrat to all sarawakain coz you had choosed bn again n again to plunder n plunder your state wheallth...they eated all the flash in the soup you people just sip the soup juice...comment from HD readers.[/pullquote_left]May 21: To fulfill the "increasing expectations of the people", Sarawak state assemblymen today rewarded themselves with a whopping three-fold salary increase.

Announcing this, Second Finance minister Wong Soon Koh, who is also state assemblyman for Bawang Assan, said the review of the remuneration was done in view of the increasing expectations of the people, and the increase in pay will be backdated to January 2012.

"Sarawak is as big as the peninsula and a lot of state assemblymen have to cover a large territory, particularly those who serve the rural areas," said Wong.

According to the government-controlled Bernama, the whole exercise including the backdate pay will cost the state coffers some RM17 million.

It also means that chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's official monthly salary will now shoot to RM39,000 from RM13,000 previously, while his deputy will enjoy RM35,000 monthly from RM11,500 previously.

Sarawak's state assembly was last elected in April 2011 and saw the continued rule of the controversial Taib, who has been cited in a series of financial scandals and corruptions.

Late last year, Swiss-based NGO Bruno Manser Fund revealed an audit report on Taib and his family, showing an estimated wealth at a staggering US$15 billion. The report among others claimed that Taib’s family had amassed the wealth alongside an empire of over 400 companies worldwide solely from his political and economic control of Sarawak over the past 30 years.

And in March this year, London-based whistleblower Global Witness publicised a video showing its undercover investigator's conversation with Taib’s first cousins, revealing a shocking modus operandi of how Taib and his family made fortunes from illegal disposal of vast timber land.

Taib has meanwhile angrily dismissed any attempts by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate him. HD