GEIS-新闻详情

Handouts for civil servants in Malaysian budget lead to speculation about election

2021-11-03 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian civil servants were among the beneficiaries of the recently tabled budget, receiving generous handouts from the government, which has led to questions about whether they are being wooed ahead of a general election.

Given its large size, the civil service has often been seen as an important vote bank.

Under the budget, some 1.3 million civil servants, who are mostly from the majority Malay community, will receive a bonus of RM700 (S$227) each and be entitled to an additional five days' leave. They will also be eligible for low-interest loans to buy computers and smartphones.

Sunway University economics professor Yeah Kim Leng described the benefits as "not surprising", given that a general election was expected next year.

"Pocketbook voters in the large civil servant voting bloc will be predominantly inclined towards returning the favour shown by the government," Dr Yeah told The Straits Times.

He believes the budget had many "touchpoints", to the extent that allocations to various groups were spread too thinly.

"Hence, larger cash aid for hard-hit vulnerable groups, poor households and small and medium enterprises, higher wage subsidies and bigger allocations for rebuilding self-employed business, health and education sectors could have been made," he said.

There has also been criticism that the budget was "bumiputera-centric", with some complaining that other races seemed to have been left out.

"Perks" extended to bumiputeras - a demographic encompassing the Malay-Muslim majority in the country and aboriginal tribes - included RM6.6 billion for their education programmes, RM4.8 billion for capacity-building in the community, and RM100 million in matching grants for their SMEs in the aerospace industry.

Conversely, only RM290 million was allocated to improve infrastructure in Chinese new villages and RM145 million to the Indian community for socio-cultural-economic programmes under the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit.

"How is it that this Keluarga Malaysia budget has allocated billions to Malays and bumiputeras but just millions to the Chinese and Indians?" said Mr Wong Chen, an opposition Member of Parliament from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

He was referring to a concept dubbed as the Malaysian Family comprising all races in multicultural Malaysia introduced by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Professor James Chin from the University of Tasmania's Asia Institute also said the touchpoints of the budget point to the possibility of an election next year.

"This is an election budget. Not only that a lot is given to the civil servants, but the government is also pouring a lot of money into the bumiputera agenda so I fully expect the election to be held some time next year, probably after the money has been disbursed," he told ST.