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Money politics will end when MPs get better salaries, Putrajaya told

PETALING JAYA — One of the ways in which Putrajaya can rid the country of the practice of money politics is by ensuring that all of its federal lawmakers are paid better salaries, attendees at a forum on political funding were told last night (Aug 17).

Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen says Putrajaya should ensure that its federal lawmakers are paid better salaries in order to end the practice of money politics. Photo: Malay Mail Online

Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen says Putrajaya should ensure that its federal lawmakers are paid better salaries in order to end the practice of money politics. Photo: Malay Mail Online

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PETALING JAYA — One of the ways in which Putrajaya can rid the country of the practice of money politics is by ensuring that all of its federal lawmakers are paid better salaries, attendees at a forum on political funding were told last night (Aug 17).

According to PKR’s Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen, the patronage system still existed within both sides of the political divide, where the elected representatives have no choice but to look for money in order to carry out their duties effectively.

He said that the reality was that MPs need sufficient funding in order to be able to finance campaigns, pay their staff as well as run a community centre, and that their basic salaries alone were not enough.

“What we want is that we want better pay… to pay my staff, so that we can save money for our children. But I have to have money in order to be independent from Najib or an MB,” he said, using the abbreviation for chief minister.

“If we are still dependent on a patronage system, nothing will change,” Mr Wong told a small group of fewer than 30 people who showed up at a forum on political funding titled “Political funding or corruption? ― The RM 2.6 billion (S$893 million) question”.

The opposition lawmaker said Putrajaya should look at how the governments of other countries dealt with the issue of political financing and how they ensured their elected representatives were truly independent by paying them proper salaries.

“In some countries, the government gives you some money to fund your own election (campaign) provided you are from a political party which has won (seats) in a previous election… the government must do proper computations, how much is a fair wage for politicians to do their job?

“If you pay (MPs) RM35,000 to RM45,000 (a month), or if the government takes over the costs of running service centre you will see the transformation immediately,” Mr Wong said.

Mr Wong recounted how back during the last general election, he had to collect funds for his campaign from family and friends.

“The party only gave us RM30,000 as deposit. After the general election was over, we had to give the money back,” Mr Wong added, referring to his own PKR.

On April 10, the Dewan Rakyat approved a new salary scheme for federal lawmakers that is expected to cost the federal government an additional expenditure of RM31,971,981.36 a year.

Under the scheme, the monthly salaries and allowances of MPs were bumped up to RM16,000 from the previous RM6,508.59 rate.

Another speaker, Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad said that it was unfair how Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs get millions of ringgit of allocation to carry out programmes in their respective constituencies every year while the federal opposition is denied the funds which comes from the Prime Minister's Department.

“In areas where we are MPs the UMNO division chiefs get the funds,” he said.

Mr Khalid admitted that the Selangor government currently assisted opposition MPs by giving them RM350,000 a year.

“We do get assistance from the Selangor government. They give PR MPs RM350,000 a year, RM50,000 is for office expenses,” Mr Khalid said, referring to opposition lawmakers by their now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat alliance abbreviation.

On Friday, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the formation of a bipartisan panel to gather input for a law to regulate political funding, saying this was necessary to ensure the country practiced “healthy” politics.

Mr Najib denied the idea was a result of the furore over the RM2.6 billion donation deposited into his personal accounts, and said the panel, called the National Consultative Committee on Political Fundings, was a follow-up to his pledge to regulate political funding in 2009. MALAY MAIL ONLINE

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