SHAH ALAM, 28 Nov: The salary of the Prime Minister which has been portrayed by pro-Umno media, which is allegedly lower than the salary of the Chief Minister, Executive Councillors and Assemblymen, is inaccurate.
The Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, suggested all parties to conduct detailed checking on the monthly income of the Prime Minister before making a comparison.
“Check properly. The Prime Minister’s salary is far higher than this. Perhaps his (Prime Minister) salary is the same as my previous salary (two fold) before becoming Chief Minister,” he said.
When speaking to reporters at the Selangor State Assembly (DNS) lobby today, Abdul Khalid said that the increase is reasonable because they used the Sarawak’s leader’s salary system as the indicator.
Although many have reservations about it, he said that the rate of increase is far lower from workers in the private sector.
“The income is appropriate for representatives of the people and Excos because they do not need to look elsewhere for money, as done by the ministers in the Central Government, to pay for their work.
“It is normal for such an increase in income to happen. That is why we are doing it openly.
“When they (Sarawak) tabled and approved (salary hike), no newspaper told of it. But when Selangor does it, because we are a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state, now they report it,” he said.
The DNS session yesterday approved the salary hike for all 56 members of State Legislative Assemblies with effect from 1 January; the last was done in 2004.
