Much Anticipated Pmx S Trust Deficit Pill Must Not Be Lobsided By Favouring Only Civil Servants

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SUCH is the reminder by man-on-the-street Malaysians as they await the unveiling of the so-called “extraordinary appreciation package” by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at 10.30am today (July 23).
First announced on July 14 in light of mounting criticism levelled at PMX and his Madani machinery, PMX has admitted that the event would have been held much earlier if not for “some careful review”.
As his Facebook page was swamped by Malaysians as evident from the 31K likes, 9.6K comments and 3.5K shares at the time of writing, the most popular comment was one that reminded PMX “to include all Malaysians as opposed to only extending goodies to civil servants”.

Many seconded the comment with insistence that the interest and well-being of private sector employees must also be taken into account as they, too, have been hard hit by the spiralling cost of living in the wake of subsidy rationalisation and most recently, the Sales and Service tax (SST) scope expansion.
This is regardless of the contention by one commenter who argued that “any incentive received by civil servants which will improve their purchasing power will eventually be channelled indirectly to the private sector”.

After all, as one commenter aptly put it, civil servants tend to be an ungrateful lot for “they are the biggest opposers of PMX”.

Elsewhere, there are also requests for the RON95 petrol price – capped at RM2.05/litre since February 2021 – “to come down”.
This comes in the wake of Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil having stated that the rationalisation of RON95 fuel subsidies has been delayed to allow for further fine-tuning.

Some even suggested the abolishment of toll collection “starting with the PLUS Expressway”.

One commenter even wanted to know if the soon-to-be unveiled goodies are “insincere” given they are only intended to quell this Saturday’s (July 26) PAS-inspired Turun Anwar rally.

The bottom line, as one foresightful employer put it, is that “PMX shouldn’t be making hasty decisions just to divert attention due to pressure on him to resign”.
“You’ve given a negative impact on the small and medium business industry with the implementation of SST, reduced working hours, minimum wage increase, unbalanced taxes and now, there are rumours of a possible announcement on a four-day working week,” he justified.

“You need to go to the ground and study the level of our economic sustainability first before implementing all this.
“More importantly, there’re many current issues that require serious attention and long-term solutions, not ad hoc announcements that are only expected to cover up your weaknesses. The rakyat want concrete and effective action, not just political gimmicks.”  –  Focus Malaysia

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