What Are The Chances That Anwar Will Honour His Promise To Raise The Salary Of Civil Servants

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If after the KKB by election, Perikatan is also seen to have the favour of the Indians, this will render PH a racialist party, that rules only with the support of the Chinese while it will be Perikatan that will be seen as the multiracial party, that has the support of both the Malays and the Indians.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
First of all, let us ask ourselves why did Anwar suddenly announce that the government is going to raise the civil servant’s salary by 13 percent in December in May itself? Why couldn’t he announce it, say in November, so that people won’t have to wait for 7 months before their pay is raised?
Well, I think we all know what the answer is. The answer is that the wellbeing and welfare of the civil servants is not really what was on Anwar’s mind when he suddenly announced that he is going to raise the civil servant’s salary in December. I will bet one ringgit and thirty-five cents that if you asked anybody in the government last month, none of them even had any idea that Anwar was going to announce raising the salary of civil servants during Labour Day. He probably just thought about it off the cuff, most likely because he thought it was a  necessary move to keep him in power.
Afterall, this is the same government that has been eager to reform the civil servant’s pension scheme, because they said that  civil servant’s pension and salary is becoming too taxing off the government’s resources. Considering that prior to Anwar’s announcement last Labour Day, the government was intent on cutting how much it spent on civil service, certainly it seemed odd that a few days ago, Anwar decided to go about turn, and announce that he was going to raise the salary of civil servants, and increase the government spending on the civil service instead.
So if the wellbeing and welfare of the civil service is not the reason why Anwar suddenly announced the pay rise of civil servants, what is?
Well,  I suppose the reason, as it always is, has to do with keeping Anwar in power. Anwar is most likely hoping that by promising the civil service a sizeable prize, they will stay loyal to him until the end of the year, and by buying their loyalty in this way, Anwar is hoping that he will be able thwart whatever challenges that he is set to face in the second half of the year.
There are a bunch of challenges that Anwar is likely going to face in the second half of the year as it is.
The KKB by election is certainly one of them. If Anwar loses the KKB by election, which PH had won repeatedly and with a comfortable margin in successive elections, that is going to be a challenge to him. If his own followers are not supporting him, it would clearly mean that he no longer has a mandate to rule in the country. Anwar’s mandate to rule is already suspect, when seen in the backdrop of such things as the KK Mart boycott. Anwar had asked people to stop their boycott of KK Mart, but nobody seems to be listening to him, because the KK Mart boycott is still going on. If you are a leader, people should listen to you. If nobody listens to you, even if you are officially and legally the leader, everybody will subconsciously see you as a pretender or an usurper, and when people see you as a pretender and usurper, as sure as night follows day, whoever else in the country that has a desire to become the leader, will step up to challenge you.
Other than no longer possessing the mandate to rule, if Anwar loses KKB, he might also likely lose one of his most prized possessions, which is that he is the champion of multiculturalism and diversity in Malaysia. If Anwar loses KKB, it will most certainly be because the Indian electorate have deserted him to bestow their favour upon Perikatan. Perikatan currently has the mandate of the Malays. If after the KKB by election, Perikatan is also seen to have the favour of the Indians, this will render PH a racialist party, that rules only with the support of the Chinese while it will be Perikatan that will be seen as the multiracial party, that has the support of both the Malays and the Indians.
In the second half of the year, Anwar will also likely be facing the problem of the “6 Jahanam”, or the travesty of having 6 opposition MPs showing support to the government while still remaining in the opposition fold. The opposition has already made moves to have 6 MPs removed from their position and by-elections called to replace them. If they succeed, Anwar will be facing 6 more by-elections where the chances of him losing in rapid succession is high. Even if somehow, the opposition move to have the 6 MPs is thwarted by Anwar, it will still make Anwar look bad, even if he denies having anything to do with thwarting the move, because the very concept of having 6 opposition MPs openly supporting the government while insisting that they are still loyal to the opposition is self-evidently a travesty to the the dignity of the parliament.
The biggest problem that Anwar will likely face in the second half of the year is the targeted subsidy scheme that is set to roll out in June. I am very in favour of the targeted subsidy programs and I sincerely hope that it will succeed, but if you ask me to bet on its success, I certainly will not, on account that I have deep misgivings about the competence and capabilities of the people who are in charge of the initiative. Once the targeted subsidy scheme runs, there are rumours that the price of RON 95 might soar toas high as RM 3.36 per litre, and if the people in charge of the targeted subsidy scheme has no plans to curtail inflation or make sure that everybody who needs the subsidy gets it or ensure that the initiative is staggered appropriately in a way that the people and the economy and the people can handle the change, there is going to be a uproar in the street.
Considering all this , I suppose it is understandable why Anwar is baiting the civil service with a hefty pay rise, in order to keep them at his side as he wades through what will likely be a difficult second half of 2024.
Anwar is probably signalling to the civil service that if they help him hold on to power until next year, they can expect a handsome reward for their service.
As to whether the civil service will actually get their reward if Anwar makes it through the year however, I think it is a question mark.
Let us not forget that Anwar is the same person who promised Sabah and Sarawak that the first thing that he will do after he takes office is see to it that all matters related to MA63 will be settled asap. One and half years since he took office, we can clearly see that other than conceding a few tokens, Anwar had no intention of settling the MA63 issue at all. He probably just said that he was intent on settling it, because at that time, the support of Sabah and Sarawak was necessary for him to stay in power.
Anwar also, let us not forget, is the sort of person who could shamelessly downplay the fact the he had repeatedly said that “kalau kita jadi kerajaan hari ini, harga minyak turun besok”, by claiming in 2023 that he only said that that he will reduce the price of oil if he became the Prime Minister 15 years ago. This despite the fact that he was caught on video saying it as late as 2022.
At the end of the day, whether the civil service will get their promised bonus in December depends on whether Anwar still needs the civil service to remain in power next year.
If he does, they will. If not, I will bet that Anwar will just throw them some token before breaking his word yet again. After he breaks his promise, I will even bet that he will still wear a smile from ear to ear, and go meet the civil servants, while pretending that nothing at all has happened, and expecting the civil service to also pretend with him that nothing has happened.
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