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Cabinet ministers agree to 20 per cent pay cut until economic recovery. The cabinet members of the newly formed unity government agree to take a 20 per cent pay cut from their monthly salary.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the matter was agreed upon during a cabinet meeting held this morning 5 Dec. "The cabinet ministers agreed on a monthly pay cut until the economy recovers. Cutting the minister's salary is not necessary but I appreciate their sacrifices," he said in a press conference today.

When he was appointed as Prime Minister, Anwar remained firm that he would not take his salary as the country's 10th premier, as a sign of solidarity with the people who are struggling with the rising cost of living. It was the first thing he did to restore confidence in the people.

About 3 years ago, when I posted my article about our bloated civil service, Muhyiddin Yassin who was Home Minister then ordered my arrest. I was grilled for 2.5 hours in the Jalapang police station. I told the police officer that if he charged me in court, I would explain my sole intention for writing the article which is for the benefit of our country. The court proceeding would create more bad publicity for Malaysia.

I just Googled and I saw the following report:

Malaysia’s bureaucracy is one of the biggest in the world, with 1.7 million civil servants to a population of 32 million, a ratio of 5.3 percent, compared with Singapore’s ratio of 1.5 percent, and Hong Kong's and Taiwan's 2.3 percent.

We have 1 civil servant for every 18 citizens. We have the biggest number of civil servant per capita in the world.

A REPORT by United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) revealed that between 1970 to 1980, Malaysia’s population grew by 30% but the number of civil servants grew by nearly 400%.

Why Malaysia must reduce management cost?

Managing a country is similar to managing hundreds of companies or conglomerates where overhead expenditure is most critical. Reduced overhead expenditure will increase profit.

Biggest expenditure in Malaysian history

Of the RM322.5bil total expenditure in Budget 2021, RM236.5bil will be for operating expenses, RM69bil for development expenditure and RM17bil under the Covid-19 Fund.

I hope our new PM Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim will reduce the number of Ministries and civil servants to produce more benefit for our country.