EDUCATION Minister Fadhlina Sidek has been urged to look into the loyalty of civil servants within the Education Ministry (MOE) and the teaching profession towards the unity government following revelation in a social media chat group that there exist those who mocked the government’s latest 13% pay hike exercise.

This comes about after a pro-Pakatan Harapan (PH) influencer exposed feedback in the Kami Guru Malaysia Facebook group whereby an assistant MOE director implied that there is no need to be overly excited over the salary increase announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as “anything could happen to the country between now and December”.

“This must be influenced by Papagomo (referring to political activist Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris who was recently detained for allegedly insulting His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim King of Malaysia) who has wanted to change the government since August 2023,” commented poster Najib Bakar (@najib_bakar_) on the X platform.

For context, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has been cited by the Community Communications Department (J-Kom) as saying that Anwar who is also the Finance Minister will announce details of the salary increases during the tabling of Budget 2025 this October.

Civil servants will take home a minimum overall monthly income of RM2,000 (from the current RM1,795) under the revamped Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA) effective December 2024 in the adjustment which will cost the government RM10 bil to implement.

However, Anwar did caveat that this is not “an across the board” exercise for civil servants who are found to be incompetent by showing unsatisfactory work/attendance record will not be rewarded.

The ungrateful sentiment within members of the said chat group who comprised mainly of MOE staff and those in the teaching profession sparked furore of netizens who claimed that “there is no denial that many educators in MOE are staunch PN (Perikatan Nasional) supporters”.

This has even prompted a netizen to file an official complaint to the MOE.

Others called on disgruntled civil servants to leave the civil service.

In fact, one netizen shared that the ‘ungrateful’ MOE assistant director “has changed her profile photo” while teasing that “she could be having a sleepless night”.

To sum up, one netizen hits the nail on the head by remarking that civil servants must be professional in undertaking their duty irrespective of the political party that they support.

Some even recalled the era of twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when civil servants encountered the dim prospect of being transferred to rural areas for opposing the government of the day. - May 2, 2024 

https://focusmalaysia.my/cold-shoulder-to-pmxs-13-civil-servant-pay-rise-exposes-disloyalty-of-moe-staff-school-teachers/