SERDANG, Selangor: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government is looking at all options to help ease the people's burden of rising living expenses.
High income, as lobbied by the previous government, means nothing if prices of goods and service escalate faster than salary increment because the public would eventually face lower purchasing power, he added.
Dr Mahathir stressed that the current government was working towards strengthening the people's purchasing power.
"We need to raise productivity via the usage of technology to replace repetitive manual tasks. We have to upgrade skills of government servants so that everyone can contribute positively towards our economy,” he said.
The prime minister was addressing a dialogue session with a hallful of audience at the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) gathering here today.
Also present were chief secretary to the government Datuk Seri Dr. Ismail Bakar and Cuepacs president Datuk Azih Muda.
Earlier, Dr Mahathir witnessed the signing of a strategic partnership agreement between Medicare Assistance Sdn Bhd and Pos Malaysia Bhd to promote the CuepacsCare and CuepacsPA Takaful programmes for civil servants.
Under the cooperation, MyCuepacsCare, which operates the CuepacsCare and CuepacsPA takaful programmes, appointed Pos Malaysia as its distributor of applications forms throughout its network of 681 post offices.
The agreement was signed by MyCuepacsCare managing director K. Palanisamy and Pos ArRahnu chief operating officer Abdul Razak Mohd A. Kadir.
Dr Mahathir appealed to all civil servants to be patient and remain calm in challenging times.
A portion of the country’s income in the 2019 Budget had to be used to pay the country’s debt, causing the government to have less money for infrastructural development.
“We were forced to cancel mega programmes that the previous government has initiated. We have had to reduce the expenditure on these huge projects. If we were to outright terminate the old contracts, we will have to pay big amounts of compensation.
"I appeal to civil servants to be patient," Dr Mahathir said, adding the government has no choice but to tighten belts to work towards restoring Malaysia's finances.
As the government income rises in the months ahead, the prime minister explained some of the money can be used to help ease the people's cost of living, especially those working with the government.
Dr Mahathir put things into perpective when he highlighted that in some countries, their people have had to face political unrests and violence while Malaysia remains peaceful and does not suffer from famine.
"If we continue to live in peace and work in productive ways, within three years we can recover. We are a safe country, we can recover faster," he said.