IPOH: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today reiterated his calls for elected representatives at the state and federal level, who are entitled to more than one pension scheme, to only choose one.
The Prime Minister, who is also the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, repeated such a call and asked politicians to emulate his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
"Some said former ministers or prime ministers who have three or four pensions from the government as assemblymen, MPs and ministers.
"From a moral point of view, choose only one and such a call (to only choose one pension) also applies to Azizah.
"Azizah did not only served as a government doctor but also as a Selangor assemblyman, a member of parliament. However, this morning, she informed me that she will choose only one pension," the Tambun member of parliament said this in his closing speech at the Perak Unity Government Convention at the Hotel Casuarina in Meru here today.
Present were Deputy Prime Minister who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad and Perak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa.
Meanwhile, Anwar also hinted that potential candidates in the next general election (GE) would have to accept a pension-free scheme for elected representatives.
Anwar said that the proposed abolition of the pension scheme should apply to politicians and not only civil servants.
"I do not agree with the view that politicians should be excluded but as usual I will present this view when we study the abolition of the retirement scheme.
"I will also state that it should also apply to politicians, meaning that those who will be candidates in the next election should accept the fact that their scheme does not include pensions," he said.
Zahid had on Wednesday announced the proposed new pension scheme for the civil service.
Under this method, new hires in the civil service will contribute to retirement schemes like the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Perkeso).