ALOR STAR: The federal government should explore the possibility of maintaining the civil service pension scheme for key sectors to uphold their appeal to the public.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor emphasised the importance of the government preserving the pension scheme for specific sectors like education, health, and security.
"Perhaps the government may proceed with the plan (to introduce a new remuneration system) but there are critical sectors that should be retained (the pension scheme).
"However, pension schemes for teachers, soldiers, police, firefighters and nurses should be retained as it attracts people to join these sectors," he said.
Sanusi cited that under-rank soldiers should continue enjoying pensions because they are doing high-risk jobs, and having to deal with weapons in their training.
"For under-rank soldiers, if they retire at the age of 40 (or) 42, they will have difficulty to secure a new job or to compete in the job market at that age.
"Unlike officers in the army, they are entitled to serve up to the age of 60, but the under-rank soldiers retire at the age of early 40s since they enter the service at a young age," Sanusi told reporters after presenting RM60,000 cash rewards to 24 national athletes from Kedah who won medals in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and 2023 Cambodia Sea Games at Wisma Darul Aman here today.
Present was state Youth and Sports Committee chairman Muhammad Radhi Mat Din.
Sanusi also stressed that the onus would be on the federal leaders to manage the pension scheme since civil services are critical to the government.
"Thus, leaders must consider how to preserve the pension scheme. If they encounter difficulties and simply pass the burden back to the people, perhaps they should reconsider their roles as government leaders," he said.
Earlier today, the Public Service Department (PSD) in a statement said, the proposed improvements on the public service remuneration system are expected to be finalised and presented to the cabinet in the second quarter of this year.
PSD said a decision on the matter is expected to be announced during the tabling of the 2025 Budget, taking place at the Dewan Rakyat in October.
Last month Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that the government planned to introduce a new civil service hiring policy including a "no-pension" scheme for new hires - to tackle the ballooning allocation for its remuneration system.
The announcement has drawn pushback from the public, with some quarters calling for the government to revoke pensions for politicians and political appointees first.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his response said the review on pension schemes also applies to politicians, adding that that the matter was being further studied before any decision could be made.
It was reported that several politicians had since volunteered to give up their pensions in a move to support the proposed reform.