I read your last piece. It was good, but I didn't agree with your criticism of the bloated civil service. As you know, it takes 25-30 years to earn a pension in the civil service, unlike a one-termed politician. Pensions are given to prevent old age poverty, as the average civil servant's salaries are too low to save for retirement.
As a recipient of an old-age pension (and perhaps a state pension too), you must understand how important a pension is for sustaining life and living with dignity in old age. Surely you know that the age pension is one of the Australian federal government's largest spending programs, and it is often considered a "burden." However, the government also recognizes that the benefits of providing an age pension outweigh the costs.
Malaysians should not be fighting against government pensions (except for politicians with bloated salaries and allowances, which we should definitely fight against. And no, I'm not a Saddiq or MUDA fan).
Instead, we should fight for universal pensions, not just for government servants. The idea of a universal pension is not radical, as it has been proposed by prominent think tanks like Khazanah. It has also been proven in many countries to be cheaper and better for the country.
Currently, most Malaysians earn very little, too little to save for retirement. This is evident in data from the DOSM and EPF. If we do not prepare ourselves with a universal pension and other social safety nets, we will face a crisis in 15-20 years, when the country becomes an aging society.
If we start a universal pension today, we cannot start paying out benefits tomorrow. We need to save money and let it grow for at least for 20 years before we can start paying out pensions. The savings need to mature first. But we need to start now. Time is not on our side.
SZ
Not productive and yet continue to receive a salary. This is another one of the burdens facing the country's economy, and no leaders have the balls to correct them while, Singapore, in the 60s, like Malaya, adopted the British retirement system. But Singapore knew it would bankrupt the country if nothing was done. So, they replaced the retirement system with the CPF, You save during your productive years, and the CPF is to fund your retirement years. Then out of nowhere Malaya implemented the EPF, a similar concept to the Singapore CPF and kept the retirement system burdening the country's economy even further. Lately, the government has allowed the contributors of EPF to withdraw prematurely...it's amazing how boleh is Malaya.
The pension scheme is not in question. The issue is the bloated service that is not sustainable. The issue is the inefficiency and tidak apa attitude of the civil servants. The issue is " saya tak kisah; saya makan gaji". The issue is what the politicians did to secure a Bumi vote bank that has now backfired. The issue is that Malaysia can no longer bank roll the civil service. It's not about the pension.
I disagree with your disagreement 😬 of the bloated civil service; it’s plain for all to see how bloated and inefficient it has become with people who would not survive anywhere else have been taken in by the JPA and now a useless percentage of them feel that we owe them a living and the hardworking, efficient ones in the civil service get tarred with the same brush.
However, I do agree with your sentiments on the safety net after retirement but then the EPF was established in 1951 so that even those outside of the civil service could save. And, unfortunately - I agree with you on this too, the take-home pay of these days have just risen minusculely…