Datuk Idris Buang
KUCHING: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Information Chief Datuk Idris Buang has urged the federal government not to rush headlong into its plan to end the pension scheme for new civil servants next year.
The Muara Tuang assemblyman said today that the government should first carry out an in-depth study with input from all stakeholders, including experts in superannuation, actuary and the related fields.
He also said that the government should consider pension scheme models from around the world to ensure that a fair, reasonable and workable solution could be found.
Idris believed the best scheme should assure workers of a steady post-retirement subsistence allowance, good healthcare for them and their spouse and in protecting them from poverty in their old age.
“We surely do not want our grandpas and grandmas who had put most of their lives to serve the nation be seen crawling the alleys of our ‘pasar malam’ for left-over food in order to survive ? We also do not wish any of them rejected by the hospitals he used to get his medication from?,” he said.
“What happen to them (retirees) will definitely shape the kind of younger workers that we need to propel the nation into the future as they too will be ‘old and aged’ eventually. The cycle goes on,” he added.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan ismail said the government is studying the proposal to terminate the Public Service Pension Scheme for new appointments from next year.
She said this after Public Service Director-general Datuk Seri Borhan Dolah revealed that from next year new appointments in the public service may no longer be made under permanent and pensions schemes but, under the improved contractual scheme.
The move was decided at a special Public Service Reform Committee meeting in October 2018 which wanted the civil service to be reduced in size in phases based on needs as well as to reduce the burden of pension which is now reaching RM28 billion, he added.