How Much Do Top Politicians In Malaysia Earn?

Written by Iris Lee Illustration by Achmad Baraja

“I am one of the best paid and probably one of the poorest of the Third World prime ministers,” Lee Kuan Yew, the late minister mentor of Singapore was once quoted.

The saying of “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys,” is also undeniable. To get good quality people, you need to pay for it. However, paying high does not always guarantee good quality people.

Prior to the amendments to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) (Amendment) Act on April 10, 2015, members of the parliament (MPs) in Malaysia were paid RM4,112 a month, excluding allowances.

Some of the allowances claimable by MPs are:

• Entertainment allowance – up to RM2,500
• Fuel allowance – up to RM1,500
• Toll allowance – up to RM300

These do not go into their pockets as income earned.

Whether you think they deserve it or not, a pay raise for members of Parliament and senators was approved in May 2015.

The new pay for MP’s salary was revised from RM6,508.59 to RM16,000, which was higher than the initial proposal of RM11,000 when the Bill was tabled in November 2014.

On the other hand, senators also had their salary adjusted from RM4,112.79 to RM11,000. That’s a whopping 167.45% hike!

The last amendment to federal lawmakers’ salary and allowances was a mere increase of RM700 more than a decade ago in 2002.

Other than the additional claimable allowances for entertainment, fuel, travel and others, the parliamentarians also receive an allowance of RM200 a day when attending Parliamentary sittings and a daily allowance of RM150 to attend meetings with government agencies.

Nevertheless, Cabinet Ministers took a pay cut following the birth of the new Pakatan Harapan-led government, where Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that all the ministers will have their salary cut by 10% in a bid to reduce government expenditure.

Here are the revised figures.

This article was first published on  June 1, 2015. The infographic has been updated to reflect the Cabinet ministers in the new government.