WILL PENSIONERS IN MALAYSIA GO ON STRIKE?

Protesting against pension reforms in the UK. Source: The Telegraph

It happened in France, it's happening now in the UK, and it will happen here in Malaysia sooner or later. Or maybe not. Since 30 November tens of thousands of people in Britain have gone on strike to protest the government's unpopular proposals for public sector workers to contribute more towards their pension funds and also to work longer. In addition, their pension would be based on a "career average" salary, rather than the final salary as is the practice now.

Protesting against raising the retirement age in France from 60 to 62. Despite nationwide
protests, French PM Sarkozy succeeded in pushing through his retirement reforms last year.

Rallying to protect their retirement funds in the US.

With people living longer, the British government says the cost of funding public sector pensions is unsustainable, hence the need for reforms in the pension scheme. In the US, the government is caught in the same dilemma - how to support the millions of workers who retire each year? Already the first wave of baby boomers have reached the retirement age of 65 in January this year.

Rising healthcare costs and longer life span are forcing governments to seek reforms in retirement and pension schemes. Workers, of course, are not happy that they have to work longer and receive less in retirement benefits.

In Malaysia, the pension crisis is waiting to happen. With a bloated civil service of 1.3 million, and with no signs of a reduction in the numbers, the government will soon face the same predicament. Where will it find the funds to make good the pension benefits? Already the government is incurring deficits in the budget every year, despite massive loans from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) - RM79.4 billion up to June this year. That's tax-payers money we are talking about. Borrowing money from the workers to pay the workers. That's classic! According to the Auditor-General's Report 2010, for the period 2007 to September 2010, the government spent RM31.48 billion on pension payments.

Source: The Star 30 November 2011

While governments elsewhere are frantically trying to deal with the massive shortfall in pension payouts, our government is doing just the opposite. It's handing out windfall after windfall in terms of extra bonus payments, and other perks. It would be biting the hand that feeds them for pensioners here to take to the streets.

Excerpt from the PM's recent Budget Speech.

Even in the unlikely scenario that the government is forced to introduce drastic pension reforms, how will pensioners here react? Will they protest? Will the sky fall down? When the retirement age for civil servants was raised to 60 recently, it was accepted with hardly a murmur from public sector employees. Now with street protests soon to be banned under the Peaceful Assembly Bill, the government need not fear strikes or rallies by retirees and pensioners anytime soon. A smart pre-emptive move to silence voices of dissent. (See previous post.)


Related post:
It pays to be a civil servant in Malaysia.

ARE OUR VOICES NOT LOUD ENOUGH? OR IS THE PM HARD OF HEARING?

Does walking peacefully to support a cause we believe in constitute an illegal street protest?
'Yes!' according to the Peaceful Assembly Bill that was passed by Parliament yesterday.

It's so very disheartening to know that despite all the protests from a good cross-section of the people, Parliament has decided to pass the Peaceful Assembly Bill yesterday. This bill was introduced and bulldozed through with such lightning speed that one can't help but suspect the government wants all restrictive laws to be in place before the 13th General Elections in order to silence any voices of dissent. A preventive measure just in case?

The people haven't occupied Parliament - yet. But we can do it through our vote. Vote in the right people to speak out for us, people who will have OUR interests at heart.

There were no consultative meetings whatsoever with the people to get their feedback. And when the people offered their views regardless, the government chose to ignore them. Instead it sent out armed police forces to stop the people, and called the walk 'illegal' because the organisers did not apply for a police permit.

Above: (left) Spotted this grandma and her daughter in the crowd,

(right) a small group of orang asal also turned up to show thier support.

Last night I attended a forum at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and came away with renewed faith in people power. Everyone of us citizens has the right to vote. Please exercise this right to choose our next government.

Hishamuddin Rais (far left) spoke about the 'procedural democracy' that the government practises. I hope somebody taped his speech and uploaded it on YouTube. The ex-ISA detainee certainly has the guts to tell it as it is. "You will never win over the kampung folks unless you speak their language which is NOT English!" he tells the mainly English-speaking audience.

Many of us don't take our voting rights seriously. Either we are indifferent or feel that our votes don't make a difference anyway, so why bother? The truth is, every vote counts in the final tally. It's like one mark in an exam paper can decide a pass or a fail grade. The same with our vote. It may decide if a candidate wins or loses, and ultimately, who forms the next government.

The crowd dispersing peacefully after the walk. Unfortunately when the Opposition MPs staged a walkout in protest during the Parliament session to debate the Bill later that evening, they were in fact giving the BN MPs the go-ahead to pass it.

The PM and the VPM at the 2011 UMNO
Assembly. Source: Bernama

The PM has already sounded the first battle call for preparedness at the UMNO assembly yesterday, and the VPM has called the coming 13th general election "the mother of all elections", a make-or-break, do-or-die for the Malays. Stirring up racial sentiments again? Using the fear tactic again?

If you feel the current government has done much for the people, and you have faith it will continue to do even more good for the rakyat in the next five years, by all means vote the same people into power again.

But if you feel the government has consistently shown a poor track record especially in spending our money, and cannot be trusted to keep their promises, then it is time to boot them out. This is your prerogative as a citizen. You have the power of your vote. Exercise it.

Click here to check your voter information.

Register as a voter, if you haven't yet. If you have, check that you are registered in the right constituency.

For more photos of Walk4Freedom, please check out my FB page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/fu.lily