Pay cuts for all GLCs too, not only Petronas

Malaysiakini

09-06-2025

YOURSAY | 'Have you talked to PMX about the bloated civil service?'
Harapan Youth demands pay slash for Petronas top brass
Anonymous_3f4b: Pakatan Harapan Youth should direct their calls to the politicians in power first to reduce their obscene perks, allowances, and gratuities, besides eliminating pensions, which cause a dent in the national coffers.
After all, these politicians say their duty is to serve the public, not serve themselves.
Next, Harapan Youth must target all GLCs (government-linked companies) and state subsidiaries and demand that highly inflated salaries, allowances, and perks be reviewed, not only Petronas.
Petronas knows that the oil and gas industry is going south and they are overstaffed.
The same goes for the GLCs and state subsidiaries, which treat public taxpayers' money as their piggy bank without accountability and with no positive tangible results shown other than losing money and then getting bailed out again with public money.
BlueCougar1744: Has Harapan Youth conducted the analysis on Petronas to retrench 10 percent of its workforce? It is a business decision.
Our challenge to Harapan Youth is for you to tell Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that we indeed have a bloated civil service. Have you done that?
Being affiliated with any political party, it is your duty and role to ensure checks and balances. Have you demanded that all MPs and assemblypersons be allowed only EPF (Employees Provident Fund) schemes and not pensions?
With the bloated civil service and the never-ending pension saga, what are your resolutions to move forward? The top brass in Petronas and all GLCs require a haircut. Do not just target Petronas because the company decided to remove 10 percent of its workforce.
Harapan Youth is just trying to shift the blame. It does not work this way, and do not think the rakyat are equally complacent like you.
Meerkat: Good points have been raised in this article. Why does Petronas need sponsorship anyway? It has no competition. It's just another way of giving perks to the top brass, who benefit from the reflected effects.
A real pity was that Petronas was used as a piggy bank to bail out underperforming assets at the height of its prosperity. If the funds were used judiciously, the country would be basking in prosperity now.
Instead, it's lagging way behind the little red dot, which has barely any natural resources.
Steven Ong: GLCs are a good example that CEO pay should be according to the company's performance. A good PM would demand that the salaries of CEOs of GLCs losing money be cut in half and further reduced if there is no improvement, and replaced after the third year.
The curse on Malaysia is that the government and PM are unethical and unwise to allow the CEOs of GLCs, which incur losses, to be bailed out year after year, to continue receiving unacceptable salaries.
If immorality and unethical acts continue to go on, more curses and unfortunate disasters may happen in Malaysia.
Chiaberliao88: This should be the humane approach when times are bad. The top executives who have been enjoying high pay, perks, and allowances should volunteer for pay cuts.
Retrenchment of full-time, contract, or other workers should be the last resort.
The government should go for this approach instead of laying off or retrenching contract workers. Contract workers have families to support, too.
Falcon: In Malaysia, GLCs are companies where the government has a direct controlling stake.
These companies play a significant role in the Malaysian economy, often operating in key sectors like banking, telecommunications, as well as oil and gas.
If there are administrative or financial issues, the call to slash the perks and wages of the top management team is both right and justified before addressing layoffs or retrenchments!
Undecided: Following Petronas' announcement of a 10 percent workforce reduction, Harapan Youth has called for the national oil company's leadership to share the burden.
This is a good call by Harapan Youth. If the CEO of Petronas had good leadership qualities, this call would not have been necessary.
A Better Msia: Harapan is out of touch. This should be asked of all GLICs and GLCs too, as their performance is weak with a lack of dividend growth for shareholders of Perbadanan Nasional Berhad - established on March 17, 1978, as part of Malaysia's New Economic Policy - and EPF.
In addition, why not ask for a pension review of politicians, who drain the country's coffers merely for filling up a seat in Parliament and being in 'cari makan' mode? What a cost all these are to the rakyat?
FairMinded: This should absolutely be carried out, and every employee from the top to bottom should have the word 'frugal' imprinted on their forehead.
Their posh offices with lavish decorations, imported flowers, and fruits, among others, should be minimised.
All perks should be downsized, and no overexpenditure on the budget. The good days of mimicking the oil-rich Arabs are over.
Electric vehicles powered by green energy generated from solar and hydro, wind and hydrogen, are displacing oil and gas. Wake up, guys, and turun padang.
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