When the band-aid comes off
When the band-aid comes off
PM Anwar seems like a man with a half-baked plan as fuel subsidy cuts loom.
You’re reading a subscriber-only post of The Malaysianist, the newsletter at the intersection of money and power by journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa.
Powering the newsletter are annual and monthly subscriptions. There’s also an atas tier called Founding Member where you get all the perks of an annual plan but with extra stuff such as annual report and insights on how this little corner of the internet fared throughout the year.
I also run group or corporate subscriptions if you’re thinking of bulk purchasing for your organisation or company.
Today’s brief covers:
⛽ PM Anwar’s plan or lack thereof as fuel subsidy cuts loom
🍗 QSR’s suspension of more than 100 KFC outlets
🏗 Mirzan Mahathir’s forays into South Sudan
🤖 Microsoft’s Malaysian rollercoaster
And in case you missed last week’s post 👇🏽
On Labour Day, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a salary hike for civil servants of more than 13%
That was his May Day surprise for a group of people that make up the important cogs in the big bureaucratic machine that is Putrajaya and who also form an important voter base.
While details will be released when Budget 2025 is tabled, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil – who’s also the de facto government spokesperson – said the raise would be effective December and will cost RM10 billion.
The hike is expected to be tiered with a higher percentage going to the bottom ranks of the service.
National newswire Bernama is selling this as “the highest increase in the nation’s history”.
Propaganda aside, there were two occasions in the past where salaries were raised.