Not Fair, Not Sustainable: The Silent Struggles of Opposition Reps

Sinar Daily

Muda Acting President and Puteri Wangsa Assemblywoman Amira Aisya Abd Aziz said many opposition politicians are struggling to serve their constituencies with limited resources.  She revealed that her RM200,000 annual allocation is the same as an an assemblyman serving 18,000 voters - yet her constituency has over 120,000.  Watch the full conversation on Sinar Daily’s social media platforms.  #AmiraAisya #PuteriWangsa #TopNewsPodcast #SinarDaily #MudaMalaysia #HakRakyat #PoliticalTransparency

Transcript

00:00I have to use my own gaji to buy some of my staff and figure out other ways to fund my office.

00:06And this is not just me, this is many other politicians out there.

00:10Cuma, not all of us have the talent or the looks to be in France.

00:17Some politicians, actually many politicians who have been in opposition parties have to juggle multiple work.

00:25For myself, I myself have to figure out how to pay my staff beyond the funding that I get.

00:31Contohnya, dalam kawasan I, Sadiq in Mua, he has 80,000 voters.

00:36My constituency, I have 120,000 voters.

00:40Oh my god, you have more than?

00:41Definitely. My state's seat is bigger than a lot of parliamentary seats.

00:46Oh my god.

00:47So that's why we also called for, you know, re-look at this constituency, re-delination.

00:52The amount that I receive is only 200,000 ringgit per year, which is the same as an adun that has 18,000 voters, for example.

01:01So that's not fair, right?

01:03And 200,000, orang tak tahu you dapat berapa.

01:07So they come and request a lot of things.

01:09By the same time, you need to pay your staff.

01:11You want a functioning office.

01:12And you want to be able to pay them a dignified amount of money to compensate the work that they have done.

01:20Because definitely, kerja tu tak mudah.

01:22You get calls at 2 or 3 a.m.

01:24And we do this willingly because this is what we want to do.

01:27But at the same time, they have to be properly compensated.

01:30So I have to use my own gaji to bayar some of my staff and figure out other ways to fund my office.

01:37And this is not just me.

01:39This is many other politicians out there.

01:42Sadiq has always been very creative in the way that he fundraised.

01:46And definitely, I think a lot of us look at that, at least for me.

01:51And I know that the younger ones, the younger politicians look at that as something that is very inspiring.

01:57And we do wish that we have the capacity to do that.

02:00But again, as I mentioned, not all of us have talents to be influencers.

02:04But if there are people who want to serve me, please please call me.

02:08Available.

02:10I rely for the constituency.

02:12But yeah, benda ni memang sangat tak adil.

02:16And I think what we are very angry about with Sadiq's situation is that the allocation has been used as a...

02:27Saya selalu sebut benda ni lah.

02:29The allocation has been used as tebusan politik.

02:31If you want your allocation, you support us.

02:33And that is not fair.

02:35Not to us.

02:36For us, for the politicians, we still get our gaji.

02:40Jadi apa pun gaji kita, kita dapat.

02:42But this allocation is to the people.

02:44It's not to us.

Category

Transcript

Recommended