According to Cuepacs’ figures, 800,000 civil servants (or 70%) earn less than RM2,500 (US$720) a month and are forced to take on second jobs just to get by.
Some civil servants have their hearts set on leaving the public service despite the impending pay revision while others are saying, Cuepacs’ should not ask civil servants to stop moonlighting if they carried out their duties responsibly.
A total of 1,142,783 civil servants would get a pay increase, said The Public Service Department.
Cuba menabung bukan berhutang
Sejak kebelakangan ini perhatian kita sering tertumpu kepada isu kebolehpasaran graduan dan juga isu daya saing serta peluang pelajar Melayu ke insitusi pengajian tinggi. Rata-rata meletakkan tanggungjawab tersebut ke atas bahu dasar meritokrasi pendidikan tinggi dan juga keterbukaan peluang pinjaman pendidikan terhadap pelajar Melayu.
Dalam era globalisasi tidak dapat tidak masyarakat telah disogokkan dengan pelbagai barangan dan perkhidmatan yang diuar-uarkan sebagai berteraskan teknologi terkini dan menyebabkan ramai yang terpengaruh dan ada segelintir yang membeli produk atau perkhidmatan ini walaupun ia tidak memberi apa-apa kesan positif terhadap kehidupan individu terbabit.
Status, nama dan taraf kehidupan yang tinggi menjadi kayu pengukur masyarakat moden dan menyebabkan ramai yang terbeban dengan hutang yang tinggi.
Kebanyakan masyarakat memandang tabiat menabung adalah hanya untuk hari tua sedangkan tabungan pada teorinya bolehlah dikategorikan kepada tabungan jangka masa pendek dan panjang.
Cuma yang kurangnya adalah kesedaran daripada masyarakat dan fenomena ini mungkin disebabkan kurangnya kempen untuk membangkitkan kesedaran bahawa skim dan produk kewangan tersebut itu wujud, sebagai contoh Takaful Siswa dan Amanah Saham Didik.
Sebenarnya penyelesaian yang bijak adalah dengan menggalakkan masyarakat Melayu supaya menanamkan tabiat menyimpan untuk pendidikan diri sendiri dan anak-anak dan juga berbelanja dengan berhemat.
Jangan biarkan masyarakat menambahkan beban hutang yang semakin hari semakin bertambah.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, describing the unemployment among graduates as serious, called on all parties Monday to cooperate to arrest the problem before it deteriorates further.
The prime minister said the government was also working to overcome the problem, including looking at the possibility of reviving the retraining scheme for unemployed graduates to help them secure jobs.
"We must work very hard to overcome this unemployed graduates problem. Don't let this huge figure snowball because the problem that follows will balloon too.
"I regard it as serious enough. We have to tackle it when it is small, we cannot wait until it is big. By then it will be very, very difficult (to solve)," he told reporters after performing the ground-breaking ceremony for the Universiti Malaya Alumni Association Clubhouse, here.
The latest government statistics show that there were 80,000 unemployed graduates in the country last year.
Asked whether the problem was due to the fact that the courses taken by these graduates did not meet the market needs, he said this could be a reason but he believed that there were other causes.
"Maybe those who are looking for jobs and those who are looking for workers somehow, they don't meet," he said.
On reviving the retraining scheme for unemployed graduates, Abdullah said the scheme which was conducted last year had helped graduates find employment.
He said 80 per cent of the graduates who joined the scheme had benefited from it and found jobs after completing the training.
Abdullah said the unemployed graduates problem was a joint problem of the nation and the people that needed the attention of everyone because these graduates were the hopes of their parents.
"The hope of parents, especially the fishermen, labourers and smallholders, is that their children who gain entry into university will be able to give them a happy life," he said.
