YOURSAY ‘In addition to the bloated cabinet, we also have 1.3mil civil servants.’

How expensive is Najib's team? RM10mil a year

Shanandoah: The cabinet has become meaningless. It has expanded to 62 members without any reason for it.

Umno Baru members hold all the key positions. Finance, education, defence, home affairs and the PM are all Malays.

The rest are there to pretend we are multi-racial and to keep their communities happy. They have no power and no voice to make a difference in the lives of the non-Malays.

What exactly do they do for the high salaries they draw? Even the civil servants don't obey them.

Hank Marvin: In addition to the bloated cabinet, we also have about 1.3 million civil servants that include the armed forces and the police.

This cannot be reduced because they are protected by the constitution. So the axe has to fall on the cabinet members. We ought to have only between 15-20 ministers to look after a population of 30 million.

Most of the jobs done by the ministers and their deputies could be assigned to the civil servants.

Anonymous #70881335: In Malaysia, cabinet positions are given as 'rewards' to heads of political parties and the warlords in Umno.

Performance in their jobs as ministers are the last thing on their mind. They strut around dishing out favours and act like peacocks.

So, do not ask PM Najib Razak for a smaller cabinet. If anything it will grow even bigger.

Abasir: The size of this 'kabinet' merely underscores the incompetence of the lot.

In fact it is symptomatic of what ails the bloated civil service and the GLCs (government-linked companies) like MAS which, on the average, need around 4.5 persons to do the job of one.

And that does not include the army of very expensive consultants which Najib has on call. But I guess this is all part of Pemandu's master plan for national productivity.

Ericlcc: The salary that these cabinet ministers take home every month is just a fraction of the income they can earn.

If you add "invisible" perks like the power to award contracts, then their perks may go to seven or eight digits annually.

How that income multiplies in such a short time even mathematicians have a problem figuring out. Therein lies the root of our present financial mess and the nation’s debt.

Kangkung: I don't mind that the Umno government annually wastes RM6.3 million but the problem is that once they are ministers, they get extremely powerful and immune from prosecution so they start 'rearing cows in their condos'.

Hearty Malaysian: Indeed, the RM10 million a year (including deputy ministers) is small change if the ministers are performing and are free of corruption.

We see the nation’s wealth being sucked dry by powerful cronies and the powers-that-be while the people have to endure low wages and high living costs.

Ranjit Singh: Pakatan Rakyat cannot even form a ‘shadow cabinet’ since 2008 due to disunity.

Anonymous5: Ranjit Singh, so Pakatan screwed up. And they still do. But does that justify whatever wrong the government is doing, like wasting our money on this bloated cabinet?

So BN has a free pass to do whatever they want because Pakatan is not perfect, is it?

88888: Why no comparison with Singapore? Their PM draws more than US President Barack Obama, but he delivers the goods. So do the ministers there, all first-class stuff, not like our type, all self-interest seekers.

Fernz: The federal cabinet, being based on parties that cater to race, has to include every sector of the population by race and religion. Besides that, it has to cater for Sabah and Sarawak.

The people and the economy are also more dependent on government unlike in other countries, especially in the west, where the private sector and tax-free foundations take the lead. That's why our cabinet is bloated.

The Singapore economy is almost as large as that of Malaysia although the population at 5.4 million, including 40 percent foreigners, is only a sixth of our 30 million. There's a case for paying the cabinet members better to discourage them from resorting to side incomes.

Let's focus on the present lifestyles of cabinet members rather than look at what they are getting in salaries and allowances. That's peanuts.

Sirach: A grossly overstaffed civil service and a bloated cabinet. The first, to keep unemployed (unemployable?) graduates from our stellar universities off the streets, and the second, to keep the sycophants in place.

This gives a new twist to the rallying cry ‘Malaysia Boleh’.

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