SNAPSHOT | Raise minimum pay for all, urges ex-MP; group calls for better doctor incentives

KINI SNAPSHOT | What’s going on in the news today, with updates at 9am, 2pm, 6pm, and 9pm.

6pm

Minimum wage

• Former DAP lawmaker Charles Santiago said Budget 2027 should raise wages for all workers as the recently announced temporary exemption for MSMEs from the next minimum wage increase would create an unfair divide between workers.
  
  He pointed out in a statement today that this would allow workers doing the same job to receive different pay based on their employer’s size.
  
  He also suggested that Malaysia follow South Korea’s successful model, as the country’s government had introduced a sharp minimum wage hike in 2018 but reduced burdens on employers through a monthly subsidy for each low-paid worker.
  

  

  “The excuse is that MSMEs cannot afford higher wages. But MSME GDP grew 5.7 percent in 2025, faster than the overall economy’s 5.2 percent.
  
  “Labour productivity also rose 4.1 percent, reaching RM85,299 per worker a year or about RM7,100 a month per worker,” the former Klang MP added.

READ MORE: Cabinet exempts MSMEs from new minimum wage hike, for now

Healthcare

• The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has urged the government to “urgently” restore the previous percentage-based regional incentive payment along with stronger incentives to attract and retain doctors in East Malaysia.
  
  In a statement today, MMA said reported refusals of doctors to report for permanent postings in Sabah and Sarawak point to deeper systemic issues, such as relocation costs, separation from families, heavy workloads, inadequate accommodation, and limited support in understaffed facilities, among others.
  
  MMA called on Putrajaya to address the issue in Budget 2027, due to be tabled next Friday, by increasing public healthcare spending to five percent of the country’s GDP.

  

  Yesterday, CodeBlue reported that “scores” of medical officers failed to report to their permanent positions at government hospitals and clinics in East Malaysia.
  
  According to the health news portal, government doctors said on social media that some facilities received no new MOs, while others received fewer than the assigned number.

Sarawak redelineation

• Two NGOs have urged the Election Commission (EC) to add one state seat to the Miri-Sibuti area, increasing the total from seven to eight.
  
  The Rise of Social Efforts (Rose) and Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek Sama) also called for more equitable distribution of seats between the two parliamentary constituencies, so Miri will receive five seats while Sibuti gets three.
  
  In a statement today, they argued that Miri needs another seat as it already has the largest parliamentary electorate in Sarawak, which would only get bigger from 150,924 to 158,411 under the EC’s redelineation proposal.
  
  They proposed that Miri’s electorate be reduced to 132,844 through the creation of an additional state seat that would be placed under Sibuti.
  
  If this is done, it would reduce the state’s maximum-to-minimum ratio from 5.57:1 to 4.67:1, the groups noted.

READ MORE: KINIGUIDE | Why some Sarawak votes count more, and what's changing

Myanmar refugee repatriation

• The United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, Kelley E Currie, has urged Malaysia to halt its ongoing repatriation of Myanmar refugees.
  
  She said returning them amid the ongoing conflict could violate the principle of non-refoulement under international law as they face a “real risk” of serious human rights violations.

  

  “In my assessment, the risk of refoulement in the present circumstances is substantial,” she said in a statement today.
  
  According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, non-refoulement prevents refugees from being returned to countries where they face persecution or other serious harm.
  
  However, Malaysia is not a party to the convention or its 1967 Protocol.

READ MORE: Malaysia repatriates 1,476 Myanmar refugees amid safety concerns

Court

• The Court of Appeal upheld activist Wong Yan Ke’s conviction and RM10,000 fine for insulting then Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Abdul Rahim Hashim and convocation attendees during a 2019 protest.
  
  Free Malaysia Today reported judge Noorin Badaruddin led a three-member bench that unanimously dismissed Wong’s appeal against a conviction and sentence under Section 504 of the Penal Code for intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.
  
  “We are unanimously satisfied that the appellant’s appeal against conviction and sentence is without merit. The appeal is dismissed,” she reportedly said.
  

  

  Addressing Wong (above), the judge said the court was not punishing him for holding a different view, but it punishes conduct found to have exceeded the limits prescribed by law.
  
  Wong was convicted in October 2023 over his placard protest demanding Rahim’s resignation at UM’s 2019 convocation and fined RM5,000, which the High Court doubled to RM10,000 on appeal last year. He has paid the fine.

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