Salary comes in the morning, disappears in the evening?
Sad but true for 14% of civil servants who were declared bankrupt last year, according to a report by the Malaysian Insolvency Department.
Buying a car that costs 20 times their salary, upgrading their iPhone every year, and some even changing laptops more often than changing their sheets even though this is not a “need,” but a lifestyle “to cover the government’s salary budget.”
And now, their debt is soaring like the price of goods in the market.
The Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar, warned that many civil servants are drowning in credit card and personal loan debt, with some of them owing up to RM1 million!
The Angkasa automatic salary deduction system, which supposedly helps control debt, is now said to be giving false confidence.
The government is currently actively discussing reducing the loan limit from 60% to 45% of net salary.
But could this possibly lead to more serious cases such as pushing them straight into the arms of ah long or, more tragically, making them more 'creative' in finding extra money in desperate ways?
What is certain is that if left unchecked, civil servant debt is not just an individual problem—it could become a time bomb that explodes the national economy.
