By NNN-Bernama
Butterworth : Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Thursday military personnel have more chances of promotion now with the creation of new posts in the armed forces.
Besides the opening of new military headquarters nationwide which would create new posts, the government had also agreed to create 645 more posts of lieutenant-colonel in the Malaysian Armed Forces, he said after meeting staff of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Telok Air Tawar here.
Najib, who is also defence minister, said this was part of the government’s efforts in developing the Malaysian Armed Forces not only in terms of strengthening and upgrading the combativeness of the country’s military forces, including providing sophisticated equipment but in looking after the welfare of its personnel.
He said that military and police personnel now enjoyed better pay than other civil servants following the pay hike for the service service last year. They received increases ranging from nine to 42 per cent while the civil servants received only 7.5 per cent to 35 per cent increase.
Now a private could earn between RM1,400 and RM1,500 a month, he said, adding that his driver, a sergeant, received RM2,828, way above his previous salary. (rm 1=0.3119 usd)
He said the government would continue to improve the welfare of military staff and was currently building more quarters for them.
At the Butterworth RMAF base, efforts were underway to build quarters for female personnel and the Penang Rapid bus service had agreed to operate a route to the RMAF quarters here to overcome the transportation problem, he said.