One of the first things that Anwar Ibrahim announced after taking office last November was that he would serve as our prime minister without drawing a salary.

When Anwar’s appointment of his daughter Nurul Izzah as his economics and finance adviser was roundly criticised, one of his main defences was that she would serve his government without drawing a salary.

Recently, when Nazri Aziz’s appointment as ambassador to the US was criticised, Nazri also defended his appointment by saying he was willing to serve without drawing a salary.

This raises the question whether Malaysians really want our politicians to serve us without a salary. These politicians seem to think so, but if you were to ask a Malaysian, I feel almost all of us would prefer our politicians to just take their salaries.

People, as a rule, always want to be paid for the services they render. If this is so, then there is no reason for Anwar not to accept payment for the services that he is rendering.

Anwar not accepting a salary makes us feel that we are in a very helpless and desperate situation, and thus require the charity and selflessness of others – like him – to get by. Malaysians by and large don’t want to feel like this.

If someday we come to the state that Sri Lanka is in, where even national exams are cancelled because the country can’t afford to print exam papers, then maybe we will appreciate such a gesture from not only our politicians, but anyone who is willing to help out. Today, however, we will be much happier to pay those who render us service.

Also, Anwar not drawing any salary will make us uncomfortable about judging his performance. You can’t judge the performance of someone who is serving you for free.

When we accept the service of someone for free, we feel forced to take whatever they offer without complaint. Given a choice, I am sure Malaysians would prefer paying leaders so that we can judge them.

Not only that, Anwar serving us without taking a salary is also making us feel indebted to him, which is not something we wish to feel. If he keeps working for us without a salary, in the next election, we may feel obliged to vote for him out of a sense of gratitude.

We don’t want to vote for him out of a sense of gratitude. We want to vote for him because, and if, we are satisfied with his job performance.

Rather than express his love and sincerity towards the country and the people by working without taking a salary, we would rather see Anwar come up with a more competitive salary package for those in leadership positions so that it will attract higher quality people to serve the government.

Malaysia is not a poor country. We can afford to pay our prime minister and Cabinet ministers their due – even if it is in the millions or tens of millions of ringgit – if they can only bring the economy back on track, take the country forward and do a good job.

I urge Anwar to take his salary.  FMT