The Selangor 2026 Budget will be tabled on November 14, and as usual a lot of people and economic sectors are anxious to know the budgetary allocations and expenditures of the state for next year.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Bin Shari has hinted that education and poverty eradication are the main budgetary thrusts under consideration.

Selangor is Malaysia’s premier state with first-world development status. The state’s rapidly increasing population calls for socioeconomic programs to be enhanced through every annual budget to ensure that it does not fall behind.

Selangor is the first choice of international and domestic investors due to its good infrastructure, urban population and skilled workforce.

The Menteri Besar is insightful in that he has made poverty eradication as one of the twin budgetary pincers.

Although Selangor enjoys first-world status, there are pockets of poverty and deprivation in both urban and rural areas.

Increasing income levels must be prioritized to overcome this problem in the low- and medium-cost housing apartments, low-cost houses, Indian settlements, new villages and kampungs. Many of these residents face a hand-to-mouth existence due to large families, low salaries/ incomes, loan repayments, and high cost of living.

Added to this is the plight of senior citizens who also need some form of assistance other the Skim Mesra Usia Emas.

More facilities and amenities for senior citizens and children will be welcome. More municipal rejuvenation programs are needed to cope with aging infrastructure, especially drains and bridges in new villages and kampungs, as this will be helpful to avert flooding and sanitary problems.

Public halls and sports facilities also need to be upgraded. 

There was a proposal when Pakatan Rakyat won in 2008 for a Tamil secondary school in Ijok by then Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

The school is crucial for Indian students to acquire more fluency in Tamil, as a higher standard of Tamil language is needed for a wide range of jobs especially in the media where Tamil is necessary for better interaction with the Tamil community making up the majority among the Indians.

The school could be a government cum private sector initiative.

Presently, Tamil education ends at Standard 6 and cannot therefore fulfil the requirements of the community. 

More allocations are needed for new facilities and amenities to cater for the youth and senior citizens.

The kiosk system can be extended to more areas where urban poverty is prevalent especially by providing opportunities for single mothers and the disabled to engage in small businesses.

The Selangor 2026 Budget needs to look at the macro as well as the micro economy to ensure that all economic and social sectors stand to benefit in one way or another befitting its status a first-world state.

The various aid schemes such as Iltizam Selangor Sihat, Skim Mesra Usia Emas, Bingkas, and the Khairat Darul Ehsan need to be more applicant-friendly—like the Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR)—as those applying for these schemes are mostly poor and semi-literate.

Sometimes, applications for these schemes are suddenly stopped or suspended for whatever reason, and deserving applicants feel dejected.

A good way to overcome pockets of poverty in the state is to open up agricultural schemes for the poor who have farming skills. This will enhance food security in the state and eliminate poverty to a certain extent.

Another area where Selangor needs to be more generous and magnanimous is the financial allocations for non-Muslim houses of worship, who now receive a pittance, considering that Selangor is the most multiracial and multireligious in the country.

The allocation should befit a state claiming first-world status.

Even the amount given is not displayed on the Selangor Budget posters and pamphlets due to embarrassment in stating the miserly amount. 

In line with Visit Malaysia Year 2026, Selangor will be the primary state for tourists and visitors. As such, there needs to be a spring cleaning of public areas and urban environs throughout the state to minimize complaints about lack of cleanliness, and the municipal contractors need to be monitored closely to ensure compliance.

Civil servants in the local authorities, who will be getting budgetary increments, should be more conscientious in the efforts and duties to ensure a good administration of the state that is people-friendly.

Roads need to be improved considering the worsening condition of the state and municipal roads, a lot of which are potholed and stone-bare due to lack of resurfacing for a long time. 

Selangor being the most industrialiser state and having the largest residential population needs to consider the huge municipal and industrial waste and effluents and deal with them effectively. As such it needs to give some budgetary incentives to the recycling companies to ensure a maximum-level circular green economy.

Plastic pollution is getting more serious and there should be a better system to collect the plastic waste especially the bottles. The collectors should be given 5 sen per bottle.

The money can be recouped from the bottling firms by the state government. This will enable the millions of bottles that now end up in the drains and rivers or the landfills will be collected due to the attractive monetary inducement.

This is one effective way to eliminate the pollution posed by plastics. 

The Selangor 2026 Budget needs to look at the macro as well as the micro economy to ensure that all economic and social sectors stand to benefit in one way or another befitting its status a first-world state.

(V. Thomas has been regularly contributing to Malaysian newspapers for the last 40 years.)