Are Malaysians Too Lazy To Deserve Minimum Wage?

Hantu Laut

Can employers be trusted to pay fair wages to their employees?

Malaysia's salary structure at the lower end of the spectrum is unfair and invidious.Employers can't be trusted to pay fair wages to their employees. That's why Malaysia needs to introduce a minimum wage legislation to compel employers to pay minimum basic pay for workers to enable them to sustain a decent life for them and their families.

The plantation,construction and manufacturing industries are making too much money for themselves at the expense of the Malaysian workers.Most companies in Malaysia have poor or non-existence incentive schemes where employees get share of the profits.

Malaysian employers may not be the worst in the world but are still below par compared to countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. Significant portion of our GDP still come from the sweatshops, where bigger chunk of the labour market and low wages are concentrated.

The are two conflicting schools of thought about minimum wage.The proponents say that it increases the standard of living of workers, reduces poverty, and forces businesses to be more efficient, while the opponents of minimum wage say that if it is high enough to be effective, it increases unemployment, particularly among workers with very low productivity. Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad was against minimum wage.

The absence of minimum wage in Malaysia has shied away locals from menial jobs or those they consider below them and attracted swarms of cheap migrant workers to this country.Our low wage is low for Malaysians but not low for these migrant workers.The construction and plantation industries are the two biggest employers of migrant workers.Send just half of them back home and you would see the collapse of these two sectors.

In 2006 Indonesian workers remitted a whooping US$2.7 billion back to their home country.The figure did not include foreign workers of other nationalities.Malaysia has almost 2 million registered foreign workers and possibly close to the same figure illegal foreign workers who came in illegally into the country, making Malaysia the biggest importer of labor in Asia.

Malaysians do not realise that over US$6.0 billion left this country annually as foreign workers remittances.If allowed to continue, this anomaly will eventually make Malaysian workers fall into the hardcore poor category and raising the unemployment rate as locals refused to take up these types of low paying jobs.

According to World Bank estimates, global remittances totaled US$414 billion in 2009, of which US$316 billion went to developing countries that involved 192 million migrant workers.In the Asean region, Philippines is still the biggest recipient of overseas workers remittances which stood at 13% Inflow and 0% Outflow in 2007.

Among the Asian tigers only Singapore and Malaysia do not have minimum wage policy. While Singapore let market forces set the minimum wage, Malaysia still allow sweatshops, utilising cheap foreign labour and victims of human trafficking to exist, resulting in the country being placed on the US Congress TVPA Tier 2 Watch List on human trafficking.

With minimum wage and wage increase there must be corresponding increase in productivity, locals taking up jobs previously held by migrant workers and the reduction of outflow of remittances.

Without these goals in mind and achieving them successfully, minimum wage would be disastrous and one that would put Malaysia in much bigger trouble.

Unless, the government can assure the goals are met, minimum wage would create higher unemployment, higher inflation and even bigger cash outflow out of the country.

The eventualities would be even grimmer than now if locals still refused to take up the jobs and migrant workers continue to stay, thereby, increasing the outflow of cash remittances exponentially.

There is a high likelihood that the minimum wage may failed to spur the nation to higher economic progress, because secretly the government knew the bumiputras, which form major part of the employment market are lazy and the man who knew better is Tun Mahathir Mohammad, hence his objection to its implementation.

Cowgate Shahrizat's Continuation Baffles The Politicios

Malaysia's UMNO Keeps a Scandal-Plagued Pol
Asia Sentinel

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak apparently is having considerable trouble persuading Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the minister for women, family and community development and the source of a controversy over alleged misuse of public funds, to quit the United Malays National Organization.

It was announced three weeks ago that Shahrizat, who also serves as the head of Wanita Umno, the women’s wing of the party, would step down from the ministry when her Senate* term ends on April 8 as a result of what has become known as the Cowgate scandal. Her husband, Mohamed Salleh Ismail, and other members of the family have been accused of misusing a major portion of a RM250 million soft loan from the government to establish the National Feedlot Corporation, to slaughter cattle under Islamic dietary rules.

Mohamed Salleh Ismail has been charged with criminal breach of trust and violating the Companies Act in relation to allegations of misuse of RM49 million of the funds given to the company. According to a report by Malaysia’s Auditor General, the money was steered into the purchase of things that had nothing to do with the project to slaughter 60,000 cattle annually. The Auditor General found that the project had never come remotely close to meeting its goals. Subsequent allegations have involved the purchase of condominiums in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, travel for the family, a Mercedes-Benz sedan for Shahrizat and other items.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reportedly has repeatedly told party leaders Shahrizat must go, party insiders say, and her main protector, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, is also said to be backing away from supporting her.

“Dr M wants her out and his people have told me so,” a source told Asia Sentinel. “So does Muhyiddin who is distancing himself from her. So she is quite alone.”

However, political bloggers in Kuala Lumpur say Shahrizat apparently has demanded successfully that she stay as a member of parliament, and to keep her job as head of Wanita as well.

“It’s common knowledge that the PM doesn’t dare sacrifice Shahrizat or hold her accountable or even ask her to quit her Wanita post because he doesn’t dare take the chance of a revolt within Wanita Umno so close to the elections,” the source said. “Knowing Malaysian and Malay politics, I can see his dilemma.”

Shahrizat, the source continued, remains popular with the women’s wing of the party “and Wanita Umno are the biggest vote getters for Umno and Barisan Nasional. During campaigning, they are very effective, going house-to-house, using the soft touch to win hearts, giving away sarongs and gifts and so on. It’s easier for a woman to enter an opposition stronghold than for men and that’s where Wanita Umno’s usefulness is to Umno and the Barisan.”

Despite the fallout over the National Feedlot scandal, the current administration has tried to distance Shahrizat from the NFC, saying she was wasn’t involved with what her husband and children were doing. Read more.

The Very Talented Mr Anwar Ibrahim

Hantu Laut

I foresee an all out war between Raja Petra and Anwar with more inglorious truths coming out of Petra's cannon. Knowing Petra's style, he would not back off, until he sees Anwar in the quagmire.

We should know what Anwar's respond would be, flogging the same old dead horse............another conspiracy by Najib and UMNO and the whole hungry wolves in Pakatan would back him to the hilt.

You, probably, have read the book or seen the movie "The Talented Mr Ripley" who took extreme measures when his original mission failed.














Our very talented Mr Anwar Ibrahim really have the nerves and the balls to continue fooling Malaysians to believe in his innocence.

Read the "Very Talented Mr Anwar Ibrahim" here.

‘Anwar’s RM445m plot against Dr M’

KUALA LUMPUR: Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin today levelled another serious allegation against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, accusing his one-time ally of siphoning off RM44

5 million when he was deputy prime minister.

The firebrand blogger claimed in his latest posting on Malaysia Today that the money was to finance his political ambition – ousting then premier and archrival Dr Mahathir Mohamad who later sacked him and had him jailed for sodomy and corruption charges.

Raja Petra claimed that the money, obtained through a syndicate of lenders in 1997, was “arranged” by tycoon Quek Leng Chan whom the blogger alleged was one of Anwar’s closest “cronies”.

Quek owns one of Malaysia’s biggest bank, Hong Leong Bank Bhd. Raja Petra charged that he had managed to buy the bank with the help of Anwar who was also the finance minister at the time.

He added that Anwar’s alleged hands in the bank acquisition gave him the needed financial backing to plot his coup against Mahathir, while Quek wanted the former as premier to further his own ambitions.

“As I have always said: behind every Malay Umno politician is a Chinese business tycoon. The Chinese need the Malays to get ahead. The Malays also need the Chinese to get ahead.”

Plot thickens

Raja Petra claimed that it took Anwar RM200 million to oust Ghafar Baba as the Umno deputy president in what was described as the “dirtiest” Umno polls in 1993, so the former deputy prime minister needed more to oust Mahathir.

Quek had allegedly arranged for Anwar to receive RM445 million. The loan was originally meant for the purchase of Inchcape Timuran shares as well as the purchase of a least known financial institution, Kewangan Bersatu Bhd (KBB).

Several of Anwar’s supposed cronies were allegedly involved in the arrangements, said Raja Petra. He named then Penang Umno treasurer Ishak Ismail and one of Anwar’s speech writers, Faiz Abdullah.

Ishak was the owner of KBB while Faiz was the person tasked with arranging the Inchcape Timuran deal with the help of Seow Lun Hoo, the former president and CEO of Hong Leong Credit Bhd.

“The plan was to use the RM420 million syndicated loan facility to acquire Inchcape Timuran and KBB. KBB, which had a finance licence, would then borrow from another financial institution to repay the original loan from Hong Leong.

“And the beautiful part about this whole thing is: KBB was already owned by Ishak… so it would be merely transferring money from one pocket to the other,” said the blogger.

Where’s the money?

Raja Petra said that the acquisition of KBB, however, did not take place and Hong Leong had filed a legal suit against eight nominees used to obtain the loan in what he claimed was an intentional move to implicate Anwar. Read more.