Wednesday, February 27, 2008

PKR RM1,500 Monthly Wage Ridiculous Idea

With the 12th General Election coming up, I would like to share some of my opinion/thoughts about some of the issues brought up!

One of it is the suggestion to provide a RM1,500 minimum wage for all jobs in Malaysia, suggested by Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Lets try to put on our thinking cap. Would this RM1,500 minimum wage makes sense? I'm sure they think long before coming out with this figure. So, it must be solid.

But, lets think about it. Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians do hire maid. And I am very sure that majority, perhaps more than 90% of the maids are being paid less than RM1,500 per month. If this minimum wage applies, it means that all of them have to be paid RM1,500. Would fellow Malaysians, especially the middle class who have maid too, can afford it? Maybe yes, but that also means that their monthly expenditure would go up by a lot, perhaps even by more than RM1,000 a month. That's worse than any form of inflation.

Bad idea.

Lets look at other sectors. There are many other sectors, whose current wage is less than RM1,500. Just to name a few, petrol stations attendants, construction workers, waiters and waitresses etc. Especially foreign workers, most of them are not paid RM1,500. So, if everyone is made to pay RM1,500, would our economy be stable? Can Malaysia continues to be competitive?

I definitely don't think so.

To put it in a nutshell, the idea of RM1,500 per month is ridiculously stupid. Ideally, yes, it sounds good. But, would it work? No! That is just kind of idea that the party, who has no ambition of ruling the country. They are just intending to grab a few seats and fill up some spots in parliaments. So, they have nothing to lose to come out with such ridiculous manifesto. After all, they know that they won't be held accountable. They are not going to win the election. So, they are just trying to gain some votes from those who are blinded by their ridiculous idea.





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4 comments:

Andrew Chan said...

Yeah..I think it's ridiculous to have such a thing. But it's probably better to have a minimum hourly wage instead..just like in the UK. I think many employers have been exploiting underpaid workers...getting those from bangladesh and indonesia... kids working fulltime but getting paid peanuts and so on. What do you think, Chen Chow?

Anonymous said...

I agree that it's not economically sound to implement a minimum wage. It's as much a hindrance to the economy as setting a price on controlled items ala communist countries. Which incidentally, have been implemented by our government for the past 50 years.

Seriously Chen Chow, you do have some points at times, but I do hope to see a bit more balanced view in this blog. For example, when you are picking on the minimum wages proposed by the PKR, eer, have you forgotten about our wise leaders who used 4 billion to bail out PKFZ, or bought stationery that cost more than 100 ringgit per item?

Probably you intend to provide a balance to the all-out pro-opposition blogs out there, and if that's the case I shall rest my case.

Chen Chow said...

Yeah, minimum wage seems to be a good way to strike a balance. Interestingly, none of the political party brought out the idea of minimum hourly wage. Guess we have been pretty much fixated with monthly wage, rather than hourly wage.

colby, on the PKFZ issue, as of now, it is still a hearsay on whether it is a bail-out. As of now, there is still no proof that it is a bail-out, so there is no way I could make any statement on that.

On the stationery that cost a lot more, I would say that the officers involved should be reprimanded. There is no issue on that. Whoever it is, who is involved in corruption is not fit to run for election, that's direct.

Anonymous said...

could you make a statement in response to bluez aspic's comment on your fong po kuan quits batu gajah article? i find that his comments are rather sound and convincing.

furthermore, i consider your disregard for the participation of opposition parties to be undemocratic.

the opposition is not trying to rule the nation anyhow. their target is to deny a behemoth called BN to have over 2/3 of the parliamentary seats. i believe check and balance to have a very important and prominent role in a democracy dont you think so? you are educated in america, in one of the finest universities in the world, i reckon you have garnered enough education to understand the virtues of freedom and the importance placed by the americans on freedom and accountability?

as impartial as i hope you to be, i hope you could help promote the manifestos of ALL parties competing in the election, rather than making statements like

"They are just intending to grab a few seats and fill up some spots in parliaments."

"They are not going to win the election. So, they are just trying to gain some votes from those who are blinded by their ridiculous idea."

i hope you live up to the ideals your professors in america hoped to instill in every cornellian graduated through its doors.

current cornell junior,
josh