PUTRAJAYA, May 3 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s remark that Malaysians can switch to planting paddy at night was not meant to be taken literally, Datuk Salahuddin Ayub said today.

The agriculture and agro-based industry minister said the prime minister’s main message in that remark made yesterday was to nudge the public into thinking outside the box on ways in moving the workforce forward.

"I did not see that he meant it literally as night time, but it is on how we should view the future with innovative ideas and how we should take up opportunities in moving forward.

"I think Tun said it with double meaning... Back in the days we had proverbs, symbolism, so perhaps those words had other meanings to it,” he told reporters after a joint conference between his ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs here.

At a dinner yesterday, Dr Mahathir suggested that dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs such as paddy planting could be carried out after dark if workers found doing it in the day time to be too hot and challenging.

Malaysia is heavily reliant on migrant workers to carry out such laborious jobs dubbed "3D” as locals shun them, claiming the pay is not commensurate with the task, resulting in a high foreign workforce even as the local unemployment rate rises.