Guan Eng: Lazy policies, not citizens, to blame for joblessness

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Weak labour policies are the reason behind Malaysia’s unemployment rate, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng said today as he disputed Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan who put the blame on “lazy Malaysians”.

Accusing the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of encouraging the use of cheap foreign labour, the DAP secretary-general said this led to the creation of a job market that offered little to local workers.

“This attack on the jobless is not only unfair but incorrect as well,” Lim said in a statement here.

“BN leaders should realise that it is not lazy Malaysians who add up to Malaysia’s unemployment rate, but lazy BN policies that are a disincentive to work with low pay and low productivity especially for 3D jobs that are Difficult, Dirty And Dangerous.”

Lim further claimed that the BN federal government has failed to put in place employment policies that would lead to better pay, productivity and work conditions for Malaysians.

“How can there be pride in work when it is lowly paid and placed on the same level as unskilled foreign migrant workers?” asked the Penang chief minister.

In comparison, Lim said that DAP is proposing to raise minimum monthly wage to RM1,100 for Malaysians, with a five-year grace period for small and medium enterprises to offer similar pay to foreign workers.

“When people are unemployed, the federal government usually gets blamed. Instead it is the BN government blaming the unemployed for not working.

“Is being unemployed now considered a wrong by the BN government?” asked Lim as he urged Ahmad to apologise to jobless Malaysians.

On Thursday, Ahmad accused “lazy Malaysians” of adding to the country’s unemployment rate by refusing to take up job opportunities.

The deputy finance minister also blamed the unemployed for the influx of foreign migrant workers plying their trade in several industries in the country.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the unemployment rate is at 3.4 per cent as at November last year, or 484,600 of the 14.2 million of the country’s total labour force.

In Malaysia, an unemployment rate below 4 per cent is considered as full employment.

Malaysia’s unemployment rate has remained below the 4 per cent threshold since 1992, but since then, the rate has been steadily on the climb.