JUNE 11 — Jobs. Plural. The real priority.
So no, not about the prime minister’s job.
Rather, the hundreds of thousands of jobs gone and expected to go in the months to come. That’s the ballgame.
It seems all politicians are either busy keeping the keys to the castle hidden or looking for other entrances — the back one’s already padlocked since the last incursion which went swimmingly well.
But for a change, an unfortunate change, they won’t dominate news in the months ahead. The lines of redundant workers will.
Official statistics, March’s unemployment rate was a high 3.9 per cent or over 600,000 persons. Those were the Movement Control Order’s (MCO) early days, imagine how June and beyond look like?
Some contend it may be up to two million persons let go from work. With firms daily announcing retrenchments as if they are usual business updates, the anxiety is palpable among those still in the workforce.
Worse is expected. It’s usual for the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) to claim companies fail to utilise state subsidies to sustain payroll, but not for the Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF) to ask companies not to hire illegal foreign workers or fulfil their obligations to local workers. For both of them to appear in agreement.
And they, with the millions of blue-collar Malaysian employees, are in brace position.
The overall impact on the informal sectors is less clear, but sure to be felt. As pasar malam (night markets) or roadside stalls stalled for three months, the survivor count is incomplete.
A large number of Malaysians rely on the gig economy and it's been a tough time; for instance, e-hailing drivers who’ve been deprived of customers are now choked by regulations.
Youth joblessness is likely to slip to a new nadir. Previous depressing data that fresh graduates require a year to be employed soon will appear promising instead.
Hundreds of thousands will graduate from their hometowns since campuses are shut till December, but without careers in store. The pain of learning via technology is little compared to long-term unemployment.
Prolonged youth economic displacement is usually followed by youth anger.
With the toll to rise substantially, our government must respond substantially and not with short-termism. This is the priority.
Our economic terrain in quick view. Tourism devastated, plantation blunted by both EU’s and India’s snubs and oil and gas mired in low prices. Manufacturing expects a demand decline.
These are hard times for most countries. Few are exempt. However, our problems are compounded by complacency, like over-reliance on our beaches and the oil rigs beyond them.
Measures to up jobs
There are three concerns, in which a plea is attached to each of them.
Firstly, the level of caution in the relaxations. Malaysia is different from other countries in that its government assumed power only a fortnight before the MCO.
A Mahathir government would’ve closed the country down too, but Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration had to execute it while his Cabinet hadn’t finished unpacking yet.
A strong — even if without majority — opposition on one side, and Umno and PAS backing his majority while maintaining their own ambitions on the other side keep things tight for Muhyiddin.
It makes him extra-cautious, and also distracts. It’s this column’s opinion that between a worried administration and a ministry of health — not wealth for a reason — jobs have not received the maximum attention.
Decisions like how soon to open borders are difficult, and there are risks. Covid-19 disaster zones like Britain and Italy dare to consider opening their borders sooner because lives are not measured by thermometers alone.
Second, the waves of measures to support employers, employees and industries are necessary. However, the government knows while job losses were accelerated by Covid-19, major structural problems predate the pandemic.
Old thinking that throwing money at the problem would cure it is most certainly antiquated. Which is why the MEF, MTUC and others have raised concerns.
If being cheeky, the recent and ongoing series of MP procurements through positions and guarantees of wealth which come with them, don’t inspire confidence that this government rejects wasteful and irresponsible spending.
Still, money alone won’t solve the jobs challenge. It has to be targeted, and it has to be in conjunction with other measures. For instance, sorting the foreign labour riddle, legal and illegal. Fattening up air conditioned offices with subsidised temps won’t translate to higher commercial viability, so the reallocation of locals for foreign rather should extend to restaurants, cinemas, plantations, wet markets and pubs.
More sensible even if issues of minimum wage, automation and unionisation must be addressed too in that scenario. Included perhaps, legal penalties to those hiring foreigners.
Thirdly, to share the burden. Since the start of the MCO civil servants’ — front-liners and the work-from-home (WFH) crew — job security remained stable.
However, a larger majority, the private sector employees have suffered from the instability of the situation. The administration cut ministers' salaries to share the pain, but perhaps a degree of cuts for all civil servants would display solidarity, and yes, reduce the government’s expenditure.
It would be the government saying #KitaJagaKita (We take care of our own) involves all.
As I write this, my best mate is stuck in Singapore and has not seen his kids and wife in Johor for almost three months and celebrates his birthday this weekend aware it’s another two and a half months before the border opens. He must stay if he wants to remain salaried.
It tells how job security dictates families, then communities, then countries.
Tony’s restaurant around the corner from my Cheras home, a local landmark, closed down this week after over 30 years.
Friends have been let go, and they’ve delayed telling others. It’s not the easiest thing to ease into WhatsApp conversations. Their families face uncertainties.
They’ve been messaging me for years, the ah long (moneylenders) but yesterday someone random called me and offered a loan.
They’ve upped their marketing game.
They know things are a bit desperate.
So, again, the message to the government.
At the centre of any solution should be jobs. No amount of economic planning or innovation matters unless they drag along a few jobs. Actually, I wouldn’t mind a million more.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
