MALAYSIANS enjoy a lot of public holidays every year. The travel and tourism industry welcomes the frequent holidays because when people travel, they spend at the hotels and restaurants.
Local travel makes the domestic tourism sector more vibrant and, together with the increasing number of international tourist arrivals, the economy will benefit from consumer spending.
But there is also a downside when there are too many public holidays. It is said that Malaysia has the most number of public holidays in the world.
This is not exactly a proud achievement because it is also a burden on the economy when businesses have to spend more on labour costs.
Companies have to pay their employees three to four times more than the daily wage rate when they work on public holidays.
Some unscrupulous employers resort to using illegal foreign workers and exploiting them to avoid paying more.
Business associations have often complained about the excessive number of public holidays, especially when they are unscheduled.
Many companies have to meet tight delivery orders set by their foreign customers who do not care whether there is a public holiday in our country.
With stiff competition from the emerging industrial economies in this region, our manufacturers have no choice but to keep their plants operating on a public holiday, even at the cost of sacrificing their profit margin in paying the overtime wage rates.
They can tolerate it if it’s an exceptional case, but when the public holidays are frequent and they are required to compulsorily close their operations on those days, they begin to ask whether it’s better to move their plants to another country.
Malaysia is already a high-cost country in terms of basic manufacturing as we are short of labour. The frequent public holidays make it more difficult for the country to compete in low-cost production.
The government should do away with the minor public holidays or at least not to grant a weekday as public holiday when it falls on the weekend.
Employees and government servants can apply for leave if they want a longer break to go back to their hometowns.
There is no reason why the whole country or the state should be locked down for the sake of being popular and politically correct.
Malaysia must think global if we want to join the ranks of developed countries. We should note that one country in Europe that was noted for its addiction to the holiday culture became insolvent and had to be bailed out by international institutions.
They agreed to help but with strict conditions that in addition to the structural economic, fiscal and institutional reforms to remove the rigidities and obstacles in the economy, the debtor country had to stop disrupting the labour market with wasteful holiday benefits.
Having too many public holidays is an extravagant practice that could become a big issue in economic management.
TAN SRI MOHD SHERIFF
MOHD KASSIM
Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur