Wages and Productivity BN style?

 "The biggest deterrent to productivity increase is not lack of hard work, but corruption, corruption on the scale we have seen and continue to see in Malaysia involving our government.
Our productive advantage was not lost because of lack of effort from our workers, they did a lot,  sacrificed a lot only to be robbed by the corrupt. These robbers are the people they trusted to run this country." ..........Toffee.

In a letter to the editor of the New Straits Times a writer has praised this government for undermining the Malaysian worker again.

This writer is pleased with the government's  implementation  of RM900 as the minimum wage for all Malaysians.

I am wondering if this has been passed by Parliament in the first place, I do not read the government controlled media so pardon my ignorance.

When will it take effect ? 

Who will benefit? 

Yes benefit?

In the first place what can a worker expect to do with RM900/-  today?

This government is champion and world class when it comes to insulting their own  workers.

Let us try and review expenses first;

give rentals  a minimum of RM300 per month, that leaves the worker with RM600/per month, transport for children to school, pocket money etc, let’s say RM70/ that’s a bit too little but then let’s leave it at that, 

groceries and other essentials for the home RM450/ per month, 

his EPF deduction RM99/- per month, now tell me what is left, its hardly enough to survive and you'll notice he is short of RM 19 after all these expenses, this has not taken into account his SOCSO deduction and other expenses he may have, and this government is bragging about RM900, and this is probably what Najib calls becoming a "high income nation," that is the BN standards.

Maybe he can live in a rumah haram, go squat somewhere on state land or in somebody else'  unoccupied land, then he maybe able to save RM300, that will leave him with RM281 to spend, he can make that even better, by cutting on his child's daily pocket money because if you see the way this writer writes he probably thinks the children should  not be entitled to all that, that will increase his balance to RM358 now he will be able to live it up a little in a rumah haram which may be blown away by the wind anytime, and if that happens  he goes to the government for help and he will be helped only if he is a BN supporter.

The cost of petrol has gone up, the man of the house can’t even afford his motorbike petrol leave alone his yearly license renewals, and of course there is the friendly cop just waiting around the bend, to get hold of him by the roadside to check his license because he is on a motorbike and quite often these rascals do not have a license,and why? Well they just can't afford it.

National Salary Reduction in 1997

G Rajasekaran and MTUC had suggested RM900 ringgit as far back as 1993, in 1997 our ringgit depreciated against the US dollar and many major currencies, remember Soros telling Mahathir see you at 5.30, till Mahathir was forced to peg the ringgit at 3.80 to the US dollar, from about 2.90 prior to the crisis.

In that one move alone the income of the worker dropped by about 30 percent, remember wages dropped, if we had had implemented  RM900 pre1997 crisis  it would be worth only USD 302 then,   at today's rates it is worth worth only  USD292 and that and that is what is being offered some 19 years later after the price of all essential goods have gone up by more than 200 percent, this government really knows how to mock and insult its workforce.

This man,  the writer  has the audacity to say “Workers can't ask for anything more.” Who is he to make such a statement. He should be paid RM 900 and asked to fend for himself.

Then he goes on to say,  “workers must now work even harder, increasing productivity and come up with new ideas, ”

Productivity Increase a Mea Culpa required

Productivity increase is not the sole domain of the worker, corruption is the biggest deterrent to productivity, this government must take concrete measures to call into question everyone who seems to be involved in corrupt practices beginning with the Prime Minister himself,  the Scorpene issues have yet to be cleared.

Billions were lost in the Port Klang scandal, and  scandal after scandal that if we recouped all that money and gave each Malaysian a Million ringgit - that is each Malaysian man woman and child there will still be billions left. That is how massive the corruption in this country is.

It is in that corruption that our productive advantage was lost, and this man says “Workers can't ask for anything more, and “Workers must now work even harder, increasing productivity and come up with new ideas, ” and he forgot to add "with less wages of course."

The writer has a shallow understanding of Productivity improvement, whilst workers have come out over and over again with new ideas to improve productivity, it was corruption and greed  that has led to the loss of this productive advantage.

MAS the National Airline  were national Champions for QCC conventions conducted by the National productivity centre, they worked hard, they worked smart. 

Do you know  what they got for their troubles?  Retrenchment, due to some dubious schemes conducted in the Mahathir era, and the results of that corruption plagues that airline till today, and the corrupt practices goes on unabated. 

We were the largest producers of Tin in the world.  

Do you know who screwed up the industry by trying to corner the market?  

A monkey who had little understanding of the fundamentals of the business and we all know  him. 

The mine workers were hard working they were a productive lot, the industry was so productive Ipoh was thriving town then, one of the best in the country and all because of tin and just imagine it only took a monkey to destroy the whole thing - we trusted a monkey.

We were the largest producers of Rubber and  Oil Palm, our Rubber Research Institute was the foremost centre for Rubber research in the world and yet it was not used to try and produce the best pneumatic Tyre in the world instead we went on to make one of the worst cars in the world - for the price we pay for it. 

And can you guess who was responsible? That same monkey of course.

The rubber tapper and the Oil  Palm worker is still paid twopence and there is no care in the world for these workers who gave  so much and now  so many of them have left the estates, even those who are  in FELDA are today realising they too have been shortchanged and are questioning this government.

We were the world's largest producers of Domestic Air Conditioners, and Semiconductors, and the big American and Japanese  firms began deserting us when this same monkey,  a loose cannon began to open his mouth, things did not seem safe in Malaysia any more, the semiconductor industry is a strategic industry in the US and placing such sophisticated operations in Malaysia was a lesser option so they too moved out in stages leaving us with contract manufacturing base and lower end jobs carried out mainly by foreigners.

There was the huge Perwaja scandal. 
'
Whose idea was it to begin a state owned National Steel Mill? 

Would  it not have been a better idea to have allowed the then existing millers to handle  the job? 

Well I am getting fed up of telling you it was the same monkey.

We were world leaders because our workers were amongst the best in the world, actually second to none, but then who and what made them suddenly unproductive?

We pay exorbitant prices for cars, the AP issue was brought up by the same monkey because it began affecting his brainchild Proton and only certain people get AP's it's a money making machine , so what has productivity got to do with it?

Definition of Productivity UMNO style

It was in his tenure as PM that APs were issued, favoured people obtained APs many to bring in two cars, they'd bring in two for which they'd sell one for the price or  the two, and so the favoured recipient got his car free. That is Productivity UMNO style.

This government has the biggest civil service to ratio of population in the world, so how can this  government possibly understand productivity, they should not even talk about  it.

Making all this noise is useless, I'd love to tell this government that they'll have to sit down and honestly look us in the eye and tell us all this is untrue and even if they do that they know we'll not believe them, this government is incapable of telling the truth, its time to change them

The first idea I would like to give this government is make a serious and honest effort to recoup the billions that have been taken out of our coffers by unscrupulous politicians and put it back in our economy, charge every corrupt person in the country starting from the biggest, it is a difficult exercise, but Najib can start with himself.

However  the sad part is they will not,  believe me they will not, so its time we change government.

Undi Lah Pakatan