COMMENT | Pakatan Harapan wishes all workers in Malaysia a happy Labour Day 2017. Labour Day is the fruits of struggle of our labour activists of the past. Labour Day was only recognised in Malaysia as a public holiday in 1972 after a long struggle by our workers.

Harapan cares and is deeply concerned about the wellbeing of Malaysian workers. The nation’s prosperity is built upon the sweat and toil of ordinary Malaysian workers, and without them the economy would not hold up. Therefore, protecting the rights and well-being of Malaysian workers means protecting the nation and her economy.

For Labour Day 2017, Harapan wishes to highlight four emerging areas of concerns for Malaysian labour, and vows to provide better solutions if it comes into power:

Cost of living

Cost of living is a major concern for all Malaysian workers, especially when their incomes are not rising fast enough to catch up with the rising inflation in the past two years, mainly caused by the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the significant decline of the value of the ringgit.

The Harapan government will:

• Abolish GST, which is a regressive tax that taxes the poor disproportionately;


• Comprehensively improve public transportation to make commuting cheaper for ordinary Malaysians, as transport cost, especially the expenditure involving owning a motor vehicle, takes up a significant share of household expenditure, and also makes up substantial part of household debts;


• Abolish crony capitalism and ensure genuine competition in the provision of various goods and services, for instance, rice, tolled roads, telco services and internet charges;

Youth unemployment

Harapan is concerned about rising unemployment in general, especially long-term youth unemployment. Unemployment was at 3.5% in 2016, increasing from 3.1% and 2.9% in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The Bank Negara Report 2016, released on 23rd March 2017, contains an important section on “Youth Unemployment in Malaysia: Development and Policy Considerations”, with the following observations:

• Youth unemployment rate in Malaysia was estimated to have reached 10.7% in 2015, more than three times the national unemployment rate of 3.1%;


• Youth represents more than half of total unemployed workers, despite only making up a third of the labour force;


• Unemployment rate among those with tertiary educational attainment is 15.3% while youth without tertiary education is 9.8% in 2015;


• In terms of earnings, 54% of graduates earn less than RM2,000 a month. Starting salaries for graduates have remained largely stagnant since 2007.

Youth are the future of the nation, and youth unemployment threatens to create “a lost generation”. This could spell doom for Malaysia if we fail to arrest the situation immediately.

As such, the Harapan manifesto and policy committee and Harapan Youth are directed to engage various stakeholders in the month of May to draw up a road map to reduce youth unemployment under the new Harapan government.

The rights of casual workers, especially those in taxi and e-hailing sectors

Harapan is concerned about the fate of ordinary Malaysians who are in casual employment or self-employed. A World Bank report claims that 35% Malaysian household heads work in the informal sector, many as casual workers or are self-employed.

For instance, there are more than 70,000 registered taxi drivers and another estimated 200,000 e-hailing service drivers.

As Parliament is to debate amending the Land Public Transport Act 2010 and the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board Act 1987 to legalise e-hailing, there is an urgent need to ensure the well-beings of taxi and e-hailing drivers are protected.

The proposed legislation does not protect the rights of e-hailing drivers per se as the government is only dealing with the e-hailing companies like Uber or Grab while leaving the companies to “self-regulate” the drivers.

A Harapan government will legislate a “Bill of Rights” for e-hailing drivers and do more for taxi drivers as well as other casual workers.

Malaysian workers overseas

More than a million Malaysians work overseas, especially in Singapore. Up to 300,000 commute daily between Johor Bahru and Singapore. Working in Singapore and other countries is an indictment of the Malaysian economy, which is not producing the type of jobs needed by Malaysians.

Malaysians seek better employment overseas because of the stagnation in the Malaysian economy for the past two decades since the Asian economy crisis.

In the short term, Harapan vows to help Malaysian workers to commute more conveniently between Johor and Singapore. In the long run, a Harapan government vows to re-energise the Malaysian economy to ensure more Malaysians find it worthwhile and rewarding to work in Malaysia.

As Malaysian workers celebrate Labour Day 2017, Harapan Manifesto and Policy Committee will listen to the voices of ordinary Malaysians and stakeholders to better protect workers, and offer all Malaysians a New Deal.

The joint statement was issued by PKR president WAN AZIZAH WAN ISMAIL, DAP secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister LIM GUAN ENG, Amanah president MOHAMAD SABU, and Bersatu president MUHYIDDIN YASSIN.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.