Budaya Pemalas Suka Cuti

I wrote about this over 20 years ago in my column in The Sun and I have mentioned it again sometimes.  A few weeks back I wanted to write about this issue again when someone sent me (thank you) a tabulation comparing the number of public holidays in various countries. But other issues kept popping up. 

Then today FMT has written about the subject of public holidays and their cost on the Malaysian economy. 

First here is FMT.  

Saturday, September 28, 2019

RM1 bil in productivity lost with every public holiday
Robin Augustin 

FMM says 17 national public holidays a year are ‘too many’ 

discourage foreign companies from investing in Malaysia

Each public holiday in M'sia costs nation RM1b in productivity

according to Malaysian Employers Federation 

private sector pays out RM27b in wages every month

productivity loss especially severe during long weekends

This month 3 long weekends Muharram, M'sia Day, Agong’s birthday

4 school term breaks a year also disruptive 

parents take leave to children on holidays

shift to system which allows employees and employers plan holidays better

Instead of so many school breaks, one long holiday minimise disruptions

weekend holiday - no law requiring immediate replacement, result in long weekendsbetter to add replacement holidays to annual leave entitlements

“Employers can better plan resources to minimise disruptions

FMM said 17 national public holidays “too many” 

could discourage foreign companies from investing in Malaysia.

some holidays could be incorporated with weekends 

to reduce paid holidays, as practised in some countries

called for caution in declaring unplanned holidays for victory celebrations

Declaring ad hoc public holidays detrimental to industries

They affect productivity and efficiency

increase productivity in both private / public sectors 

competition from neighbouring countries for foreign investments

My comments:  

Well the lost productivity for each public holiday is worth more than RM1.0 Billion.

The monthly private sector wage bill is about RM27 billion. So per working day (there are 26 working days on average) the wages are >RM1.0 billion. So that is the wage cost that becomes lost in the private sector per each public holiday. 

What about wages lost in the public sector? 

And what about productivity lost in both the private and public sectors ?

Well the loss is much, much higher. Because if production is disrupted then we must also add the lost value of that daily production. 

Why not just divide our total GDP by say 320 working days a year say RM1.5 Trillion / 320 = RM4.7 Billion per day.

Som each day there is a public holiday, the cost to the Malaysian economy is well over RM4.0 Billion PER DAY.

So that comment by that FMM guy is on the dot - the more public holidays you have the less attractive the country becomes to the foreign investors. Here is that table comparing public holidays in Asian countries.

Malaysia is Number 1 with a total of 50 public holidays (federal and state). This is far too many. 

Vietnam has the least with only 11 public holidays. 

Thailand has 26 public holidays. 

Singapore has 14 and Indonesia has only 20 - in total.

    

Well this table is not correct anymore. Terengganu recently declared ONE MORE public holiday - Hari Arafah or something. The Menteri Besar announced very proudly that Terengganu was the ONLY state to declare this as a public holiday. So Malaysia's tally is now 51 public holidays. 

The menteri besar of Terengganu was playing politics. He gave away something (WORKING HOURS) that did not belong to him. It belonged to the businesses and factories in Terengganu.   But his supporters are mostly either unemployed, poor or they are wage earners. People who work for other people. So they will be happy for another day off. Tak payah kerja. Dapat cuti free.

If you recall, tin sadin was the first menteri besar to declare a FIVE DAY working week for his State. Even with a SIX day working week theirs was already the poorest State in Malaysia. By shortening the working week to FIVE days, I think they became poorer. They lost 17% of their working hours. They were already poor. Now they are poorer.

Tin sadin was shrewd - but not clever. Just like in Terengganu he knew that most of his supporters either were jobless, poor or were wage earners - working for others. They do not own or run the businesses. They have "less" stake in the economy. So declaring a FIVE DAY working week would make wage earners very happy.

Businesses and factories would be less happy because now they had to pay overtime if they wanted to keep production running over the TWO DAY weekend.  But there are very few factories in his State anyway.

Please note that many private businesses all over the world work SIX days or even SEVEN DAYS a week. Jack Ma says you must be prepared to work 16 hours a day for six days a week.  

If you are in retail you may not have choice - you must remain open at least SIX days or week - or open a FULL SEVEN days. For almost 15 years in Jalan Masjid India we were open SEVEN DAYS a week.

Yes the West has shifted to a FIVE DAY week a long time ago. Also many of the advanced economies in Asia. But that is a luxury they can afford because they are already rich societies. Rich meaning they are very productive. Despite FIVE working days, their productivity is much higher. But as I said many factories and industries work SIX or SEVEN days a week. You do not shut down petrochemical plants and oil refineries. The workers may work FIVE days but the businesses run SEVEN days non stop.

Yes if we have too many public holidays -  we will become poorer.

Why? Because bila kilang tutup tak ada output lah doh! That's why.

The FMT newsreport has some good suggestions. Why not move some of those man made holidays to the weekends?  

But my view is we should just reduce our public holidays.

And please DO NOT CREATE anymore new ones.

We have more than enough public holidays.