Accept pay cuts, monetise your hobbies, advises Dr M

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has advised fellow Malaysians to accept potential salary cuts amidst the Covid-19 pandemic but stressed that it is possible to earn money through other ways, such as monetising one's hobbies.

"Sometimes people will have to stop work because there is no demand and because there is no demand you cannot keep on employing people and paying them a salary when you are not making any money.

"One of the things we have to accept is if the income is low... we cannot expect to enjoy the same old lifestyle which costs money.

"When you reduce your kind of activities which costs money before, your need for pay would be less and you could actually live on a lower pay.

"That means you not only continue to have a decent life but also your employer will not be strained by having to pay you the same pay," Mahathir said in a live-stream interview session with youth group MyPerintis.

Another way for people to cope with the sluggish economy during the Covid-19 pandemic is to look for other ways to earn money, he said.

He suggested that Malaysians could examine their hobbies to see which ones could be monetised.

With the age of digitalisation, Mahathir said people can easily buy or sell their products or services online.

This crisis is different

Noting that the economic stimulus package he announced on Feb 27, 2020 included an automation and digitalisation fund, Mahathir said more Malaysians need to adapt to new technology.

"Not many people know about this (the fund). They do not know how to make use of this so there should be some instructions so that people will learn how to do online marketing and how to improve your productivity through digitalisation and other new technology," he said.

Though this will require some teaching, he pointed out that this can also be achieved through the internet now.

However, he acknowledged that this is a process that will happen slowly.

Aside from the internet, he noted that a good delivery system is also very important to the economy now.

"One of the things that is very necessary now is delivery. You can produce things but if you cannot delivery then of course you cannot sell, so the delivery systems like Grab and others must be encouraged and people must be well-trained including ensuring that they themselves do not get affected (by the disease)," Mahathir said.

The Covid-19 crisis is different than any other crises before this, he said, in that this one restricts our movements.

In previous crises, people could still move around and work and earn money, he said.

"But here, you are prevented from doing work and people are not contributing towards enriching the community," he said.

Don't get emotional

Despite this, he said, it was important to remember not to get too upset or angry when handling a crisis.

The first thing to do in a crisis, he said, is to analyse the situation and what led to the crisis in order to find a solution.

"In all crisis, in all problems, there is a way to handle but the main thing is to keep calm, don't get angry, upset and do not blame others.

"Try and think what you can do to overcome the crisis. Blaming others doesn't help at all," he said.

He said some countries were blaming China for the Covid-19 pandemic but China had also handled the situation better than many other countries.

"So it is better for us to learn from China how to handle this (Covid-19)," he said. - Mkini