Have floating holidays to mark minorities' festivals

 

MP SPEAKS | I wish all Hindus and other Malaysians who will join in the celebration tomorrow, a very happy Thaipusam, a festival to commemorate the victory of the Hindu god Murugan over the demon Surapadma.

As we celebrate Thaipusam, I urge National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang and Human Resources Minister Steven Sim to consider introducing “floating holidays” to allow Malaysians with minority heritage to celebrate their cultural and religious festivals just like Malaysians from larger ethnic communities.

Thaipusam is a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Selangor. In 2021, the Kedah government cancelled the Thaipusam holiday in the state.

It is commendable that the Kedah government has since redesignated Thaipusam as a special holiday. This shows a mature attitude towards Malaysia’s rich multicultural heritage.

However, Hindus who live in eight other states or territories still have to work and study. We can only hope this does not dampen the mood of their celebration.

This experience has been shared by the hundreds of thousands of Kadazan-Dusun-Rungus people, the Muruts, and the Dayaks, who live outside of their home region during Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai.

Win-win situation

It is time for Malaysia to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive towards the celebration of minorities’ cultural and religious festivals.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not at all calling for increasing the total number of public holidays, which may reduce productivity.

Instead, I am suggesting a more innovative way of managing our public holidays: keep the total constant, but allow members of the minority to trade some of the lesser holidays for their festivals.

Kaamatan festival

This practice is called “floating holidays”, practised by Indonesia and the United Nations. For many industries, this may create a win-win situation.

Workers will take turns to celebrate their festivals, and the number of business days may be increased while members of minority communities can also celebrate their festivals and not feel left out.

Honouring nation’s rich heritages

After Kedah’s cancellation of Thaipusam holiday in 2021, Wisdom Foundation published a report titled “Beyond Thaipusam, time to consider floating holidays” by Freeda Jane Tangau, detailing how this may be done.

I hope Aaron and Sim will take some time to study this proposal and consider its implementation. Wouldn’t this be a clear manifestation of the Madani spirit the coalition government wishes to promote?

I also hope both the Sabah and Sarawak governments can lead by example on floating holidays, in honour of our rich heritages, making a case for West Malaysian state governments to reciprocate for Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai.

Hopefully, before the law changes, some employers who support multiculturalism will also take the initiative to introduce this innovative practice in their company.

Hopefully, when we celebrate the next Thaipusam, all Hindus in every region, state and federal territory in Malaysia have the choice to celebrate it at home. - Mkini

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WILFRED MADIUS TANGAU is the Tuaran MP.

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