By Callistus Antony D’Angelus
OPINION: The unity government has promised reform and to an extent has delivered the reform promised to the people of Malaysia. The financial problems afflicting the country owing to decades of poor policymaking, corruption and an ineffective government administration has been called out.
It is no longer being buried and the public is not being misled or having their intelligence and integrity insulted through any obfuscation of the truth.
The jury is still out though where it concerns whether real change is affected. The acute cost-of-living crisis has not been solved nor abated. The B40 and M40 community are still being left behind by the yawning wealth and income gap in the country.
Businesses, and in particular big business, still holds sway over government policy and decision-making.
One area totally neglected is that of the rights, safeguards and protection of workers.
We have in place a minimum wage that is woefully inadequate, and a government machinery that is working with big business to muzzle the voices of workers and trade unions through nefarious means.
Is the Malaysian government trying to go down the path that Singapore has taken in stifling the voices of workers and trade unions through establishing a pliant trade union movement? When in opposition, parties such as PKR and the DAP championed the need for a strong trade union movement to deal with employers on an even keel.
Now, when in government, an about turn seems to have been taken. It is a case of riding the tiger of the left when politically convenient, only to make a sharp right turn when assuming the levers of power.
Is the Malaysian government wanting to create a trade union movement that is pliant, and which will serve its political interest, and not champion the rights of the workers?
Whilst that may have worked in Singapore due to factors peculiar to itself, it will not work in a country like Malaysia with its more diverse socio-economic makeup. It’s a colossal political miscalculation and will bear on the government unfavourably.
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should ensure that his government truly understands that type of reform he has promised and seeks to deliver.
Such reform cannot be achieved through the government cozying up with big business at the expense of the common people of the country.
The Prime Minister himself should perhaps take over the Ministry of Human Resources for a short period of time to set the course right.
Note: Callistus Antony D’Angelus is the International Labour Adviser of the Social Protection Contributor Advisory Association Malaysia (SPCAAM)