enjoy the festivals

13Friday

JK's Digest no 24 of October, 06 [269 of 2006]  Longest stretch of holidays in Malaysia

Greetings for the seasons - Happy Deepavali and Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Sorry, if this is sensitive as this item touches on a double religious celebrations.


Of course whenever there are religious celebrations, there are holidays in multi racial and multi religious society.

But holidays are costs to the employers.  Nevertheless, we need to enjoy the festive seasons.

As this stretch of holiday would start on 20th October Friday and likely to end on 29th October Sunday,  I wonder how would the various essential services be professionally dealt with for a small nation?  It is likened to be an 'eclipse' from normal routine work into societal networks amongst the different peoples in society.

23rd October 2006 is declared a holiday for the public sector and many companies in the private sector depending on the public sector would have to close too.  26th October has been declared public holidays in some states with weekend on Friday.  So when Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya are on holiday, effectively the whole nation is also on holiday when some states do not declare 23rd as a holiday. Certain, disruptions are likely.

I know 23rd is a Monday sandwiched between two major festivals and high absenteeism is likely except for those to take their day off.  The 'balik kampong' is a practice to be retained but many also sadly die on their way home and then return journeys to the cities.

I hope the Government has considered how those sectors involved with essential services especially those ships and air freight with perishable goods calling on our airports and seaports during the festive seasons when only skeletal staff is maintained.  Would the insurance companies pay for the losses to be suffered by the importers?  Who would pay for the delay when the ships are forced to anchor in the harbours?  I pray that ships on the way  would have pre-empted such long holidays.   But some of these holidays are only declared in the week preceding the seasons of festivals.

Many employees would not complain when such double celebrations occur but it has been a culture of sort when some people complain of too much work which can only be sustained with an equivalent productivity.

I believe Malaysia is the only country with this kind of holiday phenomenon.  If we add up all those week ends, we only work about 8 months not to include the annual leaves.  So how productive are we to compete with world?  Some senior people actually work 6 months in a year. Am I correct in my assessment?

Even when many come back to work on 30th October, there is a tendency of a hangover for many on a Monday.

So we have to accept this special season for Malaysia as inevitable blessing of sort and start working extra hard to catch up with the rest of the world.

I hope this article can generate some interests in the context of consumerism vis-a-vis productivity - a case of performance for competitiveness.

Lets hope we may reap some benefits nationally in this eclipse from routine work.

Joshua Kong (proponent of MIGS)
Author of New Wealth Order, EPIC of Sabah, FIRE, Sabah Wealth - image of woods power,
EPIC of Sabah - 2nd Edition, Paper to Parliament Select Committee on Unity and National Service.
EPIC of Sabah - 3rd Ed., WATER, A tussle in biodiversity of two liquids - palm oil and water,
Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia in 1963, Paper Paper to Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (2006).
http://www.e-borneo.com/col/jkong/

happy deepavali and selamat hari raya to fellow malaysians