Better ways to reward athletes than public holiday

Najib announces public holiday on Sept 4 for SEA Games success

Xed: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has announced that tomorrow (Sept 4) a public holiday following the country’s success in the SEA Games.

It is a primitive, capricious, disruptive and wasteful gesture to declare a public holiday like this, especially at short notice. There are other ways of showing admiration, gratitude, et cetera (perhaps, more datukships) to our athletes.

In 1983, when an Australian sailing team became the first non-American one to win the America’s Cup, then Australian prime minister Bob Hawke could not declare a public holiday (certainly not on behalf of the states and territories) but said that any employer who dismissed an employee who was absent from work because of the celebrations would be a “bum”. Has Bangladesh declared a public holiday for its victory over Australia in cricket?

Najib is following the example of his father. When the BN logo was unveiled at a political rally, Abdul Razak Hussein declared the next day a public holiday.

It is wrong to declare a public holiday for a political purpose. Public officers will not complain. It is the taxpayers who suffer.

Amateur: I don’t quite see how there was such a success in the SEA Games that a last-minute public holiday had to be declared.

Sixteen years ago in 2001, Malaysia hosted the Games and won a total of 271 medals by fielding a total of 673 participants. The performance yield (medal/participant) is 40.3 percent.

This year it hosted the Games again and won a total of 323 medals with a total of 844 participants. The performance yield is only 38.3 percent, which is a drop of 2 percent.

Adele: The manufacturing sector is the backbone of the Bolehland economy. How could Najib make such an announcement at a late hour in the night?

All employees had already gone home and it was the start of a four-day long holiday. There will be all kinds of export shipment deadlines to meet. Overseas clients would not tolerate any sudden delays in their orders.

Najib is killing Bolehland’s manufacturing sector by making such a sudden announcement. At least he should have announced it during working hours on Wednesday. This could have allowed employers to plan better and inform both employees and clients of their plan.

ICAC: Announcing special holidays on short notice will cause troubles, annoyances and financial losses to many people who have fixed their official duties, flights, meetings, seminars, trips, appointments.

So, who should bear such losses? Why didn’t Najib fix the special holiday two weeks from his announcement?

Clearwater: Several of us cynically discussed the possibility of an extra holiday when Malaysia started amassing gold medals in the SEA Games this year, and would you know it, we were all spot on!

Ordinary Malaysians need to have a little of the feel-good factor after a year of unrelenting price increases and hey, employers can afford to pay for an extra holiday.

Ramasamy: Avoid having Indian leaders in Harapan just for window dressing

David Dass: Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said that any discussion about Indian representation in the Pakatan Harapan leadership structure must not be for the sake of “window dressing” but rather to fulfil a necessary political need.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an interview with Steven Sackur of BBC interview show Hardtalk said that Singapore was not ready for an Indian – Tharman Shanmugaratnam – as prime minister.

I attended a forum once and some Chinese participants suggested that there were too many Indian MPs elected by the Chinese electorate.

So this belief that people of one race should and would only elect or choose members of their own community permeates our society. Never mind about choosing the best candidate. Choose only one of your own kind.

When I graduated from law school I was told by a lawyer that I should go to the rural areas as there were too many “black faces” in Kuala Lumpur. Needless to say, that interview did not last long and years later that senior lawyer fled the country with a pile of debt and issues with the Bar Council.

Fortunately, not all people felt that way, and talent and ability often were recognised and utilised. And this is the point.

People with talent and ability find their way to the professions whether it be law, medicine, accountancy or engineering, et cetera, and, after years of studying, contribute to the betterment of society.

It takes 15 years to train a neurosurgeon or a paediatric cardiac surgeon, and they often work in government hospitals and keep long hours and conduct gruelling surgery for relatively little money.

Race-based policies often close the door on such people. When will we grow up as a nation and rise beyond our prejudices, and allow the potential of our people to find its level?

Cocomomo: Malaysians should address issues of Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity. We should not continue to allow racist and religious bigots to divide the people, though the ruling regime has unfortunately allowed so much division to take place through sub-standard education and giving in to so-called religious requirements.

Integrity and ability to serve are more important than the leaders having to be of any particular race.

Anonymous 539281478077880: Leave all your ideas and suggestions behind about naming an Indian at the forefront of Harapan. The main aim is to overthrow the current regime, and this should be carried out collectively with no internal squabbles among the coalition leaders.

If Putrajaya is “captured” then thrash out all the petty squabbles with the new leaders.

Nothing is certain at the present moment, so concentrate on winning the next general election first. Avoid all unnecessary talk and save your energy for the campaigning.

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