PRODUCTIVITY LINKED WAGES AS LASTING “SHOCK ABSORBER” OF THE VAGARIES OF GLOBALISED CAPITALISM
By
Dato’ Ir Dr A. Bakar Jaafar
The time that has been worrying the few in the know, since the energy crisis due to the Arab Oil Embargo in the mid-Seventies, has finally come like a subtropical cyclone, “NARGIS”, and it would not go away like a lamb. It has hit hard particularly the “poor” masses, being the popular majority in many developing economies including Malaysia, whose votes count.
The vagaries of “global capitalism” are well known over the last three centuries. Perhaps, it could be traced back to the South Sea Bubble of 1720, the New York Exchange crash of 1987, to the most recent events. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predicted that capitalism would spread to the entire world. By the end of the twentieth century, that prediction was confirmed: capitalism had indeed become global. A range of “free market” instruments had been introduced, used, and “abused”: from trading of “precious metals” including tin, “stock market exchange”, “foreign currency exchange rates”, “sub-prime loan mortgages”, to “future trading of commodities” that led to the current crisis of escalating prices of oil, energy and food items. Again, it is the invisible work and shift of focus and target of the global capitalists.
Not only the capital market has been globalised, so are virtually every capital equipment, machinery, electrical, electronic goods, services, fast-foods, and other essential oil and food items, no longer confined locally and insulated by Governments from international market forces. No amount of subsidies would help cushion the tsunamic-onslaught of the global market instruments moved by merely touching softly and swiftly across the computer keyboards in the towering offices of the financial capitals throughout the world, not only from 8 to 5, nor from 7 to 11, but throughout the day and night, around the clock. The City of New York is one such a place that “it never sleeps”!
The “mid-summer” removal of fuel subsidies in Malaysia is inevitable, but that leaves the average citizens and residents alike with little choice or with hardly any option. Some personal sacrifice and adjustments painfully could be made, but such a measure would not last, and would not make Malaysia any longer that competitive.
To continue to be competitive, there ought to be a structural alignment between economic policy, programme-implementation, social response and responsibility toward sustainability. Basic to such a change is the need to link income to productivity, and thus, the need to raise the level of minimum income to at least RM 3000 per month:
· by releasing the “8-to-5” workforce to open market, to do “odd” jobs, and to help reduce the country’s dependency on cheap foreign labour and thus, the loss of foreign exchange through overseas remittance;
· by recognizing human capital, that is also “recyclable”, with multi-tasking capability to be highly mobile not only from place to place, but also from one sector to another;
· by opening up places of work, offices, factories, and all service centres 24 hours a day, as such these physical assets are fully utilized throughout the day, week, month, and year;
· by making payment made based on specific task performed within a specified time period;
· by outsourcing the non-critical services of the Government to those otherwise “underutilized” workforce such as drivers, clerical, ICT and other office staff, and
· by reviewing and expanding the nature and extent of products and services procured by the Government and its Government-linked companies, a form of affirmative action, in order to create internal demand of local produce and locally-produced products, until it generates the surplus in order to penetrate the highly competitive global market which demands not only reliable product, good quality, low price, timely delivery but also big volume, for which no single small and middle enterprise could easily meet.
In the meantime, the various relevant authorities, at both Federal and State level, should look into other structural problems, particularly those relating to public transport, public convenience, energy, and the environment, namely, the question of “sustainable mobility” which calls for the re-design of township, housing areas, sports, recreational facilities, and public access to open areas, and the overall urban plans. Instead of having the “road system-led” development, there ought be a development that is led by the need for public convenience and easy accessibility by having the following order of priority in personal choices: by walking, cycling, by river-boat, by bus, by ferry, by commuter-train by ERL-LRTs and hopefully in the immediate future by overcraft, by hovercraft, by river and coastal transport, and by MRT. The most important of all in the words of YB Dato’ Shahrir Abdul Samad, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, is “the need for connectivity”. Why not also link all the high rise buildings in the City through the “15-foot” walkways, either solar-airconditioned or well-ventilated”, and thus, create another layer of valuable commercial spaces for the building owners?
Also in the words of Tan Sri Datuk G. Gnanalingam, his staff is the most critical capital he has to reckon with: “the staff is the King; customer is only the Queen. Only the King knows how to take care of his Queen!”
In short, honest job must precede and commensurate with fair remuneration, and “the sovereign is charged with the responsibility of actualizing justice”, as suggested by Ibn Khaldun to a ruler in the 14th Century (8th Century Hijri).
Kuala Terengganu
8 June 2008
(World Ocean Day)
By
Dato’ Ir Dr A. Bakar Jaafar
The time that has been worrying the few in the know, since the energy crisis due to the Arab Oil Embargo in the mid-Seventies, has finally come like a subtropical cyclone, “NARGIS”, and it would not go away like a lamb. It has hit hard particularly the “poor” masses, being the popular majority in many developing economies including Malaysia, whose votes count.
The vagaries of “global capitalism” are well known over the last three centuries. Perhaps, it could be traced back to the South Sea Bubble of 1720, the New York Exchange crash of 1987, to the most recent events. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predicted that capitalism would spread to the entire world. By the end of the twentieth century, that prediction was confirmed: capitalism had indeed become global. A range of “free market” instruments had been introduced, used, and “abused”: from trading of “precious metals” including tin, “stock market exchange”, “foreign currency exchange rates”, “sub-prime loan mortgages”, to “future trading of commodities” that led to the current crisis of escalating prices of oil, energy and food items. Again, it is the invisible work and shift of focus and target of the global capitalists.
Not only the capital market has been globalised, so are virtually every capital equipment, machinery, electrical, electronic goods, services, fast-foods, and other essential oil and food items, no longer confined locally and insulated by Governments from international market forces. No amount of subsidies would help cushion the tsunamic-onslaught of the global market instruments moved by merely touching softly and swiftly across the computer keyboards in the towering offices of the financial capitals throughout the world, not only from 8 to 5, nor from 7 to 11, but throughout the day and night, around the clock. The City of New York is one such a place that “it never sleeps”!
The “mid-summer” removal of fuel subsidies in Malaysia is inevitable, but that leaves the average citizens and residents alike with little choice or with hardly any option. Some personal sacrifice and adjustments painfully could be made, but such a measure would not last, and would not make Malaysia any longer that competitive.
To continue to be competitive, there ought to be a structural alignment between economic policy, programme-implementation, social response and responsibility toward sustainability. Basic to such a change is the need to link income to productivity, and thus, the need to raise the level of minimum income to at least RM 3000 per month:
· by releasing the “8-to-5” workforce to open market, to do “odd” jobs, and to help reduce the country’s dependency on cheap foreign labour and thus, the loss of foreign exchange through overseas remittance;
· by recognizing human capital, that is also “recyclable”, with multi-tasking capability to be highly mobile not only from place to place, but also from one sector to another;
· by opening up places of work, offices, factories, and all service centres 24 hours a day, as such these physical assets are fully utilized throughout the day, week, month, and year;
· by making payment made based on specific task performed within a specified time period;
· by outsourcing the non-critical services of the Government to those otherwise “underutilized” workforce such as drivers, clerical, ICT and other office staff, and
· by reviewing and expanding the nature and extent of products and services procured by the Government and its Government-linked companies, a form of affirmative action, in order to create internal demand of local produce and locally-produced products, until it generates the surplus in order to penetrate the highly competitive global market which demands not only reliable product, good quality, low price, timely delivery but also big volume, for which no single small and middle enterprise could easily meet.
In the meantime, the various relevant authorities, at both Federal and State level, should look into other structural problems, particularly those relating to public transport, public convenience, energy, and the environment, namely, the question of “sustainable mobility” which calls for the re-design of township, housing areas, sports, recreational facilities, and public access to open areas, and the overall urban plans. Instead of having the “road system-led” development, there ought be a development that is led by the need for public convenience and easy accessibility by having the following order of priority in personal choices: by walking, cycling, by river-boat, by bus, by ferry, by commuter-train by ERL-LRTs and hopefully in the immediate future by overcraft, by hovercraft, by river and coastal transport, and by MRT. The most important of all in the words of YB Dato’ Shahrir Abdul Samad, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, is “the need for connectivity”. Why not also link all the high rise buildings in the City through the “15-foot” walkways, either solar-airconditioned or well-ventilated”, and thus, create another layer of valuable commercial spaces for the building owners?
Also in the words of Tan Sri Datuk G. Gnanalingam, his staff is the most critical capital he has to reckon with: “the staff is the King; customer is only the Queen. Only the King knows how to take care of his Queen!”
In short, honest job must precede and commensurate with fair remuneration, and “the sovereign is charged with the responsibility of actualizing justice”, as suggested by Ibn Khaldun to a ruler in the 14th Century (8th Century Hijri).
Kuala Terengganu
8 June 2008
(World Ocean Day)
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