Low wages linked to fewer, weaker unions

The goods and services tax (GST) which kicked in on April 1 has turned the spotlight once again on the country’s low-wage rut, with economists pointing at the weakening bargaining power of workers, influx of migrant labour and national economic policies as the main causes.

A long-standing problem, experts have said low wages were the result of Malaysia's industrialisation policy, which has long focused on the manufacturing sector.

But it also correlates with a steady fall in union membership, in part caused by dependence on foreign labour.

In fact, an economist at a recent forum on the welfare of Malaysians, said better bargaining rights for workers, such as through unions, could ensure better wages and benefits.

TCOI ranked 3rd for 2014 Best English Adult Non-Fiction

The Star : March 19, 2015 : 

Fairy tale outcome for local authors at awards

PUTRAJAYA: It was a good day for the Malaysian book industry yesterday, as local authors took home many of the major prizes at the MPH Best of 2014 Awards.

Malaysian horror author Tunku Halim took the prize in the Best English Adult Fiction category with his anthology Horror Stories, triumphing over international best-sellers such as Cecilia Ahern’s Love Rosie, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Lang Leav’s Lullabiesand Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage.

“The book has long been one of our top sellers,” said Nik Adam, distribution manager of the book’s publisher, Fixi. He accepted the award on behalf of an absent Halim.

“We are surprised that we mana­ged to win in a category with other talented nominees like Murakami, but also very happy, of course,” he added.

Another local winner was cartoonist Datuk Muhammad Nor Khalid, better known as Lat, who won the Best English Adult Non-Fiction award for his latest book, Forever Lat.

The other nominees in this category were Nick Vujicic’s Love Without Limits, Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal, Boey Chee Ming’s When I Was A Kid 3 and Dr Muhammad Abdul Khalid’s The Colour Of Inequality.

The awards were presented to the winners by Perbadanan Putrajaya president Tan Sri Aseh Che Mat du­ring a special ceremony at the official opening of the Putrajaya International Book Fair (PIBF) here.

The awards were held in conjunction with the PIBF to honour both internationally and locally published books that were released in 2014.

Nominees were selected from a list of over 250 titles, with winners selected based on criteria such as overall sales at MPH bookstores nationwide and online in 2014, as well as reviews and recommendations from book buyers and international websites.

For Malay titles, Azura Rasiddin’s Teman Lelaki Upahan took home the award for Best Malay Fiction, while DIAgnosis by Dr Anwar Faizal, Dr Aizzat and Dr Azah won the Best Malay Non-Fiction award.

Other winners were Tony Robbins’ Money: Master The Game for Best Business book, Master Ally Che’s Reiki for Best Chinese, and Jeff Kinney’s Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Vol 9: The Long Haul for Best Young Adult Fiction.

MPH Bookstores chief operating officer Donald Kee said the award winners this year were “fantastic”.

According to him, the prevalence of local winners is a promising development for the Malaysian book industry.

“We are on the right track, and we need to have more publications and events like this to encourage every­one, from writers to booksellers,” Kee said.

The Star is the media partner for the Putrajaya Book Fair 2015, which is supported by Perbadanan Putrajaya.

Organised by MPH Bookstores, the fair began on Tuesday at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre and will continue until Sunday. For more information, go to mphonline.com/offers/pibf.aspx.

link http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/03/19/Local-authors-win-big-at-MPH-Best-of-2014-Awards/

Are You Paid Enough For Your Work?

How much do Malaysians earn? Take a guess.

BFM Breakfast Grille - INEQUALITY - UNCOMFORTABLE FACTS AND FRAMEWORKS

"“Some of the statements in the book would also make uncomfortable reading both for those in power and in the political opposition,” says one reviewer. Now a bestseller, Muhammad’s book takes on many common perceptions about the question of inequality and related policies like the New Economic Policy. But the real strength and contribution of the book is in the new research as well as an insistence to think more deeply about inequality beyond income."

Public Seminar in Kedah : All are welcome

Book Review - The Establishment Post

The Colour of Inequality: Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia could not have come at a better time.

The book, launched in November last year, covers the themes of ethnicity, class, income and wealth in Malaysia, from the days of the Malay states.

It was published just as Malaysia enters the last leg of a socio-economic development agenda that began in 1970 and will end with Malaysia becoming a high-income nation in 2020.

The statistics-drenched book by Muhammed Abdul Khalid is just the sort of thing needed to make policymakers, technocrats and stakeholders from industries, involved in the crafting of the 11th Malaysian Plan, ask questions on upward mobility, asset ownership and wealth creation and why there are still huge disparities.

MPH Best of 2014

Wealth distribution means 'giving a man a fish'. Soon he becomes a vegetable.

From the blog Outsyed The Box , link here

"But there is a larger problem. This is exactly the same reason the Arab countries are breaking down. The people are poor. Or relatively poorer (much poorer) than others. In this case it is Malays (poor) versus non Malays (richer)."

New 'Dr. M' On Inequality And Getting Lost In The Waves

“We’ve achieved unparallelled success with the NEP (New Economic Policy), but there are new challenges that need to be addressed,” he said

Reply to a libertarian

 "...without the NEP, Malaysia could have grown faster and that the NEP caused Malaysia to grow only as fast as experienced"  

Betul ke?

ASB, KJ and UMNO Youth

"It is common knowledge that our economic status is still at a lower level compared to other races – that’s a reality. Until today, the income of the Malays is lower than other races. Many say; Malays have Amanah Saham! But according to the latest research by Dr. Muhammed Abdul Khalid in his book Colours of Inequality, it’s ironic that our average investment in ASB is only RM 600 when the limit is RM 200,000"

NEP : The Scarlet Letter

“Critics argue that the NEP is a failure, citing that it impedes investments, retards growth and benefits only a small number of well-connected bumiputras. Their arguments are not supported by data.

Boosting wealth generation of Bumiputeras : A Jalil Hamid

ECONOMIST Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid argued in his book, The Colour of Inequality: Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia, that age cohorts, educational level and occupation helped contribute to the wealth disparity between Malays and Chinese.

Data that he produced showed that Bumiputeras had the least wealth compared with other ethnic groups. For example, in 2009, the average Chinese household had 1.38 times and 1.25 times as much income as Bumiputeras and Indians, respectively, but in terms of wealth, the gap widens: 1.9 times and 1.5 times, respectively.

How can we close the gap?

ASB

"Ramai yang cakap, Melayu ada Amanah Saham! Tapi mengikut kajian terkini Dr. Muhammad Abdul Khalid dalam buku Colours of Inequality, ironis sekali bila pelaburan purata orang kita dalam Amanah Saham hanya RM 600. Bayangkan hanya RM 600 sahaja, sedangkan kita tahu had pelaburan RM 200 ribu" - KJ

DEB bukan dasar yang menyekat pelaburan

"Dasar ini dibentuk supaya ekonomi berkembang dan pengagihan berlaku secara adil dan saksama. Banyak kajian ilmiah yang menunjukkan bahawa semua kaum mendapat manfaat daripada pelaksanaan DEB. Ini termasuk kajian mutakhir Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid yang diterbitkan di dalam bukunya 'The Color of Inequality' yang membuktikan DEB memberi manfaat kepada semua kaum dari segi pembasmian kemiskinan, peningkatan pendapatan, peluang pekerjaan dan pemilikan ekuiti"

Malaysia Needs An Equitable Economic Model

Malaysia Needs An Equitable Economic Model - Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs an economic model which can ensure economic growth that is accompanied by fair distribution of wealth, said Umno Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the inequality that existed in the society currently was frightening with the economy of the Malays still at a critical level, apart from various challenges facing them in continuing with their economic agenda.

"We (the Malays) are competing in an economy which is more open. We are facing an ideology of equitability which opposes implementation of all the Malay agenda.

"Under the various instruments of international free trade agreement, our country is pressured to no longer practice the policy of protecting the interests of bumiputera.

"Purportedly, a policy like this hampers economic development and retards the market, despite this policy having been used by the developed countries for more than half a century before they achieved the developed status," he added.

He said this in his speech at the simultaneous opening of the Wanita, Youth and Puteri Umno assemblies at the Putra World Trade Centre here on Tuesday night.

Malaysia, he said, was also going against the flow of global capitalism and free market ideology that were increasingly widening the gap of inequality and requiring an approach, policy and strategy that were more effective in narrowing the gap between the races and classes.

Elaborating on the economic gap, Muhyiddin said based on the data by the median monthly household income of bumiputera was only RM3,282 which was still low compared with the Chinese at RM4,643 and the Indian (RM3,676).

He said out of the 40 per cent households with the lowest income, 75.5 per cent of them were bumiputera.

The bumiputera continued to be treated unfairly in the private sector, he added.

"A study carried out by Dr Lee Hwok Aun and Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid in 2012 found that for every Malay graduate called for an interview in the private sector, an average of 5.3 Chinese graduates were interviewed, although they all had the same qualification.

"The official data also shows a high unemployment rate among the bumiputera workforce, which is 70.3 per cent, including unemployed graduates of 66.9 per cent," he added.

Muhyiddin said based on a study by economic experts, the bumiputera workers received a salary of 20 to 40 per cent lower than the non-bumiputera in the private sector.

Apart from the economic gap among the races, he said, the country was also experiencing a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and among the ethnic groups in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak, the urban and the rural community and between company chief executive officers, senior management and workers.

All these, if allowed to continue will adversely affect the country's economic performance, he added.

Hence, he said, the need for the bumiputera agenda to be made a national agenda, and policies and strategies to bridge the economic gap to be made the main thrust of the 11th Malaysia Plan.

"The bumiputera agenda as a national agenda cannot be implemented in a small scale or in isolation from the main frame of the country's economy. It has to be carried out in an inclusive and comprehensive manner, and transcends all economic sectors," he added.

He also recommended that a new National Economic policy to be drafted to drive the equitability initiative.

Muhyiddin said focus and priority should also be given to training programmes aimed at enhancing the skills of bumiputera workers, apart from improving the subsidy mechanism, addressing discrimination in the employment sector, to fine-tune legislation, regulation and enforcement against foreign workers.

He said policies on workers' salaries should be introduced, besides having a more structured taxation mechanism, increasing incentives to enable families to increase their income and providing an conducive ecosystem for the rural students and the urban poor.

-- BERNAMA

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsmarkets.php?id=1088369

True colours through the lens of facts and figures

"That’s the beauty of this book – it is not political rhetoric chasing some selfish agenda. The Colour of Inequality sticks to the facts and available data. The author listed the failures in leadership, policy (crafting and implementation), education, racist stereotypes, business culture alongside what worked and the results of a 57-year long social experiment that is Malaysia."

Fahami, tangani dan cari jalan isu ketaksamaan

TCOI on Astro Awani.

Watch here :http://www.astroawani.com/videos/show/awani-7-45/fahami-tangani-dan-cari-jalan-isu-ketaksamaan-45114

THERE IS NO MERIT IN MERITOCRACY

The Heat Online
By Pauline Wong 
11/23/2014 9:02:46 AM

"A meritocratic system penalises the poor, the disadvantaged because opportunity is not the same. If everything is equal then yes, it is fine to have meritocracy. But how can a kid from rural Sabah compete with a kid from urban Damansara? This is the biggest obstacle in upward social mobility because education is key and we’ve closed that door".

Book Launch Photos