Minimum wage politicised

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Yee disapponited issue being used as political football by politicians

KOTA KINABALU: Politicians should not politicise the implementation of the minimum wage for their own personal agenda, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai.

Yee, who also the Minister of Resource Development and Information Technology, was commenting on the statement made by Sabah DAP publicity secretary Chan Foong Hin  in a Chinese daily newspaper recently, saying the minimum wage of RM800 is a sudden burden to the employers in Sabah.

“It is very sad and disappointing that politicians are still trying to politicize the issue of the minimum wage. In fact today we saw one DAP politician making very sarcastic comments, saying that the government does not know what is going on.

“This particular individual from Tawau was trying to teach a duck how to swim. I think he is the one who previously said that the government did not look at the experience of the other countries, from United Nations…,” he said to reporters after attending the grand opening ceremony of Lintas View Hotel at Lintas Station Complex yesterday.

Yee stressed that this particular politician (Chan) should go back to school and do his homework before he made such statement, which Yee referred as a ‘silly statement’.

“In fact, the government over the past many years has already looked at all the figures, all the experience from United Nations and World Bank and also from the other countries and the region. The government also had consultations with other stakeholders, employers and employees, only then they arrived with such figures.

“It is very sad that the issue of minimum wage is being used as a political football by politicians who have got their own personal agenda. We do not like to see a very important issue of minimum wage being used by politicians as their political football when the government is trying to implement a fair policy,” said Yee, adding that the government fully understands that employers are now facing new challenges.

“This particular individual said the minimum wage is too high, but other leaders from the same party said the minimum pay should be doubled as what has been agreed by the government.

“So what I am trying to say that these politicians are not looking at the importance of the livelihood of the employees and employers as they are purely using this minimum wage as a sarcastic political football,” he added.

The Api-Api assemblyman said the government is using the particular policy to ensure that the country is not depending on the foreign workers.

He added the opposition said there are many foreign workers throughout the nation, but at the same time they (the opposition) want to make an excuse saying that this minimum wage should not apply to the foreigners.

“If the minimum wage does not apply to the foreigners, you know what happen? Next thing you will see that a lot of locals will be unemployed because the employers will then employ the foreigners.

“There will be a large increase of the foreigners in town, and then they (the opposition) will make the noise again, saying we made the wrong decision again. At the same time, we will see some of the employers, in order to maximise the profit, they will want more quota for the foreigners, and they will not care whether the locals will have jobs or not,” said Yee.