PENANG Opposition leader Muhammad Fauzi Yusoff (Sg Dua-PN) has called on the state government to clarify if job openings in the state were mostly filled by foreigners or local workers.
This was because the state had registered an unemployment rate of 2.3% in the first quarter of the year, indicating that not all local workers managed to secure jobs.
It was important to determine if the job openings were exclusively filled by local workers or others, Fauzi said in his maiden address to the state assembly.
Last year, Penang approved investments in manufacturing worth RM13.7 billion, involving up to 135 projects which generated 15,752 job opportunities.
“How are the human resources distributed in the manufacturing sector? Penang needs to clarify to the people here. We are growing anxious,” Fauzi said.
He said there had been countless announcements on what the Pakatan Harapan-led administration wanted to achieve in Penang.
But at the same time, there were several contradictions between federal and state over key projects such as the light rail transit (LRT) system.
The state dwelled on the LRT link from Komtar to the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas, but the federal side seemed to focus only on the mainland link.
“Please help clarify this for the people to have a better understanding,” Fauzi said.
He also asked why the heritage authorities seemed obsessed with only placing importance on the state’s colonial history when the state’s civilisation dated back to before 1786 when Sir Francis Light founded the island as a British crown territory.
“We have ignored the fact that there was a Malay settlement before Light arrived here. This is proven by the discovery of a mosque in Batu Uban which was constructed in 1734 by a seafarer called Nakhoda Nan Intan (Haji Muhammad Saleh).
“We are also disappointed that the state has yet to gazette the mosque in Batu Uban as a heritage building. We cannot ignore the history of the Malay-Muslim settlements, especially in protecting Batu Uban as a heritage enclave.”
Fauzi leads 11 backbenchers after the opposition Perikatan Nasional alliance secured 11 of the 40 state seats contested in the last state election.
The sitting, which will feature the tabling of next year’s fiscal budget, continues tomorrow. – The Vibes, November 20, 2023.
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