LANGKAWI – Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is pushing for more vocational studies and apprenticeships to be introduced on Langkawi for locals, after seeing the island’s economic mainstay in tourism battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Langkawi MP said inculcating skills like machining and digital programming is important to create diversity in job opportunities, instead of being reliant mostly on tourism.
At a dialogue session with small and medium-scale enterprise owners, the 95-year-old leader, who resigned from his second stint as prime minister in February, said that vocational and technical skills can help empower youth to gain new jobs.
“In terms of business, I have plans to teach the youth of Langkawi to use machines to do work productively,” he said.
He said those doing wood-carving by hand take a lot of time to complete each job.
“With a machine, it is quicker, but the challenge is learning how to operate it. It will involve computer programming. Now, there is also 3D printing technology,” he said.
“I hope to get Langkawi youth aged between 15 to 30 to learn this skill in Kuala Lumpur.”
Mahathir said he hoped they would come back to Langkawi once they have acquired the skills to help their parents’ businesses, while gaining avenues for themselves to make money.
“I want to look for sponsors to help. After all, it costs money to live there (in Kuala Lumpur) and learn the skill. Right now, we don’t have the money,” he said.
“My hope is that we can increase the income of the locals in Langkawi, especially the young folk,” he said, adding that a small business has the potential to become big if its operator knows how to expand it.
“I already have four or five of those machines ready for the youth to use to pick up the skills. We can choose two or three of those who are keen and interested in picking this up,” he said.
Earlier, Mahathir was inundated with pleas for financial help for small-scale business operators to continue after the pandemic caused a massive decline in tourists.
Association of Hawkers and Small Traders chairman Fatimah Abdul Hamid requested for Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia to delay the collection of loan repayments.
She also asked for the Employees Provident Fund to release RM10,000 to contributors from their funds in a lump sum, and for banks to ease loan approval for small business owners.
Mahathir said that he had no power to make that happen as he is only the MP for Langkawi.
“The ones with the power are the ones in government,” he said.
“We can only try. We won’t know what the result will be. If we know the person in charge, we can meet up with them and ask for their help, but we will certainly bring your concerns to those in the government.
“Look at the Chinese! When they came here, they were labourers but now all their children are now millionaires.
“That is why I say that when we operate a business, it must grow it,” he said, urging small business owners to take their businesses online.
“When it comes to business, you need to put in a lot of effort. My hope is that you will pick this up and grow your business. Even if you don’t become millionaires, you will still have additional income.”
The various movement control orders imposed due to Covid-19 brought Langkawi businesses to their knees.
While 70% of the businesses here cater to tourists, 92% directly or indirectly depend on domestic and international tourists.
Even though Langkawi is deemed a green zone, the recent conditional movement control order enforced in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley has affected the island’s tourist inflow badly, reducing the usually congested Pantai Cenang beach to a deserted coast. – The Vibes, December 13, 2020
