AS SOMEONE who was born at Tung Shin Hospital in Kuala Lumpur (KL), I congratulate the KL City Football Club on winning the Malaysia Cup trophy for the first time in 32 years.
But it is politically irresponsible of Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim to declare a public holiday for KL, Labuan, and Putrajaya tomorrow as this sudden declaration of a public holiday is economically and socially disruptive to many.
Some 90% of KL’s RM216 billion gross domestic product output is in the service sector. KL is the heartbeat of the financial services sector in the country, and houses the operational headquarters of various accounting and tax consultants, as well as multinational companies.
This unexpected holiday will cost many companies millions in unplanned lost output. Certain firms may have to pay unplanned extra overtime to ensure that some of their core services remain up and running during this public holiday.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows this unplanned holiday may result in as much as RM400 million in lost output, something that the country cannot afford as we are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Face-to-face meetings may have to be cancelled, bookings for training sessions and conferences postponed, and foot traffic at shopping malls in KL will decrease – especially for those that depend on office workers as customers, just to name a few examples.
Businesses that conduct transactions with government offices in Putrajaya will have to delay their transactions to next week, which will result in lost time and unplanned productivity.
This unplanned public holiday is also socially disruptive. There may be parents who live in KL and send their kids to schools in KL, but work in Selangor. They would have to make sudden childcare arrangements for their kids who do not have to go to school.
Those with court appointments scheduled at the KL High Court tomorrow will also find their appointments postponed, and this will create a cascading effect – leading to other court appointments being further delayed as well.
One wonders if the minister had really thought about all these economic and social disruptions when he suddenly announced the public holiday yesterday. It wasn’t as if Malaysia had won its first Olympic gold medal, or achieved something historic at an international sporting event.
Does this act by the minister set an unhealthy precedent for chief ministers and menteris besar of other states to declare an unplanned state holiday when their respective teams win the Malaysia Cup?
This populist move by the minister makes me wonder if he has no other ideas to showcase the policy changes he wants to bring about to make KL into a world-class city under his watch as federal territories minister. – The Vibes, December 2, 2021
Ong Kian Ming is Bangi MP and DAP’s assistant political education director
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