Call for ‘floating holidays’ so minorities can celebrate festivals
KOTA KINABALU: Tuaran member of parliament Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau urged the Minister of National Unity Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang and Minister of Human Resources Steven Sim Chee Keong to introduce ‘floating holidays’.
Madius, in his Thaipusam message on Wednesday said the proposed holiday will allow Malaysians with minority heritage to celebrate their cultural and religious festivals just like Malaysians from larger ethnic communities.
“Thaipusam is a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Selangor, for all Malaysians.
“In 2021, the Thaipusam holiday was unfortunately cancelled by the then Kedah state government. It is commendable that the Kedah State Government has since redesignated Thaipusam as a special holiday. This shows a mature attitude towards Malaysia’s rich multicultural heritage.
“However, Hindus who live in eight other regions/states including Sabah and also the Federal Territory of Labuan would have to work and study. We can only hope this does not dampen the mood of their celebration,” he said.
Madius expressed this experience has been shared by the hundreds of thousands of Kadazan-Dusun-Rungus people, the Muruts, and the Dayaks, who live outside of their home region during Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai.
“It is time for Malaysia to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive towards celebration of minorities’ cultural and religious festivals.
“Don’t get me wrong. I am not at all calling for increasing the total number of public holidays, which may reduce productivity. Instead, I am suggesting a more innovative way of managing our public holidays: keep the total constant, but allowing members of minority to trade some of the lesser holidays for their own festivals,” he added.
Madius further explained that the practice is called “floating holidays”, practiced by Indonesia and United Nations.
The chairman of Wisdom Foundation said many industries, with workers taking turn to celebrate their festivals, where the number of business days may be increased while members of minority communities can also celebrate their own festivals and not feeling left out.
After Kedah’s cancellation of Thaipusam holiday in 2021, Madius said Wisdom Foundation published a report titled “Beyond Thaipusam, time to consider floating holidays” detailing how this may be done.
“I hope Minister Aaron and Minister Steven Sim would take some time to study this proposal and consider its implementation. Wouldn’t this be a clear manifestation of the Madani spirit the Unity Government want to promote?
“I also hope both the Sabah and Sarawak regional governments can provide leadership by example on floating holidays, in honour of our rich heritages, making a case for West Malaysian state governments to reciprocate for Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai,” he said, while wishing all Hindus and other Malaysians who join in the celebration a very happy Thaipusam.