Salary stagnation due to lack of good industries — DAP
KOTA KINABALU: The longterm stagnation of workers’ salary in Sabah stems from the fact that Sabah does not have good industrial and manufacturing sectors as its driving force, over relies on foreign workers and is highly dependent on natural resources-based economy.
DAP publicity secretary Phoong Jin Zhe said this caused the loss of large numbers of high-tech and skilled talents from the state, and as a result, most jobs in Sabah are low-paid and low-skill jobs, and the reason the median salary in Sabah is the lowest in the country.
For instance, he said in 2016, more than half of the workers earn less than RM1,240 monthly income.
He made the comment in response to the statement made by Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Raymond Tan, who recently pointed out that salaried wages in Sabah have been stagnant because employers have not implemented structural salary scheme to accommodate their employees, causing Sabahans to face higher living pressure.
Phoong explained that the absence of good industrial and manufacturing bases indicate the disappearance of the middle class within the state. This is shown in the Department of Statistics report where Sabah’s Gini Coefficient is the highest among other states in Malaysia. It shows that the disparity between the rich and the poor in Sabah has widened in recent years.
Among them, 3% of the middleincome group in Kota Kinabalu fall into the low-income group, highlighting the seriousness of the problem. As there is no suitable and decent job opportunity for the local community, most of the skilled and knowledgeable young Sabahans chose to emigrate or leave their hometowns for better opportunities.
“That’s why we can see that most university graduates are eventually forced to drive Uber and Grab. This is due to lack of job opportunities and low pay rates in the country. I’m not saying that it is not good to drive Uber, but it is a pity when young professionals are not properly equipped to work in a right place. This is unfortunate and also a national loss,” he added.
Phoong said according to the Eleventh Malaysia Plan, Sabah’s GDP only grew averagely by 3% between 2011 and 2015, which is lower than the national average. Sabah also has the slowest growth compared to other states in the country.
“These figures show that there is no significant result in the industrial and manufacturing sectors in Sabah. Is this not the responsibility of Raymond Tan?
“Even in the oil palm industry, which accounts for a large proportion of the economy in Sabah, the downstream industries have not been impressive. Sabah’s economy would be even worse if it is not supported by Godgiven nature. The problem with tourism, however, is that it cannot drive society into an era of high wages, as would the industrial and manufacturing sectors,” he said.
“Taking the achievements of China’s economic reforms in recent years as an example, as the government vigorously promoted the development of innovative industries and created highquality employment opportunities, wages in many cities doubled in the short term. China has successfully transformed from the ‘World Factory’ that was driven by low wages to an era that promotes high productivity and wages,” he added.
“According to a Bank Negara report, new job opportunities created in our country mainly consist of low and medium-skilled jobs. To put it bluntly, it is labourintensive jobs that do not require specific technical capabilities. Such jobs have very low wages. Moreover, Malaysia does not provide few more high-skilled jobs in the country,” Phoong noted.
“How to increase the salary when the whole society has been stuck in this labour-intensive model?” he questioned, adding that, “this is why I say that Raymond Tan’s recent claim is irresponsible”.
“Can he not understand that the real way to raise wages is through the reform and development of the entire economic structure instead of merely calling employers to increase employees’ salary?” he asked.
“Though I agree that employers should implement structural salary scheme, macroeconomic policy measures are more crucial to improve the worsening economy in Sabah,” he reckoned.
He added: “Once Pakatan Harapan gains governing power, the coalition will launch a ‘Youth New Deal’ to build a better future and bring hope to young Malaysians.”
Pakatan Harapan is promising to create 100,000 jobs with monthly salary of more than RM2,500 in Sabah within five years of its administration.
“This is not an implausible message. It is precisely through economic restructuring that we are confident we can achieve this goal,” he reiterated, adding that through the ‘Youth New Deal’ Pakatan Harapan will spend RM1 billion to focus on the development of six major innovative industries, namely, modern agriculture and farming, technology sector, creative and entertainment art industry, e-sports, social media entertainment industry and modern tourism industry for urban and suburban.