Syed Saddiq Brouhaha Over Minimum Wage
Given the high profile nature of the debate, both sides have found themselves allies in Parliament, most prominently Muar MP, Syed Saddiq, who has sided himself with the workers and is an outspoken supporter of raising the minimum wage.
He was responding to the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) which said it is fair to cut the take-home pay of workers who work from home, including cutting transport allowances.
"What kind of suggestion is this? Workers who work from home also pay to work.”
"They pay (additional) electricity bills and pay for their own Wi-Fi (internet) connection. They also work until late at night.
Especially given the rising inflation and living costs being faced by Malaysians in the post-COVID era, how can one pretend to fight for a higher minimum wage if they are not willing to do the same in their own hiring.
This is a good fight and one that should be fought by Saddiq, but what Malaysians need to realize is that he has done little to prove that is something worth banking on, unless you base your metrics are what might benefit Syed Saddiq politically.
Like all things associated with Saddiq, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
To his credit, Syed Saddiq’s achievement of pushing a constitutional amendment in Dewan Rakyat on the 16th of July 2019 is something that all Malaysians can be proud of. True to his word as youth orientated minister, he is not only the first politician to successfully push through a constitutional amendment since 2009, but also the first person to do so with a government that does not have a 2/3 majority in Parliament.
He has shown Malaysians that bipartisan cooperation is very well possible in Malaysia Baru and that the future of Malaysian youth is in good hands. But he is nothing but a sheep in wolves clothing.
He recently criticized the business model of private universities, calling them as shams for providing them with sub-par education and PTPTN debts. This is far cry from the almost rancorous calls for the complete abolishment of the PTPTN loans during the GE15 campaigning period.
Yet it didn’t even take a month before Saddiq backtracked on his previous stance – calling for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have the means to repay their loans despite earning less than RM4,000 a month must be responsible by settling their debts.
Even fundamental values such as freedom of speech can be threatened, amusingly by even Syed Saddiq himself.
There were little things such controversy over a KBS circular that threatened a Perdana Fellow under his watch for openly criticising his management of Bersatu’s Youth Wing.
This is surprising given that had long expressed the need for freedom of speech and expression prior to Pakatan’s win in 2018 and this kind of scare tactics were the same things that he had spoken out against during the election campaign.
Syed Saddiq himself never delivered on his sports portfolio, especially regarding the direction of how Malaysian football will continue to develop in this pivotal time for the NFDP.
We were in an exciting moment for the newly rejuvenated Malaysian football scene - and it will be up to Syed Saddiq to ensure that our young players can make the best.
The foundation had been set, thanks to the efforts of private clubs that pride themselves on independence, but Saddiq never had the time surprisingly to capitalize and emulate these efforts on the national level.
As it stands Syed Saddiq can rant and rave all he wants regarding his principals on social media – but his record still stands, and he falls far below any metric that the public can set him to.
He is a proven orator and proven to be less than principled than one imagines.
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