It's About Time. Really.

THE AQUINAS was scrolling through the array of online news portals just moments ago, and he happened to stumble upon this : the possibility of the introduction of minimum wage in Malaysia.

SAY WHAT?

Why create the hoo-ha now? By the reasonable standards of a developing nation currently pursuing the objective of becoming a high-income nation, we should have this in our blueprint A LONG TIME AGO.
Yes, for some quarters, regardless of which side of the political divide that they might come from, this is a much-welcomed move. That is IF this plan is put into serious implementation. Added with the cut in subsidies and the journey towards economic recovery, the enforcement of a minimum wage legislation, or even a policy to say the least, should in some way or another ease the economic burden of the lower-to-middle income society - who happen to make up about 60% of the Malaysian working demography.

Achieving happiness at the workplace without minimum wage. BLAH. Picture courtesy of stevenaitchison.co.uk

The lower-to-middle income group are arguably the driving force of the nation's economy. These group of dedicated people also happen to be the main engine constantly revving up to ensure the top notch performance of this fine vehicle called Malaysia (no offence to Proton, that is). However, we, as a collective nation are actually not doing these group of people any favour - since their employers are still able to issue them any amount of wage as they please, while seeking refuge behind the curtains of a demand-and-supply economy. This is all due to the absence of a minimum wage cap.

For the benefit of THE AQUINAS' readers out there, there was this National Employment Return study conducted last year, there is a staggering amount of 1.3 million workers, or 43% of the Malaysian workforce, who were earning less than RM 700 per month. RM 700 per month? What are these people going bring to their dining table? Just mere kangkung for every meal? To make things worse, this is actually lower than the national poverty line of RM 720 per month!

And according to the World Bank (whose credibility and impartiality THE AQUINAS doubted to a certain extent, but chose to quote here anyway), the yearly salary increment in our beautiful Malaysia for the last 10 years stands at a mere 2.6%, a stark contradiction with the 10%-15% increase in the cost of living within those years.

As you can see, people, you do not need actuarial science Mathematics to appreciate these figure (NERDS..).

                                                  Picture courtesy of untoldentertainment.com

And this is one of the many reasons why THE AQUINAS contends that we are not doing justice to the group of people who are busting their bones not only to make ends meet for themselves, but also significantly contribute to the ongoing progress of the nation's economy.

However, it is important to note that any implementation without intense pre-planning and detailed scrutiny will eventually lead to the failure of the policy itself. We are all too familiar that the Government has this penchant of diving into the ocean of policies without knowing its depth and the problems they might face undersea. It would only be a question of time as to when their oxygen supply runs out. Remember what happened to the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English policy? We might even end up by scrapping this whole policy altogether, not surprisingly only months after its celebrated debut. At the end of the day, we will have people feeling the pinch of we resort to that. And THE AQUINAS is referring to the lower-to-middle income group, of course.

Let's not have this dedicated people eat nothing but kangkung for their meals.

                                               Picture courtesy of asrichascroesus.blogspot.com

THE AQUINAS has spoken.

Make 'em Today, Dump 'em Tomorrow

If one would flip the pages of any of the local papers nowadays, one could not help but to shudder and express, in their own ways, their feelings of disgust, sadness and perhaps anger when one would come across unfortunate yet real stories of babies being discarded and disposed off in the most unlikely of places ― garbage dumps, bushes, monsoon drains, dark footways, toilet bowls etc.

In some instances, these media reports may contain photo shots of the dead foetuses, or perhaps graphic description of these babies being ravaged by stray dogs, succumbed to insect bites and defenselessly exposed to harsh weather conditions. It is even no longer surprising if we come across news of babies found dead with their umbilical cord STILL attached to their bodies.

                                                Picture courtesy of http://www.dimensionsguide.com/

The next question that  typical Malaysian would ask is "who should be blamed for this societal mess??". (GOTCHA THERE DIDN'T I?). Yes, a very-the-typical Malaysian spirit, constantly seeking as to whom the blame should be put on when there is any issue affecting our society. Certain quarters even went to the extent of blaming pornography for this so-called societal illness.
.

                                          This is no porn.  Picture courtesy of http://medindia.net/ 

Just for the record, THE AQUINAS will not point his finger towards anyone in this matter, since there are many others who are more than willing to do just that for him. 

Moving on. With regards to this pertinent issue, there is currently a notion that suggests the perpetrators of such inhumanely act to be charged for culpable homicide or in the extreme cases, murder. The sentence for the latter, in Malaysia, is of course punishable by death, thanks to Section 302 of the Penal Code. The rationale behind it? However arguable this may sound, please allow THE AQUINAS to lay down some knowledge on this rationale, as knowledge by itself is the only asset that never depletes when given away..

The significant ingredient for murder, besides the very act of killing itself, is of course the wrongful state of mind while committing the act of murder. If you non-legal entities would like to impress your peers with some Latin lexicons, THE AQUINAS' legal brethrens call this element mens rea. To cut to the chase, the knowledge that such act would result in death, on the part of the perpetrator, can be considered as a mens rea. With the bare legal essentials done, let us now try to piece this together. When a person contemplates as to whether or not to dump his/her baby, it is not impossible to rule out the possibility that he/she has the knowledge that the chances of the baby dying is in fact very material. However, he/she decides to do it ANYWAY. In other words, he/she has the knowledge that such act of dumping babies could lead to the death of the baby itself. Simple as it may sound, but believe me, the real process of pursuing a criminal liability against a person is far from easy as compared to what THE AQUINAS had painted.

What does THE AQUINAS think about this? Well, to him, THE AQUINAS is of the opinion that imposing a death punishment is not at all an automatic call to end this societal menace. Well, the death punishment didn't even stop people from murdering one another, why would it stop baby-dumpers? I can still recall the time when we heard of people lobbying a death sentence for rapists. As per one of my esteemed lecturers, this is the Malaysian attitude - impose the death sentence, end of story.

THE AQUINAS has spoken.

Spitting on the Footie Field, and Licking It Back

I watched the news on a local TV network just moments ago when this struck me. The sports segment of the news did a cover on the possibility of the FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) lifting the so-called ban on imported players in our local football leagues.

SAY WHAT?

As far as my memory serves me correctly, this is certainly not the first time the FAM contemplates as to whether or not allow foreign players to ply their trade in our local leagues. Back in 2008, Khairy Jamaluddin announced an "infinite decree" that foreign players will be barred from competing in the local football league effective January 2009, stating the reason "after years of allowing import players to play in our leagues, they did not improve our football standards at all'".

A year has passed, and now there's news of the possibility of lifting the ban on imported players. This possibility is in fact welcomed by fans and pundits alike, but let us not forget that there are some opposing views regarding this notion of allowing foreign players to come to our local leagues.

                                   Picture courtesy of www.abinesh.com/delirium/posts/m...am-only/

On a personal level, THE AQUINAS is of the opinion that this policy is just one of the numerous foolproof evidence of FAM's penchant of backtracking on its decisions. The FAM reasoned that the ban on imported players is somewhat necessary, for the sake of improving the standards of local football. Furthermore, the imported players, as I would quote Khairy J, did not improve our local football standards.

Maybe it is just me, but THE AQUINAS cannot help to think that there is an obvious flaw in the reasoning dispensed by the FAM. How can they point their fingers towards the foreign players for the lack of standard displayed by Malaysian football? The case might be true if the foreign players make a huge part of the squad of each participating teams. However, that is not the case, as each team is only allowed to have THREE imported players in their squad. If you ask me, this just does not make sense mathematically. How can you expect three people in a football team to screw up the whole football system? Even the Calciopoli needed several teams to screw up the Serie A. A complete failure in the logic department, I may say.

And that is just the top of it. These turn of events also illustrate the tendency of FAM of putting the blame on others whenever they come under criticisms. Blaming the foreign players for the downfall of Malaysian football? Nice segway, big shot. Honestly speaking, roping in foreign imports without any substantial domestic effort will not do our local football scene any favours. If this happens, we might as well brace ourselves for the next official statement from the FAM "re-banning" foreign players.

What we need right now is a total revamp of the national football administration system, especially at the top level. We need to change the way things are run. We need to send our top players to play abroad, so as to gain valuable exposure and experience, instead of spending every off-seasons playing equally less-than-stellar teams in the Middle East or Hong Kong.

Please do not take my word as it is. Look at South Korea and Japan. Their domestic leagues have only a handful of imported players, but there is a considerable number of their local players plying their trade in Europe. As a result, they have a world class national team playing at the World Cup, beating formidable opponents before their unfortunate elimination from the tournament. How I wish Malaysia could do the same, or achieve something a little better.

They better do so before my 45th birthday.


THE AQUINAS has spoken.