Saturday, March 29, 2008

Children - to work or not?

I read in the papers that Malaysia is planning to impose a tax on all of its foreign workers.
Rm9 a month or Rm 100 a year for each worker.
Why? So that the government can do more to boost local youth employment.

In effect, foreign workers would be paying to lose their jobs.

Well, that sounds like it's the basis of a hugely popular edict.

In a bid to sound like a newspaper columnist, I shall expound my thoughts on why I think this may not work and what I believe could help instead.

Why this may not work:
1) People generally don't fancy paying anything, what more paying to end up jobless.
2) I dread to think what plan they would put into place. Funding the ever-successful Rakan Muda, perhaps? Job training?
3) Most of the jobs taken by foreign workers are menial - maids, mamak, janitor. We train our youths for that?

What could help instead:

As a jobless person, I feel qualified to say. I think, the best thing for youth unemployment would be to change the mindset of the youth.
Maybe i speak for myself, but as I was growing up, the last thing on my mind was getting a job. I've lived in UK and in Australia, I've known people who work as soon as they're 17, because it was natural to them.
What i knew was that my job in school was to study.
Come home from school? Tuition.
Free time? Piano class, sports, extra stuff that looks great on your CV.

I was under the impression that when families had kids that worked, it was like sweatshop workers. Or extreme poverty!
But noone mentioned anything about responsibility, contribution, motivation... all those things you supposedly get when you work.


vs.

Old-fashioned perceptions, maybe.

And noone also said that it helps to have experience when you are a jobless graduate.
Haha.. I don't deny that it's also me being fussy.

Anyhoo, I know lots of people think I'm a spoilt brat. The people who can talk about 'doing what I like' and question 'why you're living such a boring, ordinary life' generally are.
Cos i've never really struggled for anything in my life.

I'm sure people have some opinion on it:
Yeah, you private school spoilt kid; No, I felt the same way too (please?). Kids shouldn't have to work...

I'm willing to take any shot you have. Opinions more than welcome.

3 comments:

Damien Wong said...

i totally agree with you...i think it's just the malaysian/asian mindset! no maybe i should say the kiasu mindset. study study study...tuition tuition tuition! plus the fact that we are all spoilt brats that's y we are still totally jobless. if our parents weren't there to support us financially, we'll be begging ppl to employ us. it's just human nature. and seriously we are total SPOILT BRATS! we need to change our thinking...our parents wont be there to shit out money all the time for us! we gotta do something about it!

Daniel said...

You're not spoilt. Eventually you will start work and work your arse off because you "have" to. Asian mentality of getting the job done.

It's all about fulfilling your responsibilities.

WHen you were young, your responsibility was to study. So you damn well studied.


Now that you're an adult, your responsibility is to not fuck up your career and just work your arse off.

And that is what you will do. No question about it because you are a Malaysian Chinese.

You do what needs to be done and you have no choice.

NO choice!

Anonymous said...

I was once a spoilt brat and I did somehow go to a private school. But now I see the light and i'm having fun working.

If you're in KL, call me and lets go for a drink (non alcoholic pls)