THE Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today slammed Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz for “painting a rosy picture” of Malaysia’s economic recovery after the Covid-19 outbreak.
“The forecast revision is worse than our neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines,” said MTUC secretary-general J. Solomon.
Bank Negara Malaysia yesterday revised downwards this year’s economic growth to between -3.5% and -5.5%. Its previous forecast was between -2% and 0.5%.
The central bank also reported that the country’s GDP was at -17.1% in Q2.
“Tengku Zafrul’s statements have been laced with over optimism of the economy that belies the situation on the ground.
“If businesses have been coming back strongly over the past months with GDP ‘improving’ as claimed by the minister, why does the official unemployment rate continue to be very high?
“There is clearly a disconnect between his claims and the reality on the ground.”
Yesterday, the Department of Statistics reported that private sector jobs in Malaysia decreased by 200,000, shrinking from 8.6 million to 8.4 million in Q2.
In June, Malaysia’s unemployment rate was at 4.9% or 773,200 jobless people.
“MTUC calls on the government, especially the finance minister not to paint Malaysia’s economy canvas with a broad brush of optimism, without laying out the complex challenges we presently face, both as a nation and the working class.
“Malaysians need to know the hard facts, just as they need to see concrete and effective solutions from the government to address their bread and butter woes,” said Solomon.
“Based on our feedback, we have no reason to doubt the Malaysian Employers Federation projections of up to two million people losing their jobs by next year.”
Solomon added that Malaysians must not be deluded into thinking that the economy will bounce back in full next year.
“Bold predictions of a 5.5% to 8% growth for 2021 must not blur the present daily challenges of workers struggling to make ends meet nor those rendered unemployed and have no income to support their families.”
He also criticised the Human Resource Ministry’s two job portals that cost close to RM100 mil.
“There is little to show for the portals’ effectiveness, given the record numbers who remain jobless, despite government claims there are adequate opportunities for them, provided they were not choosy.” – Aug 15, 2020
