PUNJABI CONNECTION

Tuesday March 17, 2009 - TheStar Online

I READ with interest “Blame the system for sowing prejudice” by The Saint (Sunday Star, March 15). The writer is absolutely right.

Wake up, Malaysians! Ask your children to name the friends they mix with in school. If the answer is only Ali, Abu, Siti, Aminah, do something. The same goes if the answer is Choi Ling, Lin Lin or Anne. Let us play our role as parents and encourage our kids to mix around with everybody, regardless of colour and race.

I can’t recall learning about all this segregation of colours, dressing and language when I was in school. We were not taught all these in the 1960s or 1970s, but I noted all this was stressed in the 1990s’ school syllabus for even Year One pupils and became very obvious in the syllabus in the new millennium for even children aged between five and eight.

I was in Standard One in 1971. We were a multi-racial bunch and we mixed around and played together.

We met up after more than 30 years. We have among us Ah Sun, Kalai, Azhar, Chan Kam Yee, Termizi, Anuar, Suriati, Rose, Fauziah, Rahizad, Shamsul, Zulkifli Musa and Azman and we are still good friends.

None of us are into politics.

ROSE 5 SECOND,
Kulim, Kedah.

Tuesday March 17, 2009 - TheStar Online

THE statement by Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam that doubling the levy on foreign workers will discourage their employment and will result in increased salaries for the locals is immature.

I have owned a restaurant for more than 20 years and during this period I have hired both Malaysian and Indonesian staff. The working conditions are the same for both nationalities and it does not matter what position they are in - manager, kitchen staff or waiters.

When we first opened for business, we hired locals. In the beginning, there were not much of a problem but when business began to pick up, my cook began to talk about leaving. It is her way of wanting to renegotiate her pay.

I put up with the “blackmailing” by ignoring it, but by the third time, I paid her her salary and showed her the door. That brought a temporary end to such threats from the others when they realised that I was not going to be held to ransom.

Then, with the influx of Indonesians, we hired them to work alongside with the locals. However, the Indonesians were hard working and had better attitude towards work.

But, when the Government began to make it harder to hire Indonesians, we had no choice but to look to local labour again. It was the mid-1990s boom and we needed the staff.

We found the locals arriving late for work and leaving early – sometimes before even the close of business, leaving the clean-up to be done by the foreign workers.

The locals would come to work unkempt and they sat around smoking cigarettes despite the “no smoking” sign in the restaurant.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian workers would ensure business goes on in the restaurant.

The locals refused to learn anything new because they thought they knew better. They were not happy at being told what to do by a woman - even if she was the manager.

They showed their displeasure by making the food inedible - adding too much salt or chilli.

Local staff are simply unreliable. Perhaps what is most disturbing is their health. The Indonesian workers have to pass a medical examination before they get a work visa. Locals do not.

Just to make sure, we would ask all new foreign workers to go for another medical test before they commenced work at the restaurant. However, this backfired. If he or she failed the test and cannot be hired, we still had to pay the bill which came to a few hundred ringgit.

To be fair, not every local we have hired was a nightmare. However, the dreadful ones we have hired far outnumbered the good ones.

If Dr Subramaniam thinks that raising the levy on foreign workers will lead to more locals being hired in the restauraunt business, he is sorely mistaken. They have poor work ethics and are not worth the trouble. If I can’t afford the levy, I would rather close my business than to be held ransom by local workers.

RESTAURANT OWNER,
Petaling Jaya.

The 6th annual International Young ICT Professionals Conference will be held on the 3rd and 4th of September, 2009 at the Dockside Convention Centre, Darling Harbour in Sydney Australia. This year's theme is “Future of ICT - Lead, Transform, and Succeed“

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• Neville Roach (Former Chairman Fujitsu Australia)
• Varun Kapur (General Manager (ANZ) - Tata Consultancy Service)
• Bianca Wirth (Green IT advocate)
• Chris Johnson (Australian National University)
• Sarma Rajaraman (CIO, Genworth Financial)
• Fiona Seaton (Sales Director, SEEK Learning)
• Debbie Timmins (Australian Young Professional of the Year 2005)
• Yohan Ramasundara (Immediate Past Director, Young IT Professionals Board)
• Jill Noble (Principal, Pivotal HR)
• Mark Lloyd (A National ICT Identity and Thought Leader)
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Inspirational presentations from a world-class selection of speakers provide an invaluable opportunity that should not be missed by young professionals all around the world! The conference incorporates opportunities to network with fellow participants, speakers, sponsors CIO’s, colleagues and potential future employers.

To register, please go to the Conference website at: http://www.acs.org.au/youngit/2009conference/.

Please contact Yasas Abeywickrama (yasas@acsmail.net.au) to discuss any special packages for groups of people.

* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.