Govt on ‘holiday’, Mahathir on attack

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has come up with an original way to attack Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi without even mentioning his name.

Dr Mahathir continued his long running feud with the hapless Abdullah by citing the long Christmas break that could be stretched to the New Year because of other public holidays in between and using that to wonder who was manning the ship.

“What about work?” asked the former premier in his blog yesterday. “Not to worry. During that time the government... will be on automatic. We are on the ground, we will not crash. It shows that we don’t really need a government. It will just coast along even if no one is steering it. That is how good we have become at governing.”

The continuing jibes illustrate Dr Mahathir’s deeply held resentment against his handpicked successor although his criticism has long become academic.

Abdullah has already signalled his retirement by declining to stand as a candidate in elections for party posts in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) that’s slated for March 2009.

On another level, however, Dr Mahathir’s comments resonate with many foreign investors who have criticised the many public holidays in Malaysia as a waste of time, productivity and money: keeping factories running would mean extra overtime payments which are required by law.

Malaysia has 13 gazetted public holidays but the 13 individual states have also powers to declare additional mandatory holidays. Standout example: the four states of Johor, Kedah, Perlis and Terengganu have a total of 17 public holidays.

Even so, Malaysia does not have the distinction of having the most public holidays. That goes to Thailand (24) followed by Hong Kong (18), Japan (15) and Indonesia (14). By way of contrast, Singapore has 11, one more than China and the United States.

Business Times Singapore
31/12/08