Seeing our young people working hard at local golf clubs as buggy boys – and apparently on humble wages – I admire them heartily. Many of them already have families and yet, they have been on their jobs for many years, some even work until retirement. The spirit and mentality shown by these people are highly commendable, for they opt to be rational rather than choosy and unemployed.
I am perturbed by the recent official statement on the country’s burgeoning mental health cases. It is even more agitating when such a sorry and gripping health situation is referred to as an outcome of nearly-endless problems of unemployment, rising cost of living and no pay rise from time immemorial. However, the statement is rather bizarre in the absence of adequate corroborative studies confirming a direct cause and effect. (Assuming such a direct relation exists, the situation is daunting for everyone at all levels – personal, institutional and governmental).
While this write-up is focusing on unemployment, the reality is far more complex, involving people from various backgrounds, in terms of education, social status and upbringing. In dealing with the issue, one needs to be realistic with the fact that the problem cannot be made away entirely with a single stroke of magic wand. Every opportunity must be sought after to ameliorate the problem.
Back to the buggy boys. Despite humbled wages and limited amenities, many remain committed to their jobs. Naturally, some change jobs for a green pasture, which is not to be mistaken as being picky. Both, as in self-employment and working for someone else, make adjustment according to the needs and changing situation. Without harking unduly on the picky stance and possible related issues, the focus should be on knowing real job opportunities and potentials that promise an avenue for income generation.
If we care to know the type of jobs held pervasively by migrant workers, there is merit and wisdom in knowing them because those jobs are in effect opportunities for the locals but are now forgone. When the rate of unemployment is spiking, with little promise of abatement, these foregone job opportunities can be resurrected for rethink and reconsideration. There is nothing malicious about reclaiming some of the job opportunities from foreign workers, if need be, as it doesn’t negate the country’s appreciation for their contribution to economic growth.
So, let us walk through the hall of job potentials, which is dominated by foreign workers. There is no need to split them into white-collar, blue-collar or pink-collar categories. The fact of the matter is that these jobs have served foreign workers reasonably well. Some institutional complicities are at work, allowing a disproportionately large number of foreign workers. Many private companies dispose themselves from exercising their corporate responsibility of training locals for eventual assimilation. In fact, they use the lack of experience by locals as an excuse to hire foreign help.
In this country, thousands of foreign workers are employed as executives, technologists, technicians, supervisors and floor managers; and hundreds more are secretaries and clerks. This is not to forget the thousands manning restaurant, departmental stores and supermarkets. What’s more interesting is that they even dominate the self-employment category, with many of them electricians, plumbers, bricklayers, general contractors, cobblers and tailors.
Decades ago, our forefathers were so proud to earn their living as farmers, cultivating rice, vegetables and fruits. In between serious farming, they also took on artisan jobs such as building boats, harvesting sago, making walking sticks and weaving baskets, all in the name of income improvisation. Of course, their milieu then was different from today’s, but the bottomline is that the hard work is a green legacy to cherish.
Now is the time to talk less of any alleged attitudinal issues, but rather, more on getting relevant institutions to lay the necessary foundations for more unemployment amelioration projects, to resurrect job opportunities that have long been forgotten. Resources must be available for training and retraining; corporate responsibility initiatives must be enforced; and on-the-job artisan training must be viewed as bold pursuits. More importantly, the focus must be on those who are prepared to resurrect themselves.
Jerantut
