A point to ponder in this difficult time

It was in fact on the Chinese winter solstice day last week when the news of Western Digital closing down broke to me by a former employee of this world’s second largest manufacturer of computer hard disk drives.

I had brushed off rumours few days earlier that this US company would be closing down as that was not the first time the rumours got into my ears.

In fact the rumour mongering had been going on since the end of last year, and it is for this reason that I remained skeptical whenever someone told me that it would be closing down.

But the duck rice lunch at Tracy’s Kitchen I had on the winter solstice with this WD’s former employee, who is now working with a government agency could not be any truer anymore, that I just had to believe the news.

Immediately I called my childhood friend who is an engineer with WD and as he picked up the phone, I asked whether his company was shutting down or closing down and the response was a firm CLOSING DOWN.

So the two words in no seconds sent shivers throughout my body of the plight of the 1,500 employees of this company who will be laid off in stages until March next year.

Of course such a big news travel fast like lightning and the next thing that we saw was of course the immediate response from the state government who summoned the top management of this US company to confirm the news.

The decision to close down the plant in the state is solely the discretion of the company and no one, including the state government could point fingers at the company for the drastic decision at this second Great Depression, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned recently.

As a kind of solace to the affected employees of WD, politicians of course come to the rescue offering all sorts of statistical figure on the job opportunities available and the various training or retraining schemes offered by the government.

SCORE, for instance has been boasting of needing few millions of workers by 2030 and also another figure of 85,000 of engineers needed in the state.

Ah ha, what a relief to see such a figure but wait a minute, where and how did the state government get the figures from and do we really need such astronomical numbers of workers?

That again I hope is not a mere rhetoric by our politicians in this crucial time when everyone is facing potential lay-offs.

While it may be true that the state needs so many workers but what we want to know is what type of skills or expertise are needed rather than just a boastful figures.

I really do not have the answers on how to help the affected workers, not only those from WD but also the rest of the semi-conductor plants in Samajaya Free Industrial Zone which are also affected with some having to take pay cut or forced leaves.

In this crucial time, why don’t politicians come out and contribute something to lessen the burden of the people rather than holding press conferences?

I suggest the followings:

1. All politicians, regardless of ruling or opposing parties to take a pay cut,
say 20% or 30%.
2. Benefits like entertainment allowance and annual free overseas holiday for
ministers and assistant ministers to be forfeited.
3. The number of political secretaries which now stands at 20 to be drastically
reduced as I do not see the relevance of having so many people holding the
post.
4. The state administration to use cheaper cars instead of luxurious ones like
BMW and Mercedes Benz.
5. Car pooling to be exercised for senior officials and ministers going to same
place for functions.
6. All senior government officials to travel only in economy class rather than
business or first class or if possible, travel with Air Asia, whichever is
cheaper.
7. No more five or six stars hotels for these officials when making official
trips. Settle for affordable yet comfortable hotels.

Why not? After all it’s time for the politicians and government to walk the talk and take austerity drive to channel something back to the people.

I hope reprimands won’t get to me for the noble suggestions.