The year 2010 was the year when Malaysia won the Suzuki Cup for the first and only time. Najib Abdul Razak, the prime minister then, declared a public holiday.

Wow! A national public holiday was suddenly declared after we won the Suzuki Cup – a football tournament at the Southeast Asian level. This was already a big deal for us. Seriously, how low can we go?

After the celebrations, Malaysia never won the cup again while Thailand won seven times and tiny Singapore, on four occasions. We, Malaysians, seem to excel in celebrating and being merry and after that, we forget how to play football.

I wish to remind our so-called leaders that is what is known as third world mentality, in case they are unaware.

It was an unnecessary public holiday, whichever way you look at it. I believe many were aware that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision by Najib, a known football fan and a Manchester United diehard.

What will we think of next? Had Lee Chong Wei won the gold in the Rio Olympics in 2016, would a public holiday also be declared – maybe for three consecutive days as the Olympics is a world-class event, much more prestigious than the Suzuki Cup?

When Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar last month, I was holding my breath.

Happily, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is no Hollywood buff, and I was greatly relieved that we did not get another insignificant and unnecessary public holiday.

Another prime minister other than Anwar could possibly have acted differently.

Don’t go overboard

Do not misunderstand. I also think that we have good reasons to celebrate our victories and achievements but let us not go overboard. There are other ways to showcase our national pride and joy as well as to encourage Malaysians to excel in their chosen professions.

What I’m driving at is that we already have more than enough official public holidays and that the insignificant and unnecessary public holidays, such as the Suzuki Cup holiday, should be avoided.

I’ve counted 18 gazetted public holidays for 2023 which are mainly for religious occasions and cultural festivities. Add in those observed by the individual states such as the ruler’s/head of state’s birthday and that’s quite a lot.

Every employee whether in the public or private sectors is entitled to between eight and 24 days of annual leave; the top brass will possibly get more.

Why would I consider the prime minister’s declaration of an extra public holiday over Hari Raya as unnecessary?

This is why.

Speaking from experience, it is only sensible for a department head to get his team to plan their annual leave way ahead.

I used to manage an editorial team and journalists are also expected to work on public holidays and weekends. We are one of the forgotten “essential services” arms, much like the police, army, doctors, nurses, pilots, fire-fighters etc.

We arrange our annual leave according to our religious/cultural activities. For example, on Hari Raya, it is only sensible to allow Muslim staff to go on leave while those of other races/religions have to be on duty. The same applies to Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas, etc.

All too often, we have staff with many days of accumulated leave which they are usually requested to clear if the company is unable to compensate them in lieu of leave.

I believe this “accumulated leave” situation is common in the private sector. So, Anwar’s offer of another extra Hari Raya holiday is actually unnecessary.

The same situation applies when Chinese New Year, Deepavali or Christmas come along. Most employees, including possibly those in the public sector, would also have planned their annual leave way ahead for celebrating their festive occasions or going for family holidays.

Burden to business community

There was an occasion when I shot down a chief minister’s decision to declare an extra Christmas public holiday on Dec 24 (Christmas Eve) as totally insignificant and unnecessary.

This is because most of us who celebrate Christmas would have planned our year-end holiday way ahead and we would already be on holiday leave by Christmas Eve.

I hope political leaders would stop pampering the people with public holidays which are actually more of a nuisance and definitely a burden to the business community than anything else.

Coincidentally, I’ve just read Mydin owner Ameer Ali Mydin’s lamentation that his hypermarket business is set to lose RM500,000 because of the extra public holiday for Hari Raya.

I’m also glad to hear Ameer stating what I’ve just written about people already making their plans for Raya and many had taken leave for this Friday (April 21).

This is the correct situation and it’s unfortunate that no one has advised the prime minister of this matter.

Writing on this “public holidays” subject a few years ago, I suggested reducing the number of national holidays, many I deem insignificant, for the sake of our nation’s economic growth and the welfare of our workers.

How?

First, can we all agree to a maximum of two of the most important religious occasions and one cultural festival in a calendar year to be observed as national public holidays?

For example, as a Catholic and a Chinese, I will be very happy if Good Friday and the first day of Chinese New Year are national holidays. I am prepared to forgo even Christmas.

Good Friday, Christmas and Chinese New Year are of no significance to those of other faith or race. Similarly, the sacred religious occasions of Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists hold little meaning for me.

So why should I be observing an occasion which is of little or no significance to me? Thus, it makes sense for me to be at work.

My stand remains the same today. Let’s do away with insignificant and unnecessary public holidays. Stop pampering the people with additional holidays. Aim higher and adopt a first-world mentality. MKINI