A rallying cry to give PH an opportunity to serve Malaysians as a majority ruling party for five years.
In a statement today, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general J Solomon urged the 14 million workers in the country to vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in tomorrow’s election to prove to the government that workers are key to the country’s economy and must never be ignored.
“Workers have the power to vote out any government that is anti-labour because the workers’ voice and the workers’ strength is sacred and powerful.
“We want a Government to give us equal respect in the tripartite body so that workers can have an equitable share in the wealth of the nation,” he said in a statement today.
He said wages were low, workers were becoming poorer, living on borrowed income and their livelihood has been further crippled by surging prices of goods with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which must be abolished.
Solomon pointed out that 2.8 million households fall under the B40 income category and it is a large segment of society who are being suppressed with poor wages.
He added that 75% of Malaysians do not have enough savings to tide them over for more than a week without work and 18% of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members will be living just above poverty line after retirement.
“Unions are necessary to uplift the socio-economy of the working class but here, they are being suppressed by archaic laws with no indication to repeal them.
“Our appeals to the government to reform the laws have gone to deaf ears,” he said.
Solomon said the three million job opportunities promised in the next five years in the BN manifesto seems rather ambiguous because the promises of 1.5 million job opportunities in the 11th Malaysian plan is not fulfilled yet.
“Let’s give Pakatan Harapan an opportunity to serve Malaysians as a majority ruling party for five years. If they do not serve the workers, we can rise again to change them in the next five years.
“In this way, no government will be indispensable and will not demonstrate arrogance, inconsiderate and corrupt practices as they will be reminded that they will be voted out by the population if they do not perform responsibly,” Solomon said.
According to Solomon, PH candidates have proven themselves to be good governors for the people in the states of Penang and Selangor.