Government wants to raise productivity

MIRI: The Government wants to cut down on the number of “extra” public holidays at national and state level to improve the nation’s productivity and enhance the delivery system.
The most important religious and cultural festivals would be retained as compulsory public holidays while those deemed to be unnecessary may be done away with.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said that although there were already too many public holidays, some state governments and certain quarters were still clamouring for more.
“We are not going to increase the number. On the contrary, we are working towards reducing them,” he said.
“There are already 16 public holidays at national level every year. We should reduce them to improve competitiveness.”
There are also state holidays and extra days attached to holidays that fall on weekends, as well as additional holidays declared by state governments for specific events like the birthdays of their heads of state or sultans.
“There are more meaningful and productive ways to celebrate important events and occasions instead of just taking the day off,” Ongkili said yesterday.
He said Sarawak and Sabah want Sept 16 to be included as a national public holiday to mark the day Malaysia was formed, and there had also been calls from ethnic groups for their traditional festivals to be recognised as public holidays.
Ongkili said that while the Government respected the wishes of these quarters, it felt it was more important for the government machinery to serve the people better.
However, he stressed that no time frame had been fixed to reduce the number of public holidays.

tunku : i totally disagree with this idea to reduce the public holidays. Life is so hectic nowadays and we don't even have enough time for our family. maybe for government the can reduce holidays as their annual leave is too much compare with private sector.some companies only give 8 days annual leave and after few years it goes to 10-12 days only compare to government,some of them have 25days of annual leave.but then again if the government reduce the public holidays than the private sector will follow as this is an added advantage to them.
there's other ways to raise productivity, cut down the tea break which the government staff spend at least 1/2 an hour, some even goes to the extend of 1 hour.there is no reason for this,compare with the private sector, the is no such thing as tea break, it's only lunch break.the department head should be held responsible for their staff, if the staff performance is low, then take disciplinary action on the department head.by doing this they'll be more responsible and they will sure that their staff is working with their heart out.please don't always take short cuts and make life more difficult for the people.take hush action on them,i'm sure they'll work like the private sector people works.