My Muslim colleague was working very hard this morning. He called up a few insurance companies based in Malaysia to ask some questions. To his surprise, it seemed that no one was working in Malaysia. Only after googling Malaysia’s public holiday did he find out that our Muslim neighbor is celebrating Nuzul Al-Quran Day.
I think this is a very sad thing. Despite boasting of racial and religious harmony, we have the least number of public holidays in the world!! Here is a breakdown of the different countries and their respective public holidays :
China – At least 25 Days (Usually regarded as motherland for Chinese)
Malaysia – At least 18 Days (Usually regarded as a good benchmark for native Malays)
India – At least 25 Days (Usually regarded as mother land for Indians and Hindus)
Italy – At least 17 Days (Benchmark for Christians – Home to Vatican City)
Indonesia – At least 17 Days (Benchmark for Muslims)
Thailand – At least 17 Days (Benchmark for Buddhists)
Hong Kong – At least 17 Days (A good benchmark, because like us, it was an ex-British colony)
As you can clearly see, us poor Singaporeans are simply not resting enough! We have just 11 miserable public holidays when the government says all races and religions are mixing well in one pot. If this is true, shouldn’t we be having more holidays than those countries where there is only one predominant race or religion?! More importantly, if the government wants more people to get married, and more babies to come along, having more public holidays is definitely one way to go.
Because unlike the irresponsible PAP MPs that we have, we cannot anyhow just don’t turn up for work. This is especially true now that cheap labour is readily available to replace us!! How all of us hope we can draw salaries like a MP (whopping $16k per month), yet can simply be absent during parliamentary seatings!! Even for those millionaire footballers, whenever they skip training, they are fined thousands of dollars, so how come the PAP MP is different? They are different because 40 percent of us said NO to them, yet they occupy more than 90 percent of the parliament!!
Anyway, that is another issue and I should not digress. Now, I am not asking for an increase to 25 public holidays like what they have in China or India, after all we are just one small dot. That being said, raising the current pathetic 11 days to at least 17 days should not be a problem. So, how to allocate the days out?
1 day for Qing Ming (to pay respect to our ancestors)
1 day for extended Hari Raya Puasa celebration (OR for Nuzul Al-Quran Day)
1 day for extended Deepavali celebration
1 day for Thaipusam celebration
1 day for Boxing Day (Day after Christmas)
1 day reserved to celebrate Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s (Singapore’s founding father) birthday
I think the above distribution is fair and I am sure my fellow Singaporeans feel the same way about our current number of public holidays – that is the number is PATHETIC!! If this government is incapable of allowing its citizens to rest more, we will elect a more enlightened government so that they can see the benefits of us working less!!
MC Hammer
TRS Contributor