KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — Whether or not the promises of the gig industry holds true depends on where gig workers stand in the employment hierarchy.

According to Malaysian think-tank The Centre’s survey on the gig industry here, the bulk of the industry comprises menial jobs where workers do not have a fixed income and little social protection.

Workers who occupy the bottom rung of this sector also assume most of the risk and cost to perform a task.

However, the ability to take on multiple jobs with flexible hours can be rewarding to the professional whose services are often sought after by firms that can offer lucrative pay.

But these professionals form only a small segment of the gig industry.

Khazanah Research Institute researcher Nur Thuraya Sazali, who authored “The Demise of Formal Employment? — A Literature Update on Informality”, a working paper explaining the trends and challenges of informal work, said the findings should be a concern for policymakers.

“If we accept the finding to be a reliable representation of reality, the finding is worrisome,” she said in an email reply to Malay Mail.

“It is worrisome because this particular kind of gig work, unlike say graphic designer or PR personnel, has near non-existent career progression,” she added.

“This is not a job that you can get better at; it is poorly protected in a high-risk avenue.”

The Centre had earlier this month released findings that echoed grouses by gig workers worldwide: that something intended as a “side hustle” has now turned into the only source of steady income.

The survey polled over 400 e-hailing drivers and food delivery riders, which the think-tank said form the largest segment of gig workers in the country, although such claims are hard to verify given the lack of data on these workers here.

Not surprisingly, over half the respondents viewed themselves as full-time employees.

These respondents were mostly in the prime employment age of between 25 and 44 but have no tertiary education, which means they have limited career choice.

Pretty precarious  

Nur Thuraya said while the survey’s sampling was narrow, the findings were consistent with national labour market data that showed a drop in the share of standard employment and the rise of self-employed or “own-account” workers between 2010 and 2018.

The former dropped four percentage points to 72 per cent, while the number of “own-account” workers rose three percentage points to 19 per cent.

Nur Thuraya said the margins, though small, underpin the seismic transformation in employment trends that is shaking the global job market.

An estimated 48 million people are registered for online microtask work, according to data compiled in 2015.

Platform-based gig industry, which came to life just around five years ago, grew at a staggering rate of 26.5 per cent between May 2016 and September 2019, according to the Oxford Internet Institute.

In Malaysia, ride-sharing platforms like Grab and Uber took less than five years to sign up 50,000 to 60,000 drivers within the Klang Valley since the firms debuted in 2012, accompanied by the rapid growth of e-commerce, according to Nur Thuraya’s working paper.

Between 2010 and 2015, the local e-commerce value had surpassed nominal GDP.

Unions in particular found the trend alarming. Labour rights activists warned about the gig economy’s potential to destabilise the job market, decimate traditional employment and the legal protection that comes with it, encouraging exploitation.

This has led to calls to regulate gig work and accord its workers equal status to that of a formal employee.

But experts have cautioned against imposing a one-size-fits-all policy onto a highly heterogeneous industry.

KRI said several studies have found indiscriminate formalisation could have a negative impact especially on the industry’s most vulnerable segments.

This is because different firms and workers have different sets of incentives to be informal, which derives unique challenges and individual solutions.

“Evidence from microdata analysis of developing countries suggests that participation into the informal economy arises from both exclusion and exit, and one enforces the other,” KRI said.

“For instance, due to the labour market structure (exclusion), workers without the human capital that are in demand (exclusion) may choose to be informally employed (exit) in order to be employed at all.”

Exclusive privileges

The Exit theory posits that informal workers or firms voluntarily exit the formal economy motivated by either opportunity, defence or passive evasion, while proponents of Exclusion argue that these actors are excluded not by choice but by necessity.

The former case likely comprises mostly professionals, according to international hiring firm Randstad. Their niche skills make them valuable to larger firms, more so in a market where the talent pool is small like Malaysia.  

As a result, more professionals have become more open to contract-based employment as the alternative to traditional career paths, noted Jaya Das, managing director of Randstad Singapore.

“This group of workers can choose which companies they want to work with to build their own portfolio, as well as manage their own time so that they can have a healthy work-life balance,” she said in an email interview with Malay Mail.

“They can choose to work on projects that they are passionate about and get paid a premium for their expertise.”

Yet, The Centre’s survey paints a starkly different picture for the bulk of the gig workforce.

Many said the hours can be long and gruelling if they are to make ends meet. The reported average income was RM2,999, just a few hundred ringgit more than Bank Negara Malaysia’s base wage estimation to survive in any of the country’s major cities.

Most respondents are also medically vulnerable. Nearly 80 per cent said they have no medical insurance nor were they aware about their right to social protection.

For Grab workers, they are offered what the firm calls a “daily insurance” but the policy only covers injuries sustained when workers go “online.”

This means there will be no coverage the moment a worker deactivates; accidents that happen during break time will not be covered.

The next best thing would be the Self-Employment Social Security Scheme (Socso), but this too is limited to work-related injury. Its employment injury scheme, however, does extend coverage to occupational diseases but that’s as far as it goes.

So how do experts explain why these workers take up jobs that offer so little security? Nur Thuraya offered no lead but said there is an urgent need to uncover the causes.

“More work would need to be done to uncover underlying factors behind the decision to do it full-time… one would hope there will be more in-depth discussion on this,” she said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — A group of 46 PKR leaders today have come out in defence of PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin and demanded that the party drop all disciplinary proceedings against her.

The faction, consisting of 15 MPs and 28 state assemblymen, said the show-cause letter against Zuraida was issued in bad faith.

“As party leader, YB Hajjah Zuraida has made many contributions in the areas of women’s leadership development and grassroots empowerment.

“The pressure and harassment towards her were selective, biased and prejudiced. The public statements of several PKR state chairmen to demand Zuraida’s sacking made matters worse as it was agreed that nobody should issue any provocative statements openly.

“We unanimously urge all parties to stop all action that threaten the unity of party members and action that undermines people’s confidence in party leadership,” the group said in the statement.

The group also condemned the actions of PKR Youth’s (AMK) leadership which saw the sacking of seven central Youth wing leaders by letter on Jan 15 on the basis of not attending the party’s meetings.

“Such actions violate the principles of the party’s constitution and the democratic process because they are leaders who were legally chosen by the grassroots in the party elections. Their deprivation is a betrayal of the root cause in Keadilan,” it said, alluding to PKR’s official moniker.

Last Saturday, Zuraida was given 14 days to respond to the letter for attacking fellow PKR leaders in her speech at the “Shared Prosperity Vision” dinner on December 8 last year.

She allegedly insulted party members and disclosed details of an alleged private conversation she had with Anwar.

In her speech, Zuraida was critical of Anwar and his supporters, in many instances suggesting they were blind fanatics who craved power.

The dinner, initially touted as a separate party congress aimed at challenging the legitimacy of the primary assembly that was held on the same day, turned into a rallying call for support for Azmin in PKR.

PETALING JAYA: The Singapore government has rejected allegations of brutal extra-legal execution methods at the Changi Prison, calling them “scurrilous” and an attention-seeking stunt by Lawyers of Liberty (LF) who made the claims last week.

“LFL has been publishing various falsehoods to seek attention in hopes of getting Malaysian prisoners, who have been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in Singapore, off the death penalty.

“Those who traffic drugs in Singapore, harm and destroy the lives of countless Singaporeans. These traffickers must be prepared to face the consequences of their actions,” the home ministry said in a statement.

LFL, a vocal opponent of Singapore’s death penalty in the wake of a series of hangings carried out on Malaysians convicted of drug offences in the republic, had claimed it received evidence of brutal execution methods by prison guards in the event the hanging procedure fails during an execution.

In a statement on Jan 16, LFL’s N Surendran said whenever the rope breaks during a hanging, a prison officer would pull the rope around the neck of the prisoner towards him.

“Meanwhile, another prison officer will apply pressure by pulling the body in the opposite direction.”

MORE TO COME

DUBAI: Iran said it had asked the US and French authorities for equipment to download information from black boxes on a downed Ukrainian airliner, potentially angering countries which want the recorders analysed abroad.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, which lost 57 of the 176 people killed in the crash, said Iran did not have the ability to read the data and he demanded the cockpit and flight recorders should be sent to France. Kiev wants the recorders sent to Ukraine.

The US-built Boeing 737 flown by Ukraine International Airlines was shot down in error by Iranian forces on Jan 8 during a period of tit-for-tat military strikes that included the killing by the United States of a senior Iranian general on Jan 3.

Tehran, already embroiled in a long-running standoff with the United States over its nuclear programme, has given mixed signals about whether it would hand over the recorders.

An Iranian aviation official had said on Saturday the black boxes would be sent to Ukraine, only to backtrack in comments reported a day later, saying they would be analysed at home.

A further delay in sending them abroad is likely to increase international pressure on Iran, whose military has said it shot the plane down by mistake while on high alert in the tense hours after Iran fired missiles at US targets in Iraq.

“If the appropriate supplies and equipment are provided, the information can be taken out and reconstructed in a short period of time,” Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said in its second preliminary report on the disaster released late on Monday.

A list of equipment Iran needs has been sent to French accident agency BEA and the US National Transportation Safety Board, the Iranian aviation body said.

“Until now, these countries have not given a positive response to sending the equipment to (Iran),” it said. It said two surface-to-air TOR-M1 missiles had been launched minutes after the Ukrainian plane took off from Tehran.

‘Maximum pressure’

Iran’s aviation body says it does not have equipment needed to download information from the model of recorders on the three-year-old Boeing 737.

Trudeau said the data should be downloaded immediately.

“There need to be qualified experts doing that but it’s also a question of technology and equipment and that is not available in Iran,” he told a news conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

“There has been broad consensus in the international community that France would be the right place to send those boxes (and) we continue to pressure Iran to do just that.”

Trudeau also said Tehran’s refusal to acknowledge dual citizenship was posing a challenge when it came to helping support the families of the Canadian victims, many of whom had close ties to Iran.

Iran, which took several days to acknowledge its role in bringing down the plane and faced street protests at home as a result, fired its missiles at US targets in response to a US drone strike that killed General Qasem Soleimani on Jan 3.

Iran has for years faced US sanctions that limited its ability to purchase modern planes and buy products with US technology. Many passenger planes used in Iran are decades old.

Under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, Iran received sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear work.

But Washington reimposed US sanctions after withdrawing from the pact in 2018, a move that led to the steady escalation of tension in recent months between the United States and Iran.

European governments say they want to save the deal but have also suggested it may be time for a broader pact, in line with Trump’s call for a deal that would go beyond Iran’s nuclear work and include its missile programme and activities in the region.

Iran says it will not negotiate with sanctions in place.

Since the plane disaster, Iran’s judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi has said compensation should be paid to families of the victims, many of whom were Iranians or dual nationals.

Canada, Ukraine, Britain, Afghanistan and Sweden, which all lost citizens, have demanded Iran make the payouts.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — Are China’s nationals increasingly being cast by some Malaysians as the new bogeyman to put disproportionate fear into fellow Malaysians?

Some analysts think this may be the case, citing the role of Malay right-wing groups allegedly playing up local racial unease and misinformation of illegal immigrants from China in attempts to dislodge the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration, against the backdrop of China being an economic and political superpower.

Prof James Chin, director of University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute, agreed that China’s citizens are becoming the new bogeyman in Malaysia, saying that an obvious reason for this situation is the “racial politics” in Malaysia.

“Putra or right-wing groups also paint non-Malays, especially the Chinese, as wanting to take over Malaysia, so using this fake news as an issue to drum up anti-Chinese sentiments. It’s all political, no truth,” he told Malay Mail when contacted.

He was referring to the controversial Malay party whose president and founder Datuk Ibrahim Ali is also the leader of Malay-Muslim rights group Perkasa.

“There is now a campaign to light up racial tensions to bring down the PH government. Too many things are happening to be a coincidence,” said Chin, who viewed efforts to paint Chinese nationals as the bogeyman through repeated raising of fears of those illegally present in Malaysia as part of efforts to stir up racial tension here.

Over the past year, Malaysian authorities have been forced to deny and refute various wild claims regarding Chinese nationals, including a rumour in August 2019 of three million citizens from China slipping in unauthorised during a system breakdown at KLIA. 

But the Immigration Department later said that manual checks were carried out on all foreign visitors during the system glitch in line with its standard operating procedure, and that the system had been restored.

Another example was Malay party Putra’s vice-president Datuk Hamidah Osman who in May 2019 reportedly claimed to have heard that more than 100,000 Chinese nationals allegedly obtained Malaysian citizenship under the PH government, a spurious claim which was quickly debunked by the Home Ministry which revealed that only 37 of individuals originally from China had obtained Malaysian citizenship since the PH coalition became government on May 10, 2018 until May 15, 2019.

But just yesterday, Tan Sri Rais Yatim from ruling coalition component Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, also complained about the long-term multiple entry visa for Malaysians visiting China, claiming that Chinese citizens may use this as a means to settle in Malaysia.

Chin indicated that fears of Chinese nationals acquiring Malaysian citizenship or staying in Malaysia illegally were overblown in reality, when cross-checked against statistics.

He said the Chinese nationals were being singled out over rising concern on illegal immigrants, pointing to data that showed their numbers were lower compared to undocumented individuals originating from other countries such as Indonesia.

“Basically the issue of Chinese immigration is all hogwash. It is not possible for the Chinese to get citizenship or PR in Malaysia. They can only get Malaysia My Second Home visa which is only valid for 10 years. 

“There are of course some who pay to get fake PR but the numbers are small. You have to remember that even if they come here, Malaysia is used as a stepping stone, most of them do not plan to live here forever.

“Many of these right-wing groups are associated with Umno or PAS so we should not be surprised by them using this issue to drum up support,” he said, noting the danger that some Malays would believe such claims and opt to take up vigilantism against illegal immigrants.

“The point is all these racial stuff will get worse until the PH government cracks down on these groups. It is clear some of them have broken laws. We also need a hate speech law. You can see these groups are now using CNY decorations as an issue in Puchong, they just want to raise the political temperature up — Malays vs Chinese,” he said when referring to a recent controversy over cultural festival Chinese New Year decorations in a school, suggesting that such actions could be considered as inciting racial hatred.

As for Malaysians’ sentiments towards China’s citizens, Chin said this is clouded and defined by their respective race and religion, suggesting that the Malays would look at Chinese nationals in a kinder light if they are Muslims, and would accept them temporarily staying in Malaysia.

Chin said the Chinese Malaysian community does not have a strong feeling either way, with most able to see that Chinese tourism brings economic benefit but with most not likely to agree to give them the right to stay.

“Most Malaysians see China as both threat and opportunity — they know we have to deal with China but we are also scared that China will dominate us,” he said, referring to concerns of both economic and political dominance by China.

“So there is no single set of feelings towards the Chinese. Also the feelings of the Malay population is always clouded by China’s treatment of its Muslim population,” Chin claimed.

In a survey by Singaporean think-tank ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute released last week, many Malaysians surveyed viewed China as the most influential economic power compared to the United States, as rivalry between the two superpowers continued to heat up.

But respondents from Malaysia were also overwhelmingly worried of China’s growing regional political and strategic influence in the country, with 80.9 per cent stating so.

Beijing has faced international condemnation, and protests from Muslim groups here, for rounding up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

Blurring of anti-Chinese sentiments

Prof William Case of the University of Nottingham Malaysia said the only surprising aspect of this “nativist enmity” was how long it has taken to set in, pointing at the festering anti-Chinese sentiments since the May 2018 elections when Barisan Nasional became the default Opposition after losing to PH.

“Anti-Chinese sentiments have been on the boil since the last election, the fall of Barisan, and the emergence of what is disparaged by many as Pakatan’s ‘Chinese government’,” he said, alluding to the fairly large number of key ministries and other offices led by DAP members. 

The DAP is a multiracial party that continues to be labelled as Chinese by its political rivals.

“But Pakatan seemed able at the same time to promote and quarantine its extensive dealings with mainland China, even in the face of mounting evidence of severe mistreatment of Uighurs. 

“Though Malaysia’s government has been highly vocal, of course, in its criticisms over Palestinians, Rohingya, and Kashmiris, it has remained pragmatic, even mute with regard to Xinjiang, citing the importance for Malaysia of mainland investment flows and export markets,” said Case, who heads the university’s School of Politics, History and International Relations.

Case suggested that previously separate sentiments against local Chinese and citizens from mainland China appear to be increasingly mixed and generalised, saying that the clearest illustration of this is the speed at which angry rumours were taking hold.

“And social media users, of course, delight in fanning the flames with fake news,” he said, noting that the negative imagery generated by actual incidents of Chinese citizens in online scamming activities while in Malaysia is further heightened by “rumours and fake news over an increasingly nefarious mainland presence”.

“So, in a sense, the divergence in outlooks toward local and mainland Chinese is now being resolved, with ethnic grievances growing more generalised. The real test will come when, as Pakatan fears, mainland Chinese come to feel so unwelcome that their investment does indeed begin to dry up,” he said.

“Pakatan’s victory in the last general election, in seeming to make Bumiputera privileging less certain, triggered an ethnic backlash against local Chinese. At the same time, the new Pakatan government reengaged with mainland Chinese investment, restarting infrastructure projects (though on terms that remain opaque). I believe that PAS-controlled state governments on the East Coast sought also to increase mainland investment. 

“But this dissonance in sentiments toward local and mainland Chinese seems now to be undergoing some ‘rationalisation’, with Bumiputera suspicions growing more generalised and consistent. This may be reflected also in Malaysia’s growing slightly more assertive lately with regard to the South China Sea,” he also noted.

UiTM Sabah political lecturer Asri Salleh said that the main reason why Chinese illegal immigrants or overstaying Chinese tourists are being singled out could be due to ill-behaving Chinese tourists leaving a bad impression on Malaysians.

He suggested that illegal Chinese immigrants “are the most visible due to the massive number of the Chinese tourists”, adding that “it all boils down mostly to negative perception Malaysians have about the Chinese illegal immigrants” and also noting that some would have trouble differentiating the illegal immigrants from tourists.

Delicate race relations

Peter Chang Thiam Chai, deputy director of University of Malaya’s Institute of China Studies, noted that China’s re-emergence as an economic powerhouse is as a whole positive but has some negative side-effects.

Chang noted that China’s preferred working partners when they began to invest in Malaysia were the local Chinese due to a shared culture and language, which then led to perception that China’s investments disproportionately benefit the Malaysian Chinese.

“In Malaysia, there is perception that China’s increased investment would disproportionately benefit some, while disadvantaging others, thus accentuating the pre-existing social economic divide along ethnic lines,” he said, pointing to the lingering perception that the socio-economic gap in Malaysia still cuts across ethnic lines and favour the non-Bumiputera.

Chang said the Immigration Department’s recent busting of online gambling syndicates masterminded by PRC or China’s nationals add to these negativities.

“The overstaying and illegal activities committed by Chinese citizens is staining China’s image abroad, undermining Beijing’s effort to maintain strong diplomatic, economic ties with countries in the region, including Malaysia.

“Most Malaysians at times cannot differentiate between the PRC Chinese and Malaysia Chinese. And these illegal activities committed by the former not only damages China’s reputation but can adversely affect Malaysia race relations,” he said.

“China must manage its growing presence in Malaysia with great care. Failure to do so can cause a fracture to Malaysia’s rich yet fragile multi-cultural, multi-ethnic landscape,” he added.

KUCHING, Jan 21 — Julau Member of Parliament Larry Sng today urged the PKR political bureau to take disciplinary action against party leaders who openly defy the central leadership’s decisions.

He said their defiance not only weakens the party, but also delays the leadership transition from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“I am sure the majority of party members feel betrayed by certain leaders’ actions, and the party should sack them immediately before they do further damage.

“This has been going on for too long and now they have gone too far,” he said in a statement tonight.

Sng did not name any particular leader in his statement.

Sng, who is a member of the party central committee, also slammed the state PKR for supporting party leaders who do not attend central committee meetings.

“How can such leaders take a position in the party when they don’t listen to views and facts which are being discussed at the central committee meetings.

“If these individuals do not wish to take collective responsibility and want to go on their own agenda to destroy the party leadership, action must be taken against them,” he said.

Yesterday, the Sarawak chapter of PKR threw its support behind embattled vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin, who was issued with a show-cause letter by the disciplinary committee for openly criticising party leadership.

State PKR information chief Desmond Kho said that the chapter has urged the disciplinary committee to retract the letter issued to Zuraida.

Zuraida has been given 14 days to respond to the letter.

She was criticised by party members for attacking fellow PKR leaders in her speech at the “Shared Prosperity Vision” dinner on December 8 last year.

She allegedly insulted party members and disclosed details of an alleged private conversation she had with Anwar.

In her speech, Zuraida was critical of Anwar and his supporters, in many instances suggesting they were blind fanatics who craved for power.

The dinner, initially touted as a separate party congress aimed at challenging the legitimacy of the primary assembly that was held on the same day, turned into a rallying call for PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.