Workers Day contribution, 6% at a time

It is Workers Day weekend and I for one am pumped! My hard work, diligence and perseverance in toeing the line and working for THE MAN is being rewarded and honoured with a day off.

But in this virtually connected world where your bosses are just a WhatsApp message away, the day off from work has become largely symbolic. You don’t have to go in to the office but you are on-call 24/7. I can’t remember the last time I did not do any work related work on my day off, but I am quite sure I managed to have some semblance of holidays in my pre-smartphone days.

While some of my acquaintances and friends spent their Workers Day fighting the good fight at the anti-GST protest, I decided to contribute to the lean coffers of our government by indulging in some service and retail therapy. After all, I did work hard for my meagre wage and it is the duty of a Malaysian to contribute back to the economy by spending said wage. No?

While I was getting serviced at the hair salon, I was feeling quite smug. I was doing my part to facilitate Malaysia’s attempt at achieving high-income status. How? Well, take a read from indexMundi’s Malaysia Economy Profile 2014.

“Under current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia is attempting to achieve high-income status by 2020 and to move farther up the value-added production chain by attracting investments in Islamic finance, high technology industries, biotechnology, and services.”

See there, “services”, which I am certain hairstyling constitutes. When it the time came for me to pay, I resisted asking if there was GST, for a month later, it was starting to feel a little ridiculous to put my snark on.

After that, I did some retail therapy, buying myself some earrings at Parkson. This time I knew for certain I would be contributing to much-hated-upon GST piggy (sincerely hoping this is kosher) bank.  The items I picked all had a sticker saying “Incl. GST”. Very well, I was indeed doing my part to part with my meagre wage to feed our not-in-its-prime economy.

Since it was a holiday celebrating ME and the fact that I had to skip lunch because I sat in a chair for hours while my hair was subjected to all sorts of chemicals and scissors, I was going to treat myself to some fast food. With that, I was paying my dues as a citizen of Malaysia for the third (perhaps second) time of the day.

In theory, I had achieved my goal to “give back to our government” for the day.  I was proud of myself – being an adult with a steady job, paying my taxes and paying another 6% on pretty much everything I need in my daily life.  Not only that, I went my way out to make sure I gave back to our government.

But all this has left me wondering if my government is willing to go its way out to give back to me. Is that 6% that I am forced to fork out being used to lessen the burden of the rakyat? Does this mean we get better public infrastructure and facilities? Will the 6% GST that we contribute, carved from our meagre salaries, be used to better public services such as healthcare, education and security?

Because, if we the people are going our way out to pay for living in Malaysia, are you going your way out to ensure we are looked after?  Aren’t we 1Malaysia after all? – May 3, 2015. 

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.