The Human Resources Ministry has come under fire from Penang's investment agency for not taking pro-active measures to combat potential retrenchments in the wake of the global downturn.

InvestPenang executive chairperson Lee Kah Choon was highly critical of the ministry's lack of action even though signs were alarming that the country would be badly affected by the global crisis.

"The ministry seems to be waiting for the full-blown financial crisis to whack a sucker punch to the employment sector before reacting. Currently it is not pro-active to tackle the impending problem," he said.

liberal forum privatisation lee kah choon Lee pointed out that the ministry should have mapped out comprehensive and immediate strategies to stem the tide of the impending retrenchment.

Among those, he added, should have been the formation of a federal-state coordination retrenchment task force.

He also said that the ministry should have also outlined a comprehensive training and retraining programme for the imminent jobless Malaysians.

"We cannot wait to assess the impact first before implementing measures to counter it. It would be too late then. We should be ready by now," he told Malaysiakini in his office in Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, Penang yesterday.

The threat is real

"The impending massive retrenchment threat is for real. Therefore the ministry must take the lead and be pro-active," he said.

He added that the federal-state task force will enable both federal and state governments to pool and mobile their resources to combat the global crisis collectively.

"The task force could assess the situation, accumulated feedbacks and draw out short, mid- and long term measures accordingly to counter the impact," said Lee.

He however cautioned against any possible political consideration being used as a yardstick by the Barisan Nasional federal government to operate the task force.

Such a move, he added, would only worsen the state of socio-economic downturn.

As such, he warned, any sidelining the five Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states - Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan - would only do "more damage than good to the country."

He reminded the ministry that the five states accounted for nearly 60 percent of the country's annual gross domestic products and at least half of the nation's industrial workers.

On top of that Penang, for instance, accounted for 30 percent of Malaysian yearly manufacturing output, he added.

"It's national problem. So politics should take a back seat," Lee insisted.

Retraining programme

On the training and retraining programme for workers, Lee said the retrenched workers are trained and retrained in specific fields and technical expertise.

factory workers 021208 They must also be given allowance as an incentive to partly offset their loss of income due to the enforced employment layoff.

He said the programme would prepare them to secure jobs, strive over challenges and move ahead during the post-crisis economic up-cycle.

Lee called on the ministry to seek a few billion ringgit of federal funds and draw out the modules to operate the programme through the task force when retrenchment finally sets in.

He noted that Penang has embarked on a similar programme but it would need the federal financial backing to support a sustainable operation in the long run.

Economists have predicted unemployment rates in Penang, and the country, to soar after March.