By DSP Wilfred Madius Tangau, Member of Parliament, P170 Tuaran, cum
Emeritus President, UPKO, cum
Chairman, WISDOM Foundation
KOTA KINABALU: I wish all Hindus and other Malaysians who join in the celebration a very happy Thaipusam, a festival to commemorate the victory of Hindu God Murugan over the demon Surapadma.
As we celebrate Thaipusam, I urge Minister of National Unity Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang and Minister of Human Resources Saudara Steven Sim Chee Keong will consider introducing ‘floating holidays’ to allow Malaysians with minority heritage to celebrate their cultural and religious festivals just like Malaysians from larger ethnic communities.
Thaipusam is a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Selangor, for all Malaysians. In 2021, In 2021, the Thaipusam holiday was unfortunately cancelled by the then Kedah state government. It is commendable that the Kedah State Government has since redesignated Thaipusam as a special holiday. This shows a mature attitude towards Malaysia’s rich multicultural heritage.
However, Hindus who live in eight other regions/states including Sabah and also the Federal Territory of Labuan would have to work and study. We can only hope this does not dampen the mood of their celebration.
This experience has been shared by the hundreds of thousands of Kadazan-Dusun-Rungus people, the Muruts, and the Dayaks, who live outside of their home region during Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai.
It is time for Malaysia to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive towards celebration of minorities’ cultural and religious festivals.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not at all calling for increasing the total number of public holidays, which may reduce productivity. Instead, I am suggesting a more innovative way of managing our public holidays: keep the total constant, but allowing members of minority to trade some of the lesser holidays for their own festivals.
This practice is called “floating holidays”, practiced by Indonesia and United Nations. For many industries, this may create a win-win situation, with workers taking turn to celebrate their festivals, the number of business days may be increased while members of minority communities can also celebrate their own festivals and not feeling left out.
After Kedah’s cancellation of Thaipusam holiday in 2021, Wisdom Foundation published a report titled “Beyond Thaipusam, time to consider floating holidays” by Freeda Jane Tangau, detailing how this may be done. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6040b1a3e851e1398369dc9e/t/60a230c5e93ae07ca7079817/16212420570
I hope Minister Aaron and Minister Steven Sim would take some time to study this proposal and consider its implementation. Wouldn’t this be a clear manifestation of the Madani spirit the Unity Government want to promote?
I also hope both the Sabah and Sarawak regional governments can provide leadership by example on floating holidays, in honour of our rich heritages, making a case for West Malaysian state governments to reciprocate for Kaamatan, Kalimaran and Gawai.
Hopefully, before the law changes, some employers who support multiculturalism will also take their own initiative to introduce this innovative practice in their company.
Hopefully, when we celebrate the next Thaipusam, all Hindus in every region, state and federal territory in Malaysia have the choice to celebrate it at home.
