I REFER to the news report, “High rubber, palm oil prices lure youth back” (NST, Dec 28), wherein it was reported that “as the price of rubber and crude palm oil prices rise, more youth are showing an interest in life on a smallholding”.

This puts to rest the myth that youth are picky about their work and avoid manual work, including work on plantations.

The fact that the high rubber and crude palm oil prices have drawn youth to rubber and oil palm holdings indicates that it is not the toughness or the less-than-comfortable working condition that is unattractive to youth, but rather the poor remuneration yielded by the occupation.

The returns from working on one’s own smallholding where the bulk of the profits goes to the owner, is different from working as a harvester or tapper on an oilpalm or rubber estate where the apportionment of profits, as wages to the worker, is disproportionate to the efforts put in by the worker, notwithstanding high commodity prices.

The fixing of a realistic minimum wage commensurate with cost of basic and decent living standards will attract more youth to take on “tough” jobs.

It may be argued that such a move would raise the price of goods and services and raise the cost of living, but this would not matter if the earning capacity and purchasing power of the consumers rise in tandem with the implementation of the minimum wage for workers.

The cost of living in developed countries is high, but so is the earning capacity of their citizens.

It may also be argued that we would lose our competitive edge as an exporter of cheaper goods.

This is also not true as we have already lost our competitive edge as a manufacturer of cheap goods to China and Vietnam despite having cheap foreign labour.

Cheap foreign labour only appears to increase the profits to the management, rather than reduce the price of our manufactured goods in the market.

We would do well producing quality goods and services with decently-paid and well-trained Malaysians than as an exporter of “cheap” goods manufactured by poorly-trained foreign labour.

Source: NST – January 8, 2008