Instead of talking about ‘trickle down’ economics, the country should shift its attention to ‘trickle up’ economics, said DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran.
“With our depreciating ringgit, increases in cost of living, and the move to import more cheap foreign labor, our country is headed for deeper immersion in the rut of a law wage and labor intensive economy,” observed the MP for Ipoh Barat.
“We should instead shift our gears to embrace technological change and emphasise training for our workers to propel to a high wage, low labour and higher technological economy,” argued the federal legislator.
In pursuit of that end, Kulasegaran said his party is organising a colloquium in Ipoh on Saturday.
The colloquium, which will be opened by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, will feature speakers from the employers’ and unions’ sectors of the economy.
“They are likely to hold forth on how a ‘trickle up’ approach to revitalising our economy would be a better avenue out our current problems of a low wage, labour intensive economy,” said Kulasegaran.
“This approach will empower the lower and middle classes of society which would then propel us out of the rut we are in,” he elaborated.
“Thus far we have had too much emphasis of a ‘trickle down’ approach which emphasis capital investment and investments in infrastructure.
“It’s time we invested in training in our our striving middle class which has been badly affected by the rising cost of living and a depreciating ringgit” opined Kulasegaran.
The colloquium will be held on Saturday at the Old Anderson Club from nine in the morning to 2pm. Speakers will include Shamsuddin Bardhan of the Malaysian Employers Federation, DAP state assembly rep A Sivanesan (Sungkai), Somasundran from Malaysian Trades Union Congress, and lawyer A Saraswathy.
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