Dr M: Minimum wage may bankrupt Malaysia

Dr Mahathir said an increase in wages must be matched by an equal hike
 in productivity. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Malaysia may become bankrupt as is happening now in the West if the federal government caves in to public pressure and sets a minimum wage policy, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Still influential despite having retired from office in 2003, the former prime minister warned that the federal government’s seeming haste to adopt a minimum wage policy without taking into account the spike in public holidays to include the weekends and the holy days of all major religions was a serious risk to the country’s economy.