LATELY, some Malaysians have been voicing their frustration over the number of public holidays declared over the year — a surprising shift, considering the country has had a packed holiday calendar for a while.
One social media user on Threads summed up the sentiment: “Just curious, why are some Malaysians suddenly not liking or disagreeing with Malaysia having so many public holidays?
ALSO READ: Expat shocked by Malaysia’s endless public holidays—netizens welcome him to ‘holiday heaven’
“Malaysia has had lots of public holidays for ages, so why are many people only now complaining about it?
“Is it because September suddenly has a lot of long weekends?
“Some suggest replacing public holidays with annual leave, but they realize not all companies give a lot of annual leave. Even if some companies do, it’s often difficult to get approval,” the user wrote.
The post has sparked a lively debate online. Many netizens agreed, noting that while long weekends are nice, not everyone can enjoy them.
One user called uptome172 commented: “The way I see it, most of those who are unhappy are usually business owners. To them, it feels like public holidays disrupt operations, and if staff have to work, they have to pay double, so it ends up costing them.
“They can move to Singapore,” xoscisor wrote sarcastically.
“Please understand, getting annual leave approved is difficult. Even if you have up to 30 days of annual leave, you often can’t use it! The leave either gets carried forward or just wasted. It’s not like the company will pay you for the unused leave,” capiqaaaah pointed out.
“ Those who say they disagree are just pretending to be workaholics, but in reality, they’re the ones who take the longest breaks,” ros_yana suggested.
