Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the PPBM dinner event in Segambut May 2, 2019. — Picture by Hari Anggara

KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today suggested Malaysians plant paddy at night as the government looks at ways to alleviate the discomfort of hard labour during the day.

Focusing mainly on difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs or “3D jobs”, the prime minister said the Pakatan Harapan government is looking into the possibility of shifting the working hours from day to night time.

“During the day, the weather is hot and it is uncomfortable to work so we are thinking as to whether we can change the work hours from day to night.

“Of course it would be dark but we see people playing golf at night with bright lights on. Maybe we can plant paddy at night put on the lights and there won’t be the hot sun.

“Perhaps not many would be able to accept this but over time they will get used to it,” said Dr Mahathir at a Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) dinner event in Segambut, here today.

Dr Mahathir said the suggestion was to prevent outflow of cash to other countries due to the high numbers of foreign workers working in the 3D industry.

Citing examples of unnamed foreign countries, the PPBM chairman said there are countries that would change the working hours from daytime to night during the Ramadan fasting month, to ease the Muslims workers from working while fasting.

“[This] is not something new... We can install LED lights, which does not consume much electricity we can try flood lightning for night time work hours.

“This would ease the work pressure of working under the heat during the day,” Dr Mahathir reiterated.

The Langkawi MP said as an example, houses can be readily built in factories and later transported to the construction site for installation, which could reduce workers working under difficult circumstances.

He said the government would also look into replacing more hard labours with the use of machineries to easy physical workload.

He said these were some of the efforts the Federal administration could look into in order to attract locals to work in the 3D industry, and thus reducing the reliance on foreign workers.

“Now we have about seven million foreign workers and they are sending back so much of our money to their country.

“If we do the work ourselves, then we do not have to see our money outflowing to other countries.

“These are some of the suggestions and policies that PH is stressing on and looking into,” said Dr Mahathir.