MINIMUM WAGE POLICY TO CONSIDER ALL FACTORS - M'SIAN MINISTER

SHAH ALAM (Selangor, Malaysia), Sept 24 (Bernama) -- The proposed minimum
wage policy, to be tabled to the cabinet in October, will take into
consideration all factors and issues, Human Resources Minister Dr S. Subramaniam
said.

He said among the issues were the increase in basic income of workers, the
need to ensure productivity and availability of jobs as well as to ensure it
would not affect the inflow of foreign investment.

"We need to take all factors and issues into consideration in coming up with
a policy suitable for the country," he told at a news conference prior to
launching a Tamil audio CD called "Kaithi", near here Thursday night.

He said the ministry would move forward in implementing the proposed minimum
wage policy after getting directives from the cabinet.

On the call for the control of Tamil movies which contained elements of
gangsterism, Dr Subramaniam, who is MIC vice-president, said he believed that
not everyone who watched violent films would become violent because there were
other more complicated factors involved.

"Violence is shown not only in Tamil movies but in other films as well. If
you control Tamil movies showcasing violence, that doesn't mean that there won't
be violence in other films.

"The reason why certain people behave in a certain way is multifactorial,
and film plays only a small part," he said.

Subramaniam said he believed that the censorship board would monitor such
movies.

He also said that he would bring up views concerning violence in Tamil
movies to the Information Communication and Culture Ministry and censorship
board because "what is shown on films, sometimes occurs on the ground."
-- BERNAMA