Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Ibrahim has announced that the state’s weekend for the government sector will return to Saturday and Sunday, from Jan 1, 2025.
The state changed its weekend to Friday and Saturday on Jan 1, 2014, but only for the government sector. The private sector’s weekend remained Saturday and Sunday.
Johor is one of four Malaysian states that observe Friday-Saturday as its weekend. The others are Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu.
The move is natural, given the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, which would enhance productivity. Johor has also seen a series of foreign investments in digital tech and data centres by tech giants in recent years.
Plan Malaysia Johor, for example, is drawing up the Johor State Data Centre Development Planning Guidelines to coordinate and monitor data centre development planning.
Announcing the decision today, Tunku Ismail said the decision received the consent and blessing from His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, the King of Malaysia, after considering the views of the Johor Islamic Religious Council.
Tunku Ismail said he had decreed for Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, and Johor Mufti Datuk Yahya Ahmad, to discuss and study every angle and aspect regarding the matter.
“I hope that the private sector, the government, and related parties allow sufficient time and space for Muslim workers to perform Friday prayers accordingly,” Tunku Ismail said.
Talks of Johor reverting to Saturday-Sunday have been going on for two years.
In 2022, Onn Hafiz told the media that he had taken note of the grouses from the people about the difference in rest days for the government, and the private sectors, and wanted to ensure that parents and their school-going children would have the same days off.
