Malaysia and migrant workers<\/p>\n
Sin Chew Daily\/Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia<\/p>\n
Malaysians generally have a mixed feeling for illegal migrant
\nworkers from Indonesia. We love them because they have helped
\nrelieve the pressure of many a vital industry. However, we are
\nalso worried that these illegal foreign workers would threaten
\nour social security.<\/p>\n
Do we love them more or hate them more? It looks like even the
\ngovernment finds it hard to take a decisive stance. In the end,
\nthe government has come out with both a carrot and a stick -- the
\namnesty and the arrests. While the carrot has been offered, we
\nhave yet to see when the government will actually pick up the
\nstick.<\/p>\n
With hundreds of thousands of illegal foreign workers just
\nleaving our shores, many industries are already feeling the
\npinch. Retailers complain that their businesses have dropped
\nwhile small and medium-sized industries, hawkers and farmers
\nbemoan that they have lost the much needed labor force. So the
\ngovernment hurriedly set up a one-stop screening center in
\ncollaboration with the Indonesian government to allow these
\nworkers to turn back after spending one or two days in some
\nIndonesian island, legally.<\/p>\n
In fact, such a cycle of amnesty followed by arrests and more
\namnesty, takes place year after year, squandering not only
\nvaluable government resources but also eroding the government's
\nreliability and integrity. Besides, it also locks the country
\nwithin an antiquated operational mode whereby foreign workforce
\nis badly needed, and impedes the progress of economic
\ntransformation.<\/p>\n
Dependence on foreign workers is no doubt the easiest,
\ncheapest and most direct way of doing things, but that will also
\nstall the elevation of the values of local products as well as
\nR&D efforts, dampening the wills to go into automation, which in
\nthe long run will erode the country's competitiveness.<\/p>\n
Moreover, over-dependence on foreign workers will also
\nobliterate the efficiency and objectives of our enforcement units
\nwhile slapping heavy social costs onto the country, including the
\nwelfare of these foreign workers' children. This will in turn
\nincrease the government's burden to provide infrastructure as
\nwell as essential services while police force has to be mobilized
\nto ensure social security.<\/p>\n
It is therefore high time for the government to map out with
\nsome definite foreign worker policies, including setting a law
\nfor foreign workforce ratios in certain industries and services
\nto be cut down to 20 percent or less to better control the influx
\nof foreign workers.<\/p>\n
The government's foreign worker policies have been ambiguous
\nall these years -- arresting illegal foreign workers on the one
\nhand, and generously granting amnesty on the other. And now, even
\nby whom the levies should be paid remains in doubt, let alone
\ncentralized management of foreign laborers.<\/p>\n
The government must make it a law that employers hiring
\nforeign workers should pay more, including the provision of
\nhostels which are more manageable, as well as foreign worker
\nmanagement fees. This is to lessen the government's enforcement
\nand repatriation costs.<\/p>\n
Unless and until the employers are made to pay a certain fee
\nfor hiring foreign workers, they will not bother to think of ways
\nto boost their productivity without having to depend excessively
\non imported manpower, or hire locals in their stead.<\/p>\n
Slowing national economy must not be made an excuse for giving
\nup the opportunity to improve our competitiveness. If we don't
\ntake the strategic move to change today, perhaps we will still be
\ntalking about the same issue of illegal foreign workers 10 or 20
\nyears down the road.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/malaysia-and-migrant-workers-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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