Course to help foreign workers learn local ways

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

The familiarization course for foreign workers will be an important factor in ensuring a better understanding of Malaysian culture and customs, which will lessen problems with the locals.

Equipped with such basic knowledge of the country, these foreigners will hopefully have less trouble in mixing with Malaysians of all races.

This will go a long way in avoiding any misunderstanding with the local population.

The government's insistence that the workers undergo the two- week course will mean that the employers will have to wait longer for their foreign labor but the delay is certainly worth it.

Many of them are from countries which have little contact with the outside world, even those in the region. They therefore have little knowledge of the way others live.

Many of them are not familiar with the languages used in Malaysia, such as Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, English and Tamil and so will have difficulty in communicating with the locals.

With no exposure to these languages, the foreign workers will have a tough time trying to interact or understand the local sensitivities.

The Malaysian government is doing its bit as the local employers are in urgent need of their services.

But there is only so much that the government can do in this situation and those governments keen to send their workers to fill up the labor vacancies should make an extra effort in this respect.

They are therefore at a disadvantage compared to workers from Indonesia, the Philippines and China as their citizens are able to speak at least one of the languages being used by Malaysians.

So countries like Vietnam must walk the extra mile if they wish to export their workers to Malaysia, which is in need of a million of them for their factories, plantations and the construction sector.

While Vietnamese workers are lacking in the use of English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin, they make up for it by being good employees and their employers are reported to be happy with their performance.

There are already an estimated 67,000 Vietnamese workers here and this number is expected to go up to 100,000 in the not too distant future following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries recently.

Therefore those governments not doing their share in arranging for the familiarization course for their nationals will lose out to others.

This will mean less employment opportunities for them to work overseas and they will lose out financially to the more aggressive governments.