One foreign troublemaker too many for Malaysia

The Star, Asia News Network, Kuala Lumpur

Attacking and wounding co-workers, employers, compatriots and policemen seem to be routine for some very desperate foreign laborers in this country. These crimes are not the exclusive preserve of any particular nationality among the foreign "guest" workforce, but Indonesians are somehow predominant.

Whenever these thugs feel offended for whatever reason, property is destroyed, lodgings razed, and innocent people assaulted. The reasons seem to matter little, ranging freely from unmet demands and solidarity with other workers to sectarian squabbles among themselves brought over from their homeland.

Sadly, this loutish behavior is not new. Malaysian authorities, employers and members of the public have for too long known of criminal gangs among these workers who terrorize neighborhoods with their robbing and raping sprees.

However, this deplorable state of affairs has lately deteriorated further. Besides individual cases of criminal gangs and syndicates, there are now whole communities of workers threatening and attacking Malaysian authorities, including the police.

This latest problem sharpens all the others: Among them, reduction of jobs for locals, crime, the spread of diseases previously eradicated in the country, and a rise in poverty. Deporting foreign workers is one solution, but this must ensure that they do not turn their boats around and return.

It is true that only a minority of foreign workers in this country are criminal in intent and behavior. But given the large foreign workforce here, many of whom entered the country illegally, even a minority as miscreants are too many.

Indeed, illegal entry itself is a crime. And if so many among the foreign workforce have knowingly committed this offense, what other crimes might they not commit?

The solution is not a simplistic one of abolishing foreign labour altogether. The real issue is to prevent the louts among them from entering the country in the first place, in whatever guise.

The authorities must simply come down harder on the offenders. The alternative is to see Malaysia as a nation of tolerant people becoming a pushover for violent hotheads from neighboring countries.

Some critics of authority tend to overplay the vulnerabilities of foreign workers, to the extent of regarding all of them as simply victims of universal injustice. But this is only to turn all explainable behavior, including violent crime, into excusable conduct.

Let us not make that mistake. And let us remember that the troubling circumstances demand that we demonstrate an unerring firmness, clarity of purpose and an unflinching consistency in enforcing the law.

Anything less would send the wrong message to all prospective offenders. Anti-social behavior is not to be tolerated among guests -- if such conduct is not condoned in the workers' own countries, why should Malaysia have to put up with it?

Let everyone also be reminded that foreign workers are in this country at the behest of the Government and people of Malaysia. The workers are not here as an act of selfless sacrifice to help Malaysia develop, but as a privilege to seek better earnings for themselves.

It is the responsibility of group leaders among the foreign workforce to keep their intemperate colleagues in check. These abusers of gainful opportunities must not be allowed to jeopardize decent livelihoods in the interests of all.

Malaysia has embarked on the road of information technology, which requires high skills and high productivity in an ever- competitive world. Allowing a multitude of low-skilled workers into the country for labour-intensive sectors indefinitely can only hamper the nation's prospects for rapid and successful development.