They came with a dream, but Malaysia is not their dreamland after all…
Some 1,000 Bangladeshi workers have been living along the cemented banks of Sungai Gombak, behind the Bangladesh High Commission, for the past two weeks after leaving their employers with claims of abuse and delayed salary payments.
The Bangladeshis have mixed complaints, with the majority alleging that they had not been paid their salaries for up to nine months. Others said their work did not match the job stated in their employment contract, while others alleged physical abuse, including beatings.
I hope the government is taking this issue seriously… it’s unacceptable that slavery is still happening in the 21st century. It is an embarrassment to our country, and it’s a violation of basic human rights.
Employers wishing to recruit foreign workers must now advertise the job vacancies in their companies with the Electronic Labour Exchange for two weeks before their requests can be considered.
Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the employers must show proof that they had advertised with the labour exchange set up by Human Resource Ministry…
“If proven that there has been no response from locals within that period, then the employers can apply to employ foreign workers and their applications will be considered by a committee.” [Bernama]
I have written in an earlier post regarding this matter, that Malaysian companies have not taken enough initiative for the past decade to hire locals to fill their vacancies, but went straight for foreign labour instead because they are cheap, and easy to find.
I am not sure what is the Electronic Labour Exchange, how it works or how effective it is… the move is however welcome nonetheless; at least it shows that the government is giving some thoughts to control the influx of foreign workers and opening more job opportunities for locals instead.
Prime Minister and UMNO president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi opened the UMNO General Assembly on Wednesday (Nov 7) at the Putra World Trade Centre. The following is the full text of his opening address [TheStar]…
STRENGTHENING CONFIDENCE – VENTURING INTO A NEW ERA
Alhamdulillah, with God’s will, we are convene for the 58th UMNO General Assembly.
2. Our assembly this year takes place in the glow of the 50th Merdeka celebrations. This is also our first assembly for the next 50 years. Beginning the first national elections, UMNO, as part of the Alliance and subsequently Barisan Nasional, has formed the national government based on the principle of power sharing. It also spearheaded the drive towards independence.
3. The Malayan Government, considered to be lacking in experience, faced myriad challenges. Twelve years after independence, the nation was riven by racial riots that threatened its survival. Thanks to mutual understanding and a strong spirit of cooperation, we overcame this test. That dark time in our history became a valuable lesson that taught us the need to strengthen our unity.
4. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Government introduced three major measures. First, the Rukun Negara was introduced as a national ideology to ensure national unity and safeguard the integrity of the nation. Second, the New Economic Policy was designed to develop our economy based on fair and equitable growth. Finally, the Barisan Nasional was introduced as an effective and inclusive political vehicle. The implementation of these three measures has brought success, guaranteed our survival and brought us the prosperity that we enjoy to this day.
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An article from The Jakarta Post about relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia.
The article is biased in some sense, but lots of the things mentioned are fact. Their influx of illegal immigrants have caused some social issues for us, but on the other hand Malaysians in general are not treating our foreign labours with dignity.
To make it worse not only the workers that were discriminated recently, but visitors and students were harassed as well.
The author in the end suggested that Indonesian will have to resolve to military might to win Malaysia’s respect… it sounds radical but mind that Malaysia is upgrading our military force as well with the recent purchase of the submarine and fighter jets.
It would be stupid though, if these 2 countries get into war for these matters.
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I saw something disturbing when I was having dinner at a restaurant in SS2, PJ on Sunday. There was a family having dinner as well, but while they were enjoying their meal… their Indonesian maid was sitting behind them waiting for them to finish their dinner.
I am not sure how most people will think about this, but I find it inhuman. It won’t cost much to have the maid having dinner together… those people were treating their maids like slaves.
If you read some Indonesian papers, like The Jakarta Post for example; you would often read some strong reactions from Indonesians about how their countrymen (and women) are badly treated in Malaysia… and I can’t blame them for being overreacted sometimes.
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I have read a recent report that Indonesian workers have surpassed the Indians as the 3rd largest ethnic group in Malaysia. I can’t remember the exact figure; if I remember correctly there are more than 2 millions legal Indonesian workers in Malaysia at the moment.
Do we really need so many foreign labour in Malaysia?
The government and private sector always claim that we are hiring foreign workers because nobody is willing to do those jobs; their claims is not 100% true.
We were probably short of labour forces when the economic was booming in late 80s; we had to find resources from oversea especially in the construction field. The construction companies then realized that they can get cheaper labour from foreign countries, and thus not willing to hire local workers with higher price.
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Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is happily announcing one mega development project after another… the Iskandar Development Region (IDR), Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) and other billion Ringgit projects like Trans-Peninsular Oil Pipeline and all the railway projects etc.
It is easy to come out with a plan, but lots of questions remain uncertain… is it feasible to work on all those mega projects at the same time? Are Malaysians capable of funding the projects ourselves? How are we going to attract foreign investments? Who are going to benefit from the projects? What will happen to the projects if another economic crisis landed on Malaysia like in 1997?
Do we need these projects?
Perak government has spent millions if not billions to develop various industrial areas; most of those areas are close to being wasteland now. It is easy to draw planning and providing infrastructure, but what happen if we could not attract people to invest at those areas? And do we really need all these development?
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