Muhyiddin should answer this

To DPM and Cabinet Committee for Foreign Workers chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin - please address this.

Home Ministry has appointed 335 agents to help the Immigration Dept to register legal and illegal foreign workers under the amnesty or 'pemutihan' program. Out of this, not all could afford to rent the biometric machines for almost RM15,000 each (and this deposit is not refundable in full).

When the govt decided not to charge anything for legal foreign workers who register with the Immigration Dept, it was okay and everybody like and accepted the idea.

However, when Datuk Hisham announced that about 500,000 Bangladeshis - legal or not - will register for free, it raised some doubts about the level of professionalism in implementing the program.

Last Friday during a Press conference, deputy sec-gen of Home Ministry, Datuk Alwi said that other illegal foreign workers too can register with the Immigration for free. This has caused an uproar among the agents as they are already losing RM35 per head there.

So, which is which now? Is this a benevolent govt? We appointed the agents and then rob them of their small income which is meant to cover the big money spent for the machines and the thumb-prints equipment. So, how will they survive?

What is so special about the illegal Bangladeshis as compared to the Indonesians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Nepalese and others? What is the point of having agents if the Immigration Dept does not impose any charges for registration and other procedures?

It seems that there are so many cooks here for the soup, each with different version of explanations.

I think we better give PR or citizenship to all the foreigners, especially the Banglas and give full refund to agents who have spent between RM50,000 to RM200,000 for the program. They (the agents) will not be rewarded with anything in the end, except losses.

We are more like 'Kera di hutan disusukan, anak di riba mati kelaparan' in dealing with the program. This is not a lucrative business but the agents have shown great interest in helping out the govt. However, we are taking them for granted.

Let's be fair and proper about this...

Tidak ada gunanya kita buka peluang kepada rakyat kita untuk berniaga secara kecil-kecilan jika kita sendiri menekan dan menyamun mereka dengan peraturan yang dikenakan.