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Sunday, November 6, 2011

The trouble with foreign labor and the BN

The trouble with foreign labor and the BN

Let us start with the first false myth that has been used to justify the presence of millions of foreign workers in Malaysia’s industries from the food to manufacturing. Malaysians, we are told, are not interested to do jobs like waiter or factory worker. This is false. In the US, the waiters are Americans and not from Bangladesh. It is the same in England, France and Germany. Have we somehow become more advanced than these nations?

What is true is that Malaysians are not willing to do those jobs for the meager wages and outrageously long working hours offered by the employers. These same employers then turn around and claim that they cannot attract Malaysian workers and therefore must be allowed to hire foreign workers. These business-owners are engaged in profiteering rather than operating honest enterprise.

More trouble than benefit

Let us take the example of restaurants, an environment that we are all familiar with. They are full of foreign workers, from the cooks to the cleaners to the waiters. The reason they are there is because the owners are trying to maximize their profits.

Now what would happen if the government enforced a 100% ban on the hiring of foreign workers, as a first step, on all restaurants in Malaysia. There would be a whole lot of noise from the restaurant owners. But we may ignore them, for they are profiteers and irresponsible citizens. Prices would go up as Malaysian workers would have to be paid a decent salary.

This is probably a good thing as Malaysians appear to eat out too much, in any event. If you lived in Melbourne or Sydney, you would not presume to eat out as a matter of course. Eating out is expensive in Australia because its Government does not allow Bangladeshis and Indonesians to work as waiters and cleaners in their country. This is because it would cause an outflow of funds, test the social and medical services which should rightly go to citizens, and strain the social fabric. There seem to be no such concerns in Malaysia!

Some restaurants of course might close down. Let them. If they can only survive by hiring foreign workers, it is better that they are gone. Malaysians will eat at home more. Good, its better for the family unit.

Confusion

Having all these foreign workers in the country also causes confusion in the economy. Are Malaysians unemployed because there are no jobs, because the jobs have been taken by foreigners or because they do not wish to take on jobs which have now become identified with foreign workers? Add to that forex outflow by workers sending most of their earnings to their countries of origin. Money which leaves the country is gone for good. It does not get spent in Malaysia and thereby increasing economic activity in the country. That ringgit is wasted and increasing economic activity in Nepal instead.

Amazingly, you can now see foreigners walking around restaurants selling pointless flashing toys these days. What specific national good is the BN pursuing by allowing this to go on? Even the putu mayam man on his motorcycle is an Indian national instead of a Malaysian. It is ridicoulous. And try going to central KL on a Sunday or a public holiday. You will find it hard to believe that you are in Malaysia.

This is how what BN can do, but won't

So who can solve this problem? The answer is that only the government can resolve it through:

• the banning of foreign workers.

• regular checks by the enforcement authorities for illegals.

• rigorous enforcement of laws and the harshest punishments against Malaysian businesses which hire illegals.

Subramaniam smiling but ineffectual

If you are hoping that the BN administration can achieve the eradication of foreign labor, you will be disappointed. The BN suffers from a lack of will, lack of courage and a general lackadaisical attitude that it is impossible to change. They will do nothing. The HR Minister, Subramaniam, is ever smiling but he cannot even legislate a minimum wage law; so afraid is he of the employer’s lobby. He would not understand economic principles if we hit over the head with it. In contrast, Pakatan has declared a RM1,100 figure as the minimum wage for private-sector workers in it’s budget.

Hisham is even worse

The Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, is focused on misusing the enforcement agencies to stifle his and the BN’s political opponents rather than anything else. Oppositionists are followed around by a whole bunch of policemen writing notes, snapping pictures and taking videos.

The BN is a government that is constantly spying on its own citizens. Like any despotic Middle-Eastern dictatorship, it boasts a secret police in the form of the special branch. All these policemen should be fighting crime, in all its forms including illegal foreign workers, or stopping Malaysians from indulging in their hobby of killing themselves on the nation’s highways by speeding and recklessness.

The only solution to the problem of foreign labor in Malaysia, and its toxic effect on Malaysia’s already struggling economy, like the solution to many of the other ills facing the country today, is to throw out the inept Barisan Nasional and elect a Pakatan government to Putrajaya.

Malaysia Chronicle

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