Spineless gov't being tough with the wrong people

In recent weeks, we see that senior minister Ismail Sabri has been a no-nonsense man when it comes to issues dealing with migrants as well as when people break the MCO. He continuously gets annoyed when journalists question him about raids involving migrants. Journalists have in recent weeks quoted the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and even the Health Ministry on whether there are going to be any new standard operating procedures (SOP) when with dealing with migrants. He keeps calling all these people “keliru” (confused) and in one of his recent daily updates, he accused those NGOs and politicians of trying to be heroes to champion the cause of migrants.

For a start, being heroes trying to champion migrant issues itself is not factually correct or rewarding simply because most Malaysians are not very welcoming of the migrants, and migrants cannot vote, therefore one is not going to get much political mileage championing their cause.

What is even more serious is that the Health director-general (DG) has already stated the biggest contributing factor among why Covid-19 cases are high and easy to spread among migrant communities is because of their cramped living conditions which do not allow for social distancing. This is also the same reason for the high cases in Singapore, a country that has much higher enforcement compared to us.

But daily, while we hear Ismail Sabri beating his chest on how many cars have been stopped and how many people have been arrested, we have yet to see any employers who violate housing conditions being booked. While we see raids being carried out, there is no operation or raids to check on the living conditions of the migrants. When the Health DG was asked if they will check on this, he said that is the responsibility of the Immigration Department.

Now above all this, the Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said they will postpone implementing the amended Workers' Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 which was supposed to come into force on Monday. The act was approved by Parliament in July 2019 and endorsed by the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).

The employers had ample time to implement this and now they are given this leeway at a time when we need to enforce social distancing in accommodations housing migrant workers. While there is a tendency to blame migrants for the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, there is no concrete solution to address the cause of the problem which is overcrowding and the inability to observe social distancing in the places they stay.

So who is 'keliru'? Why is the government trying to be heroes in raiding the migrants but spineless to implementing the Act which will ensure safety for the workers as well as all citizens? The virus is colour-blind to race and nationality. A responsible government would immediately draft law or the least an SOP on migrant housing as well as ensure employers adhere to it.

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S Arutchelvan is the deputy chairperson of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM). - Mkini