NOT YET PM, ZAHID'S CRONIES ALREADY LINING UP FOR FAVORS

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Malaysia preferred foreign workers from Bangladesh as they were found to be more loyal and trustworthy.

Without a doubt, we are going to see an influx of 1.5million Bangladeshis to Malaysia very soon. Zahid has since dismissed the controversy that his brother, businessman Abdul Hakim Hamidi was awarded the online contract to recruit and monitor the workers.

Malaysians are beginning to shudder at the thought of 1.5 million Bangladeshis swarming our country and working in our oil palm plantations. The cons seem to outweigh the pros that could spell a mega disaster if an impact assessment is not properly conducted.

Another Project IC?

Already, Malaysians are disgusted at the ongoing controversy that a particular government crony will stand to make billions from the registration exercise itself and which smacks of another ill thought out ‘get rich quick’ project.

Secondly, with millions of Bangladeshis in this country, Project IC immediately comes to mind. Sabah has only a few hundred thousand foreigners, but it has created total havoc and impacting their economic and political balance, which is akin to population reengineering.

Efforts have failed to repatriate these foreigners back to their homeland and millions of ringgit of the taxpayers money was spent creating ESSCOM to patrol Sabah’s borders to prevent further intrusion.

The population of Sabah has since increased by over a hundred percent with many foreigners issued Malaysian IC’s allowing them to vote in the elections. Sabah has never been the same since.

What if something similar like Project IC rears its ugly face in the Peninsular with unscrupulous politicians taking advantage of the mass number of foreigners to create another army of phantom voters? Already, we have heard of rumours of new foreign townships situated outside of Pekan, Pahang.

But these are not the only fears that Malaysians are worried about. Besides, the political impact, the social and economic impact can cause the country to buckle to its knees, if there is a global economic meltdown, and when we have no more money to pay their wages or ask them to go home.

Assuming that these economic migrants remit a major part of their pay packet home, nearly RM1 billion will leave the country each month or about RM12billion a year. Does that make any economic sense?

More than 100 countries in the world with a population of less than 1.5 million

Seriously, we are becoming Santa Claus giving jobs to 1.5million Bangladeshis who cannot even land a decent job in their own country for whatever reason. These are the rejected ones at the bottom rung of society, who does not have the acumen to seek gainful employment in their own land.

By inviting them here with open arms, we have just solved the Bangladeshi Government’s humongous headache of providing jobs for their own citizens and the burden of one and a half million less mouths to feed.

1.5 million Bangladeshis is no small figure by any standards, as it amounts to nearly 5 percent of our country’s total population.

The current population of Indians in this country is only 6 percent, while ethnic East Malaysians are even less. It’s going to have a huge impact on our racial composition as they can be categorized as Indian Muslims or Mamaks.

For that matter, Luxembourg is a country in Europe that barely has a population of 550 thousand people, while Macau, a former Portuguese enclave has roughly the same population. Already these countries are bursting at the seams creating a liveable environment for their citizens.

Other examples include Bahrain that has 1.3 million people, Cyprus has 800 thousand. Bhutan has 760 thousand. Malta has 440 thousand while Brunei has 400 thousand.

In fact there are nearly 100 small sovereign countries, colonies and island states in the world that has a population of less than 1.5million people. Don’t take my word for it; look it up in Wikipedia.

Therefore, the impact of 1.5million Bangladeshis running wild in our country is going to have such a huge impact on our socio-economic standards that we cannot hope to even imagine.

The Economic and Social Impact

These 1.5million Bangladeshis on arrival are expected to disappear into the oil palm plantations all over the country. We need to build 150 thousand quarters to house them and yet our country is in dire need to build hundred of thousands of affordable homes just to house our own citizens.

To serve their religious needs and obligatory prayers, at least 3000 full size mosques have to build. They will take a toll on our electricity, water and health-care facilities.

Health care

Already our health care system is taxed to the maximum to cater to our local populace, and an injection of another million foreigners will play havoc on our health care system.

We do not have enough hospitals, nor doctors and nurses to handle the sudden influx. Bangladesh is not known for their healthcare system, and we are importing millions of foreigners, who may carry with them exotic and deadly diseases that are considered eradicated in this country.

Even the threat of a major plague outbreak cannot be ruled out.

Presumably, every one of them would be male, which would cause a severe imbalance of male-female ratio in the plantations, not to mention the whole country. Besides, do we even have 1.5 million Felda settlers, so their presence would be akin to an alien invasion?!

Even the fairer sex in the Felda settlements would have to be kept on a leash with so many virile alien males running around.

During weekends, these aliens would swarm the major towns in search of entertainment in large numbers, and it would be mind boggling to comprehend the sudden invasion of one particular ethnic group swarming in unison.

Flare ups due to the mass numbers

As blue collar workers, many of them would lack primary education or take the trouble to learn our language or assimilate. They will keep to themselves and form close knitted circles. In the event of a flare up due to miscommunication involving one of their kinds, their large numbers could pose a severe threat to the local population

And if things get out of hand, we will have a whole million army of hostile foreigners to contend with, if we threaten to repatriate them or take away their jobs. It will be a major threat to our population that even our army is ill-equipped to handle.

A DAP lawmaker pointed out that the vast number of migrants from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal in the country presently constituted 6.7million and would increased to 8.2million if we bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers,

It will constitute to about 27 per cent of total Malaysian residents, where 1 in 3 will be a foreigner. That will spell total disaster for Malaysians. A safe and comfortable ratio should not be more than 10 percent of the population for every nation on planet earth.

The arrival of more migrant workers would also affect local employment opportunities as employers would prefer to select migrants over locals due to their lower wages, which means that local wages will stay stagnant forever.

Statistics from the Employees Provident Fund already shows that 40 per cent of local workers earned wages less than RM2000 a month and that the combined income of married couples with less than RM3500 made up 65 per cent of the local workforce.

At this rate, Malaysia will fail to achieve developed nation status by 2020 as the target of earning RM5000 per individual per month would be impossible to achieve in five years.

Nowadays, there are already intense competition with the Chinadeshi, Malaydeshi, Indladeshi and other Deshis, and another influx will only aggravate the job market for our locals.

Finding jobs for our own Youth

What is the point of creating economic corridors like Project Iskandar, just to create a few thousand jobs for Malaysians, when we still have to rely on cheap labour which is akin to modern day slavery?

Today we churn out thousands of graduates who can hardly find jobs, not to mention the thousands of school dropouts who never finished Form 5. Form 3 and Standard 6 education. Many of these people are working in menial jobs that pay less than the minimum wage, while the rest are unemployed.

Every year thousands more will join the workforce and the government will have to create jobs for them. Many of them are lumped into the Civil Service which is a heavy burden on taxpayer’s money.

Is the Government too naïve to think of automation?

Indeed, many concerned Malaysians feel that such a mass hiring exercise from one particular country is not only a stupid but a highly reckless move. We should instead seek solutions to our manpower demands in all business sectors with the deployment of technology instead of hiring millions of foreigners.

Research and Development on Automation should take precedence, as machines can do the work of 10 humans. Malaysians can be employed to operate the machinery with better wages, while Felda landowners make a better profit.

Today, it is a fact that almost all current foreigners' roles can be replaced with technological solutions and innovations, which would be quicker and more efficient instead.Experts have commented that; It is advisable to look at other developed countries benchmarks to progress on the right direction.

But will our government take such a step or will it continue to take the easy way out making reckless decisions just to make a quick buck? - MAILBAG