Daim says Harapan ignored advice on foreign workers management

Veteran politician Daim Zainuddin said the previous Pakatan Harapan government had ignored policy recommendations on the management of foreign workers and the repercussions could be seen today.

In a prepared interview sent to media agencies, Daim (above), who formerly headed the Council of Eminent Persons said he had personally written to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad with several recommendations after meeting with various stakeholders.

"These proposals would not only have seen a proper exercise to legalise and repatriate illegals but would have also led to a more sustainable foreign worker policy.

"Instead, they were hijacked by the vested interests," said the former finance minister.

"As a result, the proposals were ignored and another manifesto promise was left unfulfilled," said Daim to a question on his biggest regrets when looking back at policy decisions or implementations in the two years of Harapan's rule.

Last year, Harapan launched the "Back for Good" amnesty exercise that saw more than 180,000 undocumented migrants being repatriated to their home countries.

The number was far below the estimated two million to four million undocumented migrants Malaysia consistently cited human rights groups.

Over the last decade, the government had launched at least four major amnesty programmes with the longest-running exercise from 2014 to August 2018 which reportedly repatriated 840,000 undocumented migrants.

Daim also said the consequences of Harapan's failure to reduce the number of foreign workers and undocumented migrants could be seen today in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic among foreign workers and undocumented migrants.

"In addition to the inability of contact tracing and clear knowledge of their size and whereabouts, the 'sudden' arrests (of undocumented migrants), and their subsequent positive tests, have not only led to increased xenophobia in the country but also increased reluctance to come forward for voluntary repatriation.

"So much so, we are now facing a situation where locals think Covid-19 is rampant only among foreigners, and this is creating distrust, abuse and fear of all foreign workers," he added.

Daim said Harapan's failure has resulted in business activities, for example in the construction sector, not being able to resume operations due to shortage of labour or fear of transmission among migrant workers.

As of June 14, the Construction Industry Development Board has inspected 7,699 project sites nationwide, of which 5,528 were found to be idle.

All foreign workers in the construction sector are required to be screened for Covid-19 before being allowed to work, after the discovery of new clusters at several sites around Kuala Lumpur. - Mkini