Intervene and take charge of Indonesian maids MoU, MP urges PM

 

Human resources minister M Saravanan says the Cabinet has decided that the MoU on the intake of domestic helpers for Malaysia should be signed immediately.

PETALING JAYA: Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has urged Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to intervene and take over the negotiations with Indonesia on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on domestic workers recruitment.

Kok said Ismail must do so as both human resources minister M Saravanan and home minister Hamzah Zainudin seemed to be at “great odds” in reaching an agreement on the issue.

“Since Hamzah and Saravanan are having problems working together on the domestic workers’ MoU with Indonesia, I urge the prime minister to intervene and take over the negotiations,” she said in a statement today.

She said failure to do so would cause further embarrassment to the country.

Kok also questioned why the home minister was heavily involved in the discussions when his ministry was not in charge of labour and domestic workers or dealings with Indonesia on the MoU.

She said since Indonesia also tied the intake of non-domestic workers to the MoU, it would affect the labour intake of other sectors the longer the document was delayed and not finalised.

She said it was time the government allowed the human resources ministry to be the “one-stop-centre” in handling foreign labour matters to prevent further clashes between ministries.

“Malaysia is among the few countries in the world whose migrant workers are managed by two different ministries,” she said. “Such management has created a lot of inconvenience to employers and employees.”

Last week, Saravanan said the Cabinet had decided that the MoU should be signed immediately.

He also said he and Hamzah shared the same objective, which was to protect and safeguard the welfare and well-being of Indonesian workers in the country.

This followed Indonesian ambassador Hermono saying Saravanan and Hamzah had taken “different positions” on the intake of domestic helpers.

Hermono told FMT he had received information that the two ministers made contradictory statements on Malaysia’s position to Indonesian manpower minister Ida Fauziyah.

While he was aware that Hamzah had met with Indonesian home affairs minister Tito Karnavian to talk about the MoU, the matter was unrelated to the Indonesian minister’s portfolio, he said. - FMT