Declassify foreign workers’ management report, PSM urges govt

 

PSM has urged the government to declassify an independent special committee’s report on the management of foreign workers.

PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan said there is no reason for the report submitted in 2019 by the Special Committee on Foreign Worker Management not to be made public.

This is especially so after Putrajaya declassified the 1976 investigation report of the Double Six Crash recently.

The special committee was chaired by former Court of Appeal judge, Hishamuddin Yunus and was formed during Pakatan Harapan’s tenure in 2018.

“The report has been classified under the Official Secrets Act, and Hishamuddin said the committee members were disappointed by this and no reasons were given either,” Arutchelvan (above) said in a statement today.

This comes after the arrest of a senior officer to Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar over graft allegations that also involved a migrant worker recruitment agency.

Arutchelvan said the officer’s arrest is not surprising, alleging that it was public knowledge that “the recruitment of migrant workers and the amount of undocumented workers in Malaysia is all due to massive corruption in the Immigration Department and private agencies”.

“Today’s arrest (of the human resource minister’s officer) will not raise any eyebrows, but just a smile.

"If these holes and leakages are closed, then we will also resolve the issue of undocumented workers and other related issues,” he added.

However, Arutchelvan asserted that the government cannot fight corruption through a piecemeal approach.

“The arrest of the human resource minister’s aide is just a tiny dot in the ocean of mismanagement.

“We need commitment and conviction to fight corruption. It’s time the government look seriously at the recommendations made before,” he stressed.

He was referring to a paper titled “Towards a Comprehensive National Policy on Labour Migration for Malaysia”, written after organising four roundtable sessions in 2016.

Stop criticising UNHCR

The roundtable was attended by PSM, workers’ rights organisations and representatives from different ministries and agencies, as well as embassies.

However, Arutchelvan said, the suggestions made in the paper were not taken up by the government.

On related development, Arutchelvan also took the Home Ministry to task for taking the “easy way out” by attacking the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for issuing cards to refugees.

“But the bigger problem is they need to resolve the internal leakages in immigration and now, the Human Resource Ministry.

“(Prime Minister) Anwar Ibrahim’s zero tolerance to corruption stance will also be ridiculed as long as you have a tainted deputy prime minister.

“(Ahmad) Zahid (Hamidi) was implicated in receiving bribes from a company to extend the foreign visa system contract.

“He has since been acquitted of 40 charges, which the attorney-general is appealing,” Arutchelvan added. - Mkini