Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were often associated as Asia’s pariah people due primarily to their poverty. They form a huge pool of cheap labours or slaves ready to do 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and difficult. They were cheated by agents before they could be exported and were mistreated by employers while doing their 3D jobs.

If you really fancy how glorious Dubai is today, take a step back and imagine tens of thousands of those pariah people actually did the job building every single high rise building and infrastructure. In Malaysia, the once cheap labours from Indonesia have graduated from being pariah to become expensive labours, thanks to economic progress back home.

 

Soon, Burmese would start flocking back to Myanmar too if the partnership of military junta-Aung San Suu Kyi could bring economic prosperity to the country. When that happens, Bangladeshis could become the majority as far as foreigners are concerned. Presently they form an estimated 500,000 in an overcrowded 2,135,000 registered foreign workers.

The Government of Malaysia has imposed a limit – 15% of foreigners among a total workforce of roughly 15.3 million workers. This means the room can fit an additional 160,000 more foreign workers before hitting the 15% limit. Therefore, the decision to import an additional 1,500,000 Bangladesh workers has created protests from all walks of life.

 

Newly crowned Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been super gung-ho about flooding the country with an extra 1.5 million Bangladeshis, despite the fact that undocumented or illegal foreign workers exceeded that number – at 1.7 million. At the end of the day there would be 5,335,000 foreign workers or 17.8% of 30 million Malaysian populations.

That’s right, if Mr Zahid had his way, for every 5 Malaysian citizen, there would be 1 foreigner walking on the street in another 3-year. Of course, that didn’t happen, at least not yet because suddenly the same Zahid announced a freeze on his pet project with immediate effect while the government reviews the two-tier levy programme for foreign workers.

 

Effective Feb 1 this year, Malaysia was supposed to implement a new system of charging levies on foreign workers based on two different categories of sectors workers are employed in. Each worker in the manufacturing, construction and service sector will be charged RM2,500 per head while those in the plantation and agriculture RM1,500.

The funny thing about the whole fiasco was how Najib administration made a fool of themselves in a damage control attempt. Mr. Zahid made a huge U-turn just 24-hour after the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bangladesh to import its workers was signed. Thereafter, Malaysian Human Resources Minister Richard Riot said the freeze will not affect the MOU.

 

What was even bizarre is this – Mr. Richard Riot tried to look smart by proclaiming that the 1.5 million workers in the MOU was actually a total number of Bangladeshis registered to seek employment abroad, and not necessarily heading to Malaysia. Was he representing planet Earth in the MOU taking the role of a U.N. representative on the “Bangla” workers distribution?

While flip flopping is a policy of the Government of Malaysia for as long as one can remember, nobody thought a minister could screw up to such level. Richard Riot’s insult to peoples’ intelligence and Zahid Hamidi’s half-past-six decision-making have gotten too far that even the Government of Bangladesh found it worthwhile poking fun at the issue.

 

Acting secretary of Expatriate Ministry in Bangladesh, Begum Shamsunnahar told the Dhaka Tribune – “It is just an eyewash. The Malaysian government has made the announcement to calm the pressure groups in that country who do not want foreign workers’ recruitment. Bangladesh will send workers to Malaysia as per the deal signed between the two countries.”

When even the Bangladesh believes Malaysia was lying, bluffing, c*ck-talking, bullshitting and whatnot about freezing the intake of 1,500,000 Bangladeshis, it’s reasonable to presume Najib administration is more pariah than the cheap Bangladesh labours. How come? That’s because the drama was so pathetically played.

 

There’s no need to question the Bangladesh government’s integrity when somebody at home with lesser brainpower isn’t impressed with Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi’s eleventh hour’s U-turn. Extremist group Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali reportedly believes the 1.5 million Bangladeshis would enter the country despite the freeze announcement.

Now, it makes sense when Richard Riot confidently said the freeze (not “cancel”) will not affect the MOU. That’s because Zahid Hamidi would most likely import the Banglas – “quietly” and “secretly”. Make no mistake about it. The 1,500,000 Banglas are meant for Malaysia, not for the rest of the world as twisted by Mr. Richard simply because Zahid’s own daughter has admitted to it.

 

Defending his daddy’s pet project, Nurul Hidayah, has taken the battle to social media – fighting tooth and nail with netizens – who criticised the import of (1.5 million) Bangladeshis. It’s pretty easy to see why cheap labour business is such a lucrative business. Zahid’s own brother company being one of importing agencies, we’re looking at RM4.5 billion (RM3,000 per head) of revenue.

Here’s the biggest problem. Importing foreign workers is a gold mine and in their rush to make fast bucks, the government couldn’t care less about sending those not needed back to their original countries, let alone worrying about social problems. Because controlling, managing and repatriating cost money, the number of illegal foreign workers were left to skyrocket over time.

 

Eventually, with nowhere to go and no job to do, these foreign workers would end up committing crimes to make ends meet. They need to satisfy their sexual desire too hence more women could get raped. There was a case where a 13-year-old teenager was rape at a cybercafé at Sri Rampai, Wangsa Maju. A Bangladeshi was caught and beaten by angry mobs.

True, Malaysia cannot survive without cheap labours. But the country will collapse with excessive number of them too. But do selfish, clueless, incompetent and greedy politicians such as Richard Riot and Zahid Hamidi care about ordinary citizens who do not enjoy police outriders or bodyguard’s protection? When even Bangladeshis laugh at Malaysians, it’s wake up time.

 

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February 22nd, 2016 by financetwitter

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