Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
COMMENT
By Jimmy Puah Wee Tse
August 26, 2014, will be remembered as a day of infamy in Kulai’s history.
On that fateful day, more than 1,000 Nepalese workers ran riot and set fire to factory buildings and a vehicle in the compound of a listed company at Batu 25, Kulaijaya.
As the local elected representative, I was there around noon when the FRU was already on alert mode. By nightfall, 44 arrests were made, as several buildings in the compound were ablaze.
So, the question beckons, what caused the foreign workers to riot?
I was informed by the foreign workers, that there were many reasons.
Besides the customary harsh treatment and questionable wage deductions, the riot erupted when the management sought to ‘reform’ 20 foreign workers brought in from the Tebrau branch (also the subject of a strike a few days earlier).
The ‘reform’ consisted of the Nepalese workers being forced to play a “catch the ball” game. A round sandbag resembling a ball and weighing between 5-7kg was tossed around among the workers with the condition that whoever dropped the “ball” would be physically punished either by being punched, kicked or even worse, beaten with a stick.
At this juncture, I can only say this is an alleged event currently under police investigation but surely there cannot be smoke without fire.
If proven to be true, then this is surely one of the sickest games played and a throwback to the brutal treatment of labourers in the late 19th century.
The police must act fairly in this matter.
Rioters causing damage to property must be dealt with according to the law but on the other hand, I cannot help but empathise with these Nepalese.
As a society, we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the plight of foreign workers in light of what allegedly took place.
According to our Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, there is a total of 2.1 million registered foreign workers in Malaysia.
These are “registered” workers mind you, and if we include unregistered foreign workers, the numbers could easily double.
In our 2010 national census, Indians comprised 7.3% of our nation’s total population, or 2.06 million in total.
As such, just by taking into account the number of registered foreign workers, Indians are no longer the third largest community group in Malaysia.
The Department of Statistics, Malaysia in their 2013 Labour Force Survey report highlighted that 13.4% of our labour force consisted of foreign workers.
According to the Human Resource Ministry’s annual report, as of 2012, there were still 1.6 million job vacancies in Malaysia, of which in Johor alone, 300,000 workers were required to fill.
We, as a nation therefore have reached a juncture where we must decide whether we want to continue relying on foreign workers or not.
If we choose not to, then we must ask if we are able to fill the void left by these foreign workers when they are no longer here.
I think that realistically, this is impossible.
The government therefore must implement better long-term welfare policies for the benefit of these foreign workers.
One of the problems I observe is that foreign workers lack proper channels to address their complaints.
Unlike Singapore, it would be geographically very difficult for them to reach their respective embassies and as such the government should play a more proactive role in making sure these workers’ voices are heard.
We should use this opportunity to set up a foreign workers’ welfare and complaints department that can in turn, work closely with NGOs such as Suaram or Tenaganita.
At present, any complaint made by foreign workers to management and agents regarding their working conditions, is most often ignored.
Generally, Malaysia provides a rather conducive working environment for foreign workers and that is why we are still one of the preferred destinations to seek a living.
However incidents such as the one at Batu 25 Kulai, serve as a grim reminder that perhaps it is time for us to show more concern to our fellow workers who have contributed to our nation’s economic growth and helped solve our labour shortages.
This is an issue we simply can no longer afford to sweep under the carpet.
Jimmy Puah Wee Tse is PKR Johor State Assemblyman for Bukit Batu.
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com