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?
Out go the Indonesian and Filipino maids, the Nepalese security men, the Bangladeshi construction workers, the Vietnamese factory hands, the Indian restaurant workers, and the Myanmar crew at the Selayang wholesale market.
<P>Some of us would be lucky to get out of
the house. Who is going to clean the house, cook, do the laundry, babysit, and
be there for us to boss around?</P><P>Our offices and buildings could be dirty,
our food will take longer to arrive, our roads and buildings will take forever
to build and we will have to mop our kitchen floors.</P><P>Perhaps, even all the
grand strategies of the nation’s development plans would need a re-look.
Who, after all, is going to lay the bricks, pour concrete and wave red flags to
direct traffic at construction sites? Who will keep our plantations and farms
humming to the tune of our renewed agriculture policy? Who will keep our malls
and hotels spick and span for the billions of tourism ringgit we hope to rake
in this year?</P><P>To Malaysians who think foreign workers are to be tolerated
and the country is better off without them, think again.</P><P>Not only are they
doing the jobs many of us are not keen on, they have also contributed to the better
usage of the Malaysian workforce. As an added bonus, they improve the quality
of our lives, even if your maids don’t wash your cars.</P><P>There are 10.5
million Malaysians employed, and 1.8 million legal foreigners working here, making
them about 15 per cent of the combined workforce. If we were to assume the existence
of a substantial number of illegal workers, then foreign workforce could be at
20 per cent, or even more.</P><P>Now, if 20 per cent of the people in your department
call in sick over an extended period, the rest of the staff would have to double
up to make up for their absence. Now, consider that the 20 per cent are doing
jobs many of us are not too keen on, the so-called dirty, dangerous and dull tasks.</P><P>The
impact of the foreign workers has been greatly underestimated, especially in allowing
Malaysians to pursue higher-value activities that could contribute, presumably,
better economic returns for themselves and the country.</P><P>Take the case of
domestic help. More Malaysians were able to seek employment offering better wages
because they could sub-contract their domestic responsibilities to these foreigners.
The country, too, benefits from the freeing of some of the workforce into the
job market.</P><P>This works out well since the upkeep of domestic help is low,
most times lower than the monthly instalment of cars. For that amount, some of
us get to keep our day jobs, our house and our kids fed.</P><P>If we believe in
the trickle-down theory of the economy and the chain reaction of productivity
to the economy, then we, as a nation, have benefited from this foreign maids syndrome,
even if we employ none ourselves.</P><P>The domestic help sector is almost exclusively
powered by foreign labour, some half a million of them registered. The food and
beverage business is getting to be more dependent on foreigners, while the retail
business is strongly supported by them.</P><P>The plantations sector has, for
a while now, been Malaysian-owned but foreign powered.</P><P>At a tea plantation
in Cameron Highlands, the workers have spray-painted their quarters, once housing
Malaysian families, with the names of faraway places in Indonesia. At a funfair
in Simpang Tiga Ijok, near Kuala Selangor, the rickety rides are manned by bored-looking
Indonesians. In some restaurants, not only are the waiters foreign, they also
fry char kuay teow and man the cash registers, with the Malaysian owners nowhere
to be seen.</P><P>Cheaper foreign labour has not only improved our quality of
life, but has allowed for better economic returns on our investments.</P><P>It
was reported that if only Malaysians were to be employed for construction jobs,
then contractors would incur 30 per cent higher cost that would have to be passed
on. Imported sweat and tears mean lower mortgages for us.</P><P>I think this foreign
workforce, which handles the jobs we do not want to do, collectively offers us
better returns than the white-collared foreign workers, euphemistically called
expatriates, who, being better dressed and fewer in number, are better tolerated
by us.</P><P>The foreign workforce is an essential element in our social and economic
beings; they are integral to our economic value chain. Even some of our football
teams depend on foreigners to bring in the goals.</P><P>There is no way now, it
seems, that we can do without them. It is not an understatement to say that some
of the grease that allows the cogs of our economy to move belongs to foreign elbows.
We would not have progressed this far if not for economic hardships in neighbouring
countries opening a labour supply pipeline to our shores.</P><P>Even the illegal,
undocumented aliens have been important. Construction firms and plantations hire
them, hoping that the authorities would understand that ripening oil palm fruit
bunches wait for no one, or that the completion of a project on time allows for
more efficient redistribution of resources.</P><P>Many of the illegals have had
a hand in building our homes, roads, buildings, and our way of life, into the
reality they are now.</P><P>The heightened demand from programmes such as the
Ninth Malaysia Plan would likely test our resolve in handling the foreign labour
issue. We could easily look the other way in the face of some irregularities,
as the bigger picture beckons.</P><P>So, where will we be when the bottom falls
out of the unlimited supply of foreign hired hands when their own domestic economies
improve, or when more attractive and rewarding destinations emerge?</P><P>Our
potential foreign labour problem, ironically, begins with the fact that it is
cheap. This means there is little incentive for us to be less dependent. But there
will come a time when we will no longer be able to afford them.</P><P>But our
social infrastructure, labour policy and economic planning seem to be hedging
on the fact that we will continue to have them around for a long time.</P><P>Obviously,
there is a needto begin making the dirty, dull, dreary and dangerous jobs more
attractive to Malaysians soon.</P><P><I><FONT SIZE="1">Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Wednesday/Columns/20070103092031/Article/index_html</FONT></I>
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