KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been urged by Lim Guan Eng to personally intervene and resolve the temporary freeze order imposed by Indonesia preventing its workers from coming to the country.
In a statement today, the DAP chairman said this was necessary to repair relations between both countries and generate economic growth to counter the global economic downturn expected by the end of the year.
“At a time when Malaysia is facing inflationary pressures and rising prices compounded by a rapidly depreciating ringgit, the acute foreign labour shortage has compelled many businesses to scale down their operations or reject new orders.
“Never has the situation been so bad before. Due to the 1.2 million worker shortage, the plantation and glove industry alone are facing losses of RM21 billion, and the damage could run to tens of billions of ringgit more if other sectors are included,” he said, adding that the desperate state of affairs is reprehensible because it could be easily resolved with a stroke of a pen or the personal intervention of the prime minister.
Pointing to the recent announcement by the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, about the temporary freeze on foreign workers coming from Indonesia to Malaysia, Lim trained his guns on Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan for “pathetically” and irresponsibly failing to dispute Hermono’s accusations that the government had broken its promises in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between both governments.
“Instead of personally intervening on such major economic and diplomatic matters, Ismail has chosen to delegate and instruct the Human Resources Ministry and the Home Ministry to immediately resolve the issue of a memorandum of understanding on the recruitment of Indonesian workers signed between the two countries.
“How can both ministries resolve the problem when they were responsible for creating the problem in the first place?
“This is a classic case of Albert Einstein expressing that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’,” he said.
The prime minister, Lim opined, should stop delegating the problem to others but take charge when the nation’s economy, business community and the people want an immediate solution.
“Ismail (Sabri) should learn to be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem so that economic growth will not be hampered due to the inefficiency and incompetence of his government.”
Hermono was reported to have said that his government had imposed a temporary freeze – effective yesterday – on all Indonesian workers entering Malaysia.
He was quoted by Free Malaysia Today as saying that the decision is due to the Malaysian Immigration Department’s continued use of the Maid Online System to facilitate the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers.
He alleged that this is a “total breach” of the memorandum of understanding between the two nations signed on April 1 on the placement and protection of Indonesian domestic workers.
Under the agreement, workers are entitled to weekly and annual leave, the right to communicate, and the ability to lodge complaints via an online system.
It was also agreed that employers or agencies would no longer be able to withhold passports and are allowed only one maid per household of not more than six people.
Noting that Indonesian President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had witnessed the signing of the memorandum in Jakarta, the envoy slammed Malaysia’s refusal to adhere to the terms of the agreement as a “disgrace”. – The Vibes, July 16, 2022
