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KUALA LUMPUR – DAP’s Beruas Parliament member (MP) Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham has accepted Datuk Seri M. Saravanan’s invitation for a meeting on October 5 to prove the flaws in addressing the foreign workers shortage, saying the human resources minister must hold it in a large hall to accommodate disgruntled employers.
Ngeh, in a statement, said Saravanan must also promise to immediately approve foreign worker quota applications by employers – who turned up at the meeting – and subsequently resign.
He also said Saravanan must prepare the large hall to handle hundreds or thousands of employers who will be attending the meeting with DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng.
“The coming meeting is to prove the weaknesses in the Human Resource Ministry and for Datuk Seri M. Saravanan to resign – not to hear another lie from him.
“I have received overwhelming support to become witnesses of the multitude of weaknesses in the Human Resource Ministry when Datuk Seri M. Saravanan challenged Lim Guan Eng and I to prove the weaknesses in his ministry.”
On Tuesday, Saravanan issued the invitation for a meeting with Lim to provide evidence that the minister had failed to address the country’s migrant labour shortage.
Saravanan said Lim’s calls for him to resign showed that the DAP chairman did not understand the ministry’s role.
The minister also said a similar invitation was extended to Ngeh, who has been a staunch critic of the ministry.
Saravanan, who is MIC deputy president and Tapah MP, also chastised the previous Pakatan Harapan-led government for imposing a moratorium on the intake of workers from Bangladesh in September 2019, and for refusing to renew memoranda of understanding with other source countries.
He also claimed that Ngeh had made complaints about the ministry, but made a personal request for manpower approval.
In response, DAP’s Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, who was human resources minister during the PH administration, said it was the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration that ruined the country’s migrant workers system.
Echoing Kulasegaran, Ngeh said employers faced challenges in attending the ministry’s interviews for quota applications since August 1.
Ngeh accused Saravanan, on July 26, of telling a “blatant lie” in Parliament that the quota applications could be done online without the use of agents, and that some individuals in the ministry were collecting RM1,500 per foreign worker before an interview was granted.
“He also lied when he said that I brought up this issue for personal interest when this problem is so widespread. As a member of Parliament, I have to bring up this issue when employers bring it to my attention.” – The Vibes, September 29, 2022
