KUALA LUMPUR – DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has expressed his readiness to take up Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M.Saravanan’s invitation to the ministry for a briefing and to bring evidence that the latter had failed to handle the current acute shortage of labour.
According to Lim, he will attend the briefing with Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham at the Human Resources Ministry in Putrajaya on October 5.
“No problem, I will definitely be there,” he said when contacted by The Vibes’ sister portal Getaran.
Lim said he will also bring evidence of Saravanan’s failure in handling the issue.
“Anyway, I am only asking him (Saravanan) to answer the questions regarding the issue involving people lining up to his office to obtain an application for foreign workers.
“A complaint by the Malaysian Palm Oil Association also stated in January that Saravanan himself had approved 385,000 foreign workers for all sectors.
“But until now, only 47,000 have arrived, which is only 12%,” he said.
Lim said the 12% figure can be described as a form of failure.
In an interview with The Vibes yesterday, Saravanan shared an invitation for Lim to meet him at the minister’s office in Putrajaya on October 5.
Saravanan said Lim’s recent calls for him to resign if he can find shortcomings in the ministry’s handling of the matter showed that the DAP leader does not understand the ministry’s role.
The minister also said a similar invitation was extended to DAP’s Ngeh, who has been a staunch critic of the ministry.
Saravanan said from April this year to date, all memoranda of understanding related to migrant labour have been resolved with the source countries.
He added that all quotas involving the 14 source countries have also been set.
“What else does the ministry have to do? Does it need to send ships (to the source countries) to bring in the workers?”
“I have asked Lim to attend the meeting on the given date and will be sending an official letter to him,” Saravanan said.
“He must bring proof of the Human Resources Ministry’s flaws. Don’t bring political drama, just bring the evidence on where we went wrong.”
Yesterday, Lim reminded Saravanan about their resignation challenge to each other, saying he had waited 10 days to hear from the minister on the matter.
The reminder came after Lim accepted Saravanan’s challenge to scrutinise his ministry for any shortcomings in addressing the acute shortage of workers in the country on September 15. – The Vibes, September 28, 2022
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