KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri M. Saravanan has accused Pakatan Harapan (PH) of exploiting the foreign labour shortage issue by turning it into political fodder and reiterated that the coalition was responsible for the country’s current problems on the matter.
The human resources minister said this in response to questions raised by his predecessor M. Kula Segaran (Ipoh Barat-PH) in the Dewan Rakyat today, as the duo locked horns this morning.
“Many of them do not have other arguments and they are now using the foreign workers’ issue as political ammunition, and by distorting facts. This is the best platform for me to respond because I see many MPs like Bagan (Lim Guan Eng) trying to politicise the matter,” Saravanan said.
Kula Segaran had asked about the reason behind the ministry’s alleged failure to address the foreign labours shortage in several critical sectors, as well as the total number of workers that have entered the country to date.
According to Saravanan, his ministry’s responsibility on the matter entails the finalising of memoranda of understanding (MoU) with source countries and approving the number of workers required in the industry.
He added that certain aspects of the intake fall under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry and the respective embassies.
“When the foreign workers arrive in the country, the Human Resources Ministry will be responsible for ensuring they are protected under the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990, among others.”
He also noted that although the recent Covid-19 pandemic has caused delays in bringing in foreign labour, the government had implemented the recalibration programme to ensure sufficient workers in the country.
Saravanan noted that presently, a total of 1.2 million foreign workers are in the country, while close to 900,000 more will be entering in the coming months.
‘This means the total number of foreign workers will reach 2.1 million in a couple of months’ time. In comparison, before Covid-19, the highest we ever recorded was 1.8 million workers.”
Kula Segaran, however, argued that the reality on the ground tells a different story, with multiple industry captains lamenting the need for more manpower and demanding answers on alternative measures being implemented.
The DAP lawmaker also accused Saravanan of misleading the public when the latter supposedly accused the PH government of failing to sign MoUs with several source countries and politicising the matter.
In response, Saravanan insisted that the existing problems had stemmed from PH’s own failure during their 22-month administration of the federal government.
“The whole world knows that most of our foreign labour is from Bangladesh and Indonesia. When Ipoh Barat (Kula Segaran) was minister, he announced a moratorium on the intake of Bangladeshi workers effective September 2018.
“When there was a change in government, we were facing the pandemic. Because of the failure of Ipoh Barat, no Bangladeshis entered our country for almost three years.”
This resulted in a shouting match, with Kula Segaran accusing the current administration of toppling the PH government then and exploiting the foreign workers issue and Saravanan standing his ground in accusing the opposition of being responsible for the current labour shortage.
Saravanan was also recently involved in a war of words with DAP national chairman Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH) over the country’s migrant labour shortage with the pair set for a showdown in Putrajaya tomorrow.
This is after Saravanan invited Lim to meet him at his ministerial office to provide clarification on the issue, which the latter accepted. – The Vibes, October 4, 2022
