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Foreign workers’ riot a sign of an ignored issue

Aug 26, 2014, shall be remembered as a day of infamy in Kulai history. On that fateful day last Tuesday, more than 1,000 Nepalese workers ran riot and set fire to the factory buildings and vehicles in the compound of a listed company at Batu 25, Kulaijaya.

As the local elected representative, I was there at around noon when the FRU was already on alert mode. By nightfall, 44 arrests had been made, and several buildings in the compound were ablaze.

So, the question beckons, what caused the foreign workers to riot?

I was informed by the foreign workers, who numbered thousands, that besides the customary harsh treatment and questionable wage deduction, the spark the started the riot was actually when the management sought to ‘reform’ 20 foreign workers transferred from Tebrau branch that incidentally was also the subject of a strike few days earlier, by playing a ‘catch the ball’ game in which a round sandbag resembling a ball weighing around 5-7kg was tossed around among the workers and whoever dropped the ‘ball’ will be physically punished either by a punch, a kick or even worse by beating them with a stick.

At this juncture, I can only say this is an alleged event and is under police investigation but surely there cannot be smoke without fire. If it is indeed, proven to be truth, then this surely is one of the sickest game played and a throwback to the brutal labour treatment of the late 19th century.

The police must act fairly in this matter. Rioters causing physical damage to properties must be dealt with according to law but on the other hand, I can help but empathise with their grievances and we cannot continue to play deaf in light of what happened.

According to Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s statement on Oct 22, 2013, there are a total of 2.1 million registered foreign workers in Malaysia. These are the registered workers, and I dare to venture, if including unregistered foreign workers, the number could easily be doubled.

Just to put it in perspective, our national census in 2010 showed our Indian Malaysian population comprises 7.3 percent of our nation total population, or 2.06 million in total. As such, just taking into account the number of registered foreign workers alone, the Indian Malaysians are no longer the third largest community group in Malaysia.

The Department of Statistics, Malaysia in their 2013 Labour Force Survey report highlighted that 13.4 percent of our labour force consists of foreign workers and as of 2012, according to the Human Resources Ministry’s annual report, there are still 1.6 million job vacancies in Malaysia, of which in Johor alone we still need 300,000 workers to satisfy the economy needs.

We as a nation therefore have reached a juncture whereby we must decide whether we want to continue to rely on foreign workers or not. If we pick the latter, then are we capable of replacing the void left by these foreign workers? I think realistically looking at the numbers at this point of time, that would be impossible.

No avenue for grouses

The government therefore must implement long-term policy to give better welfare and other benefits to these foreign workers. One of the problems that I observed is that these foreign workers have no avenue or channel to address their complaints or grouses.

Unlike our neighbouring state, Singapore, it would be geographically very difficult for them to reach their respective embassies and as such the government should play a more pro-active role in making sure these workers voices are heard.

Maybe, this is a good time now to set up a foreign workers welfare and complaints department that can work closely with NGOs such as Suaram or Tenaganita. Presently, any complaints to management and agents regarding their working conditions are unlikely to bear results.

Generally, we have a very conducive working environment for our foreign workers and that is why Malaysia is still one of the preferred destination for them to seek a living. But incidents such as what happened at Batu 25 Kulai, though it could be an isolated case, but it does serve as a cold reminder that perhaps it is time for us to pay more concern to our fellow workers that have contributed to our nation’s economy growth and labour shortage.

This is an issue we simply can no longer afford to sweep under the carpet.


JIMMY PUAH WEE TSE is PKR Johor state assemblyperson for Bukit Batu.

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