I refer to the Malaysiakini report 'Reduce dependence on foreign labour'.

With reference to the above report, I would like to suggest that rather than demonising illegal and legal foreign workers, we should assist them by starting support services publicised via radio and television.

According to a parliamentary report, this year we have approximately three million migrants in Malaysia. We should love our neighbours and help them rather than tarring all of them black due to just a few rotten eggs. If we help them, we will also help ourselves.

In the last 20 years in Malaysia, I have had an Indonesian take care of my children, a Middle Easterner teach me religion, a Burmese produce my food, a Cambodian selling me my vegetables, a Nepali collecting my garbage, a Pakistani developing my company's software, and a Bangladeshi building my highway.

Besides this, there was a Russian training my country's athlete, a Bosnian selling me pizza, an Afghan sewing my clothes, an Indonesian repairing my house roof, a Filipino band serenading me in a hotel and an Australian banker providing me financial services.

However, we Malaysians are quite indifferent to the various people groups that have helped us build our nation over the past 20 years.

As a student in Australia, I volunteered for a migrant radio service which provided a slice of home entertainment for the migrants besides providing essential information to these people irrespective of social, economic, religious and racial background.

Working with the Australian government, we provided information on how to rent a house, how to get medical assistance, where to move to, how to apply for visas, how to upgrade one's skills, how to get a driving licence and what the employment laws were etc.

The information was provided in the native language by volunteers from the different communities. The migrant radio station was operated by volunteers with a few managerial-level paid staff. Each migrant community had maybe one to two hours of air-time per week.

I would like to suggest that the Malaysian government’s TV station, RTM as well as TV3 and Astro consider setting up a free-to-air radio station to help the foreign workers or migrants in our own country. If we don't, only we will be the ones to lose as we have refused to invest in the foreign human capital in our country.

Some of these migrant workers have already lived here for three generations and remain ignorant of Malaysian culture, politics, beliefs, customs and employment opportunities.

We ourselves are to blame for our dependency on foreign labour with our willingness to be involved in human trafficking, our master-slave mentality, lax immigration laws and corrupt officials that have all resulted in a surge of foreign workers.

Looking at the world food map, Malaysia and Singapore are the most prosperous countries in Asia as we do not suffer from starvation and famine. Our economies are doing better than most in South East Asia.

People will continue to flow through our borders with their dream of a better life. We should harness such visions and determination towards nation-building. We should love our neigbour as ourselves.

May we learn to act justly, show mercy and walk humbly before our God.