COMMENT The statement by the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein that the presence of more illegal workers compared with legal ones is a cause of concern and could undermine national unity reveals that he is either an ignoramus or an idiot.

NONE Did Hishammuddin expect many less illegals, given the super-efficiency of his ministry and the other government agencies sharing responsibility on this vital matter of securing our borders against unauthorised intrusion, staying in the country?

According to the current ongoing exercise, as of last Friday, a total of 2,088,358 foreign workers had been registered, of whom 1,135,499 were illegals.

Probably everyone else in the country knows that this number is an underestimate and that a very large number are still awaiting processing or are avoiding being included in the count altogether.

'Plumbing new lows'

Since his appointment in 2009 as the home minister, Hishammuddin has been lurching from one self-inflicted débâcle to another.  

NONE From bending over backwards to defend the indefensible conduct of demonstrators in the infamous cow head incident to his most recent use of repressive force against the Bersih rally, he has shown a standard of leadership of this important ministry, which must be plumbing new lows or matching those lows attained by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

 

Perhaps Hishammuddin has not had time to study and understand the situation with illegals in Malaysia, given the so many other important distractions posed by alleged anti-national and possibly terrorist groupings such as those Parti Sosialis Malaysia members members recently taken in under the Emergency Ordinance for sporting Che Guevara and other communist attire.

Or, for that matter, the Bersih supporters who needed tear-gassing and perhaps even a big clout on their thick skulls for upsetting the traffic flow on a weekend; or the MoSC supporters who want to tear down the lily white and incorruptible reputation of one of the country's most trusted and respected leaders through their Kuching walk rally aborted on “friendly police advice”.

'Addicted to foreign labour'

NONE By  the way, is Hishammuddin in any way  related to Taib Mammud ( right )?

If he has still not been briefed by his ministry officials on the foreign labour issue, this quick summary of facts, figures and other considerations may be useful:

The 10th Malaysian Plan document has a chart showing that the number of foreign workers in the country exceeded over two million in 2008. This figure has most likely increased rather than decreased.

The current hi-tech, high cost biometric exercise seems to have registered only half of all workers with permits and probably fewer than half of those without.

The presence of so many foreign workers is due not only to economic factors but also to socio-political factors that everybody in the country, except the non-Malay BN parties, seems to be aware of.

Thanks to ‘enlightened’ BN policies, the Malaysian economy and society is now hopelessly and irredeemably addicted to foreign workers. 

biometric reader illegal immigrant 1 The great majority of foreign workers work a lot harder for a lot less than their Malaysian counterparts. They deserve to be treated with fairness and respect, and there should be no witch hunt to blame them for self-inflicted socio-economic and political ills.  

The profits in the foreign labour market have generated pervasive corruption among all levels of the police force, the Immigration Department, Rela, manpower agents and other agencies – public and private.

The extortion of payments, services and loyalty from this marginalised segment and attempts to use them as a pawn in the demographic and racial power game will continue, whatever changes in policy and new stances are adopted for public consumption.

In the views of some who have observed the home minister closely, this graduate from the University of Wales and London School of Economics is not an ignoramus or idiot. He is a political animal aiming for the top position through scrupulous or unscrupulous means.

According to the latest hot news in the Internet, there is more at stake behind Hishammuddin’s new found enthusiasm for pursuing the registration of foreign workers, such as the disclosure that the new biometrics is the cash cow for the coming Umno elections.  

Much of this hot news cannot be verified but readers can visit the website for details.

 

DR LIM TECK GHEE is director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives.

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