DAP assemblyperson for Kota Sentosa Chong Chieng Jen called on the State Government to use its power to bar 12,000 workers from Bangladesh from working in plantations in Sarawak as they are a direct competition to the local people.

“These cheap workers coming to Sarawak will compete with our local people” he said, when debating on the 2015 budget today.

The report regarding the federal government’s plan to bring in 12,000 cheap workers from Bangladesh to work in plantations in Sarawak was recently announced by Human Resource Minister Richard Riot.

“Sarawak has the absolute power on immigration matters. Without the State government giving the approval, the 12,000 workers cannot come in,” said Chong ( right ), who is the Sarawak DAP chief.

“They come in to help big plantation companies making a lot of money,” he said.

Sarawak Oil Palm Berhad in 2012 made a profit of RM213 million and a profit of RM139 in 2013, he said, and asked how much the oil palm companies are going to pay these workers.

Chong said that as Malaysia is striving for a higher income society, it should not be looking at mean income. Instead Malaysia should focus on medium income.

“As it is, Sarawak is pushing for mean income. That is wrong,” he said.

He said that if these companies could not afford to pay a higher salary to the local people, and if they gave the reason that the locals do not want to work in plantations, then it is time for the government to step in.

“The companies should increase the level of salary to a level that the locals are willing to work in plantations.

“And if they say that they cannot afford, they should surrender the land to the State and the State will divide the land among the local people with each family given 10 or 20 acres,” he said.

Then the state, he said, could implement the ‘land to the tiller’ policy, he said, pointing out that “we don’t want a high-income state but with low earning population”.

Sarawakians travel to the west

On a related issue, the PKR assemblyperson for Ba’Kelalan Baru Bian said there is a mismatch of skills and wages.

In 2011, the Minister of Industrial Development announced that Sarawak would be willing to recruit skilled workers from India to expedite the implementation of SCORE.

“We were also told that there were over 100,000 illegal foreign labourers in Sarawak. It is well known that the dams were built by foreign workers, mainly from China,” said Baru ( left) .

“It is estimated that there are 100,000 Sarawakians working in Peninsular Malaysia and abroad.

“There is clearly a mismatch of skills and wages with jobs. Although the government is trying to play catch-up by promoting technical and vocational courses to students so that employment opportunities in SCORE may be filled by Sarawakians, it appears we will not be

able to produce graduates at a fast enough rate, given the late start.

“I should be interested to know how many skilled workers our technical schools have produced so far and what the shortfall will be in the next five years that will still need to be taken up by foreign workers,” he said.

Low wages, not minimum

In the plantation sector, it is widely known, he said, that the wages are so low that Sarawakians are not able to make a decent living if they take up these jobs.

He said although the minimum wage is RM800, it is not clear if this is being enforced.

“Sarawakians are forced to seek employment in West Malaysia. What this means is that Sarawakians are unable to benefit from the development that occurs here.

“The sad fact is that many of them have been forced to give up their lands to plantations and development such as Score and the dams and yet, these projects do not offer them any employment.

“There is instead an exodus of Sarawakians to slightly greener pastures in West Malaysia and an outflow of funds from Sarawak as foreigner workers remit their incomes home,’ he said.