Sarawak PKR today called on Chief Minister Adenan Satem to stop the federal government’s plan to bring in Bangladeshi workers for the oil palm industry.

 

Its vice chairperson See Chee How said the move to bring in workers for the plantation sector should be postponed, pending a full consultation with the state government on its labour needs and other implications.

 

The state government, See said at a press conference in Kuching, must take a serious look into its labour policy, prioritising the interest of Sarawak’s human resources.

 

The chief minister, he added, should put Sarawak’s interest first instead of looking at exploiting cheap foreign labour, which would bring serious implications on the state.

 

“This is certainly an area where the chief minister should exercise our rights in immigration autonomy, and by using the safeguards in the state labour ordinance to prevent the needless recruitment of foreign labourers, to the detriment of our state,” he said.

 

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that 12,000 Bangladeshi workers would be allowed to work in the plantation sector in Sarawak after signing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with his counterpart Sheikh Hasina, during her recent official visit to Malaysia.

 

“We must caution the Sarawak state government not to repeat the same mistakes committed in West Malaysia,” See said.

 

According to See, from the experience in West Malaysia, Bangladeshi workers recruited for oil palm plantation work performed poorly, and then left their to work in other industrial sectors.

 

The workers are now mostly employed in the construction and manufacturing industries, said See, who is the Batu Lintang assemblyperson.

 

He cautioned that Sarawak’s labour policy must take into account the movement of foreign labour between sectors, which may have negative impact on Sarawak’s workforce.

 

“The consequential problems of state security and outflow of money to other countries will later hurt the state and our economy,” he added.

 

'Dealing with the influx'

 

He questioned whether the related state enforcement agencies and security forces would be able to deal with the influx of foreign labourers who later drift into other industrial sectors.

 

See suggested that the chief minister and his cabinet should study this federal decision seriously.

 

He said one of the solutions is to look at wages, salaries and remuneration being offered to the locals, which will help keep Sarawakians from leaving the state to look for employment outside.

 

He said that Land Development Minister James Masing ( right ) was quoted as saying that the shortage of 30,000 workers in the oil palm plantations has caused the industry to lose RM1 billion due to uncollected oil palm fruits.

 

“We would be committing a huge mistake to employ foreign labourers as a solution to remedy that purported loss.

 

“The RM1 billion can be used to employ 30,000 local workers in the oil palm plantations, with a monthly salary of RM2,778 per worker.

 

“With such wage and remuneration, there would have been no shortage of labour force in the oil palm plantation industry and there is really no reason for our local Sarawakians to seek employment in Semenanjung Malaysia and elsewhere,” he said.

 

He said that if such solutions were to be carried out, the state would not suffer the threat to the state security as faced by neighbouring Sabah, and the state economy would benefit from limiting capital flight.