Zahid, Umno will pay for 1.5m foreign workers in GE14
They will get retribution in the next general election for not listening to the voices of Malaysians and not acting in the best interests of the people.
By Liew Chin Tong
Malaysians are disappointed that the Government went ahead to seal the deal in Dhaka yesterday (February 18, 2016) to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers over the next three years.
This deal will allow the Bangladeshi workers employment in the construction, services, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors, apart from the existing plantation sector.
We oppose such a scheme not from a xenophobic perspective.
Malaysia should embrace professionals and skilled workers of foreign origin to contribute to value-adding activities in the economy. However adding another 1.5 million foreign unskilled workers into the equation is bad for Malaysia. Here are some of the reasons why:
FIRST: There is no incentive for automation, mechanisation, innovation and technological upgrades
As there is abundant supply of unskilled foreign labour, even mechanised dishwashers – the most basic automation in any high-income nation – are hardly seen in Malaysia.
During the labour crunch of the early 1990s, most urban petrol stations were forced into adopting “self-service” while car washing machines were also brought in. Twenty years later, a foreign labourer will offer to clean one’s windscreen while one pumps patrol; car wash machines have disappeared and in its place one finds many manual car wash services.
Reducing the number of foreign unskilled labour is the cornerstone of building a nation that is founded upon skill, innovation and superb technology, not cheap labour.
SECOND: The massive influx of unskilled foreign labour hurts the wages of Malaysians at all levels, not just for unskilled labour
Wages for fresh graduate lawyers has not improved much over the past three decades, not to mention wages for other graduates and those without a degree. Since there is abundance of supply of labour, workers have no bargaining power to demand better pay and conditions, in the “race to the bottom” for wages.
The only way to reverse this is to pay those at the lowest – such as garbage collectors – much better so that everyone else higher up gets better pay. But the garbage trucks would have to change from having five persons to an automated operation with one person doing everything with the machine eventually. If a garbage collector is paid RM2,000 per month, fresh graduate lawyers would not be paid RM2,000–RM2,500 a month as they are now, otherwise everyone would become garbage collectors.
THIRD: A low-wage economy hurts everyone
To save the Malaysian economy, there must be enough decently paid jobs to go around among Malaysians.
Malaysia used to be an export-oriented economy and domestic consumption did not matter much. Since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the United States and Europe suffered massive job losses thus reducing significantly their capacity to consume our exports. Malaysia was then rendered increasingly dependent on her own domestic consumption to survive.
Tremendous domestic consumption over the past seven years since 2009 is fuelled and funded by household debt, which stands at approximately 90 per cent of our GDP.
In the foreseeable future of a difficult global environment, Malaysia’s dependence on domestic consumption will only be greater. The Government’s macroeconomic policy priority should be to ensure that there are enough decently paid jobs to go around among Malaysians so that the economy does not crash.
FOURTH: A massive influx of foreign labour hurts women’s participation in the labour force
The most effective way to improve the income of ordinary Malaysian families is to make it possible and worthwhile for women to work. Malaysia has the lowest women’s workforce participation rate in the region because there is no urgency to provide childcare and make other adjustments to bring more women into the workforce.
If Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Government insist on bringing in the 1.5 million Bangladashi workers over the next three years, Malaysians must rise to make Zahid and Umno pay in the next general election for not listening to the voices of Malaysians and not acting in the interests of the people.
Liew Chin Tong is DAP National Political Education Director and MP for Kluang.
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