Don't blame me, don't blame gov’t, says Zahid on 1.5m Bangladeshi workers

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today urged the public not to blame the government with regard to the bringing in of 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers.

Zahid today was asked to comment on demands made by several quarters for the government to solve the problem of undocumented labourers first before bringing in more migrant workers.

In response to this, the deputy prime minister pointed out the policy was made in response to employers’ requests.

“It's not the government that wanted to bring in the workers. And the government listened to the demand of employers who stated that their companies couldn't function due to the lack of manpower.

“The government’s concern (on the matter) is not because we want to collect levy charges but because we want to fulfill the demands of the market,” said Zahid in a press conference after launching the mini MAD Velocifero in Shah Alam today.

Stressing that it wasn't the government’s fault, Zahid said the government merely wanted to fulfill the wishes of employers.

“Don't blame me, don't blame the government, don't blame the Home Ministry and don't blame the Human Resource Ministry,” he stressed.

The relevant associations, he said, had probably given their opinions without fully understanding the predicament of their respective members.

Zahid also said that it wasn't the government’s intention to limit the job opportunities of Malaysians.

“Malaysians simply do not want to work in certain sectors. How many would want to work in the plantation sector?

“How many would want to work under the sun and in the rain in the construction sector? How many would want to work in the dirty, dangerous and difficult sector? No one,” he said.

Urging everyone to not look only at the negative aspect, Zahid stressed that the demands of employers must be taken into account, too.

Zahid last year announced that 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers would be brought to Malaysia in stages in the next three years to meet the needs of employers from numerous sectors.

The workers will enter Malaysia under the G2G (government-to-government) Plus scheme which allows them employment in construction, service, manufacturing and agriculture sectors, apart from the existing plantation sector opened to them. -mkini