New Delhi: After contradicting reports of a blanket ban on Indian workers in Malaysia, a senior Senate member of that country has indicated that Kuala Lumpur may tighten the screw on entry of Indian unskilled labourers.
N Raja Ram, a member of Malaysian Senate, on Wednesday said there was a need to check illegal entry of unskilled workers to his country from India, who are at "the root of the current bout of problems" his country was facing.
"The unscrupulous travel agents of the two countries were simply facilitating the entry of unskilled workers in Malaysia, leading to all types of problems. Our Government would certainly put in place some mechanism to stop the entry of unskilled workers in the country," Raja Ram told The Pioneer on Wednesday at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas conference.
While Raja was talking about measures against unskilled Indian workers, Malaysia’s Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad told a Press conference in Kuala Lumpur that "Let me categorically state that the Ministry of Home Affairs has never come out with any rulings or circulars that we have stopped taking foreign workers from India".
Radzi said he was shocked at news reports of the freeze, which quoted a Home Ministry official who cited Government documents and said the measure covered unskilled labourers as well as priests, sculptors and musicians.
On the other hand, Ram said, "We are certainly against the entry of unskilled workers, but would continue to welcome skilled and other professionals."
He attributed the current crisis to a small group of Indians in Malaysia. "Unnecessarily, they are creating hype that Indians are being harassed in the country. We are there in almost every department of governance. Indians are holding ministerial responsibilities," Ram, who was in New Delhi to attend Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, said.
At the same time, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said that there was nothing like ban on Indian workers in Malaysia.
"Our Government is constantly in touch with Malaysian authorities to clear doubts on the issue," Ravi told mediapersons. He said that he would certainly look into the matter and would do the needful within his jurisdiction to ensure that Indians did not face any trouble in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister AK Antony said here on Wednesday the issue of the plight of the Indian workers did not come up for discussions during his three-day visit to Kuala Lumpur earlier this week.
Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Antony, however, said he urged the Malaysian Foreign Minister to hasten the process of signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the rules for employment of Indian workers and vice versa. The Minister said the Malaysian leader promised to look into the suggestion.
Joining the issue, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday again reiterated his demand that the Government should stand by NRIs and persons of Indian origin wherever and whenever they face problems.
"They should not feel that Indian Government is not with them in the hour of crisis or distress. I met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday and requested him to have an exclusive policy to deal with the issues related to NRIs and PIOs," Modi said in response to query from Yogesh Mehta, an NRI from the US, during an interactive session.
Referring to the plight of PIOs in Kenya, Modi said that he took their cause and sought some package and loan for them through Indian banks to facilitate their rehabilitation. "Prime Minister Singh has assured me that he would look into the issue," Modi added.
An AFP report from Kuala Lumpur said that religious leaders had condemned the apparent decision ( ban on Indian workers) , which came after unprecedented protests by ethnic Indian Malaysians last year and putting prominent activists behind the bars.
The nation’s top non-Muslim religious body — the Malaysian Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism — said the Government had already been refusing to issue new visas for foreign priests.
Foreign priests already in the country have only been given six-month renewals and told they must leave after expiry, it said, complaining there would now not be enough Hindu priests to conduct prayers at important temples.
Radzi insisted that no applications from priests had been rejected, but admitted the Government was trying to reduce foreign labour, with 2.1 million foreign workers already here among a population of 27 million people.
"Our policy is we want locals to take up the jobs as priests, musicians and sculptors," he said.
"We need to take action to ensure there are not too many foreign workers, and at the same time ensure our industry does not suffer. The Government’s target of foreign workers in the country is 1.8 million."
A row over race and religion has gripped Malaysia in recent months, triggered by a mass rally last November when protesters alleged ethnic Indians faced discrimination at the hands of majority Muslim Malays.
Indian workers are the third-largest foreign workforce in Malaysia, numbering almost 14,00,000 most of them hired by restaurants.
About 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 27 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims while the rest are mostly ethnic Indians and Chinese who are largely Hindu, Buddhist or Christian.
Source: dailypioneer.com
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