‘Best to revert to old system’

IPOH: The Government wants to revert the current system of hiring foreign workers to the G2G (government-to-government) approach without any middlemen, says M. Kulasegaran.

“We don’t want G2G Plus. Any arrangement should be government-to-government,” said the Human Resources Minister.

“There’s no reason why we cannot employ direct from the source countries,” he told the press after closing the national-level Workplace Accident-Free Week at the Malay-Sino Chemical Industries Sdn Bhd here yesterday.

When the middlemen had been removed, there would be less chance of corruption, he noted.

Kulasegaran was responding to The Star’s front page report yesterday on Nepal’s decision to ban its workers from coming to Malaysia due to “restrictive” Immigration requirements, including dealing with a private company “monopoly” of security and medical check-ups as part of the visa requirement.

“Workers are not slaves. They come here as guest workers and should be treated with respect,” said Kulasegaran.

“There was no headache during G2G then – and we want to go back to that,” he said.

Describing Nepal’s decision as regretful for Malaysia, Kulasegaran called on the Nepali government to go easy on the barring of its workers to Malaysia as many industries were dependent on foreign workers.

He acknowledged that Nepalese workers were known for their bra­very and honesty and were welcomed by many Malaysian employers.

“We hope that in the mean time, Nepal will reconsider (its decision).”

Kulasegaran also said his ministry was formulating new policies on how to handle the intake of foreign workers from source countries, other than Nepal, such as Bangla­desh, India, Indonesia and Cam­bodia.

“In fact, the ministry officials have been discussing with Nepal over the last two weeks. We ironed out many matters.

“I also had meetings with the Nepal ambassador.

“We are on the verge of finalising the terms of a new memorandum of understanding,” Kulasegaran said on the matter.

He said he would also meet Nepal’s Labour Minister over the issue very soon, either in Malaysia or Nepal.

Kulasegaran said he was aware of the problems that involved a third-party company and the high charges imposed on the entry of foreign workers.

“All this was approved during the previous government and we are looking into how to overcome it.”