HUMAN Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan has found himself cornered over the debacle surrounding 25 agencies to facilitate the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. He has met his match in Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (IKHLAS) president Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah (main pic).
The business group has lodged a police report against the Tapah MP – a third on the matter – at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters yesterday (June 22) afternoon for suspicion of trying to hide “inconsistencies”, abuse of power and corruption.
Ridzuan justified that his suspicions arose after reading a Malay Mail report on June 17 quoting a Bangladeshi Minister (Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad).
He said the report stated that the minister refuted Saravanan’s claims that Bangladesh has made the decision to only allow 25 of its agencies to recruit workers for Malaysia.
“We feel this is an issue of national safety and abuse of power, we see that his (Saravanan’s) statement has changed from morning to evening,” Ridzuan was cited as saying by the Malay Mail.
“If the Bangladesh minister says they did not select the 25 agencies, then who did? We ask for the goodwill of the police to investigate the matter; this is the third report we are making on the matter,” he said, adding that other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) allied with IKHLAS have also lodged reports in other police stations.
He further urged the Home Ministry, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to look into the matter.
“I’ve known the Prime Minister for some time and I know that he is clean, but I worry that if he doesn’t open his mouth, then the public will think he is also involved in corruption,” Ridzuan pointed out.
Ironically, Saravanan himself has challenged his detractors that “if it is one person (who made the decision) then we have to go to the MACC and someone will go to jail”.
Klang MP Charles Santiago has fired the opening salvo recently when he asked Saravanan to spell out the reasons for the specific number of agencies and how they would help solve the problem of migrant worker exploitation.
“They (Bangladeshi recruitment agencies) are saying that these 25 agencies selected are controlled by this one guy called Amin (referring to Bestinet Sdn Bhd founder and chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor),” the DAP lawmaker had told Malay Mail.
“It is up to the minister to clarify how these 25 agencies will solve the problem. This issue has been dilly-dallied long enough, and it’s being done at the expense of the people and the country.”
Echoing Santiago’s sentiment, Ridzuan cautioned that if the 25-agency limit was passed, then Malaysian employers would face an increased cost for hiring Bangladeshi workers.
He added that even Saravanan admitted there was a surplus of undocumented Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.
“Then why bring in more Bangladeshis? Charge them (those undocumented) a compound and then allow them to work here,” suggested Ridzuan.
With Ridzuan having opened the floodgate, Saravanan can expect his push to limit recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to only 25 agencies – which has been criticised as “potentially creating a monopolistic environment” – to see more protests pouring in from more opposition lawmakers, rights groups and NGOs in the coming days. – June 22, 2022
Main photo credit: Malay Mail
