BESTINET Sdn Bhd had dismissed claims levelled by online news portal, The Asian Report, which alleged the former was employing “heavy-handed” and monopolistic tactics in getting Bangladeshi workers back to the nation for work.
“We’re not involved in the operation of the foreign workers recruitment process in Malaysia or labour source countries.
“Bestinet is an IT company and our core business is being an IT provider. We developed an application for the Government which is called Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS).
“It is an online, real-time holistic solution used by various stakeholders to improve efficiency and transparency in the entire process of management and recruitment of foreign workers,” it stressed in a statement to FocusM.
On Feb 3, the news portal carried an article entitled Controversy over Bangladesh Workers Entry During Malaysian COVID-19 Border Closure which alleged that Bestinet has the monopoly of bringing in Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia by leading a consortium of 24 to 40 agencies.
It was alleged that Bestinet founder and chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor had been compelling the local recruitment agencies to pay an upfront of a whopping RM5 mil per agency to be listed in the consortium.
The Asian Report is untrustworthy
The matter was said to have created an uproar among Malaysian foreign labour agencies as the sector is already struggling due to the pandemic and border closures.
“It was said that agencies who refuse to cough up the RM5 mil fee risk losing future business involving bringing foreign workers from Bangladesh.
“Due to monopolistic tactics employed by rich and politically connected elites in Malaysia linked to Bestinet, the recruitment agencies are left with no choice but to close down or shift their focus from Bangladeshis to other foreign nationals,” the news portal claimed.
Training its guns against The Asian Report, Bestinet claimed that the news agency had produced several articles which are fabricated in its entirety, filled with false and defamatory allegations.
“The Asian Report attributes all allegations made against Bestinet in these reports to ‘anonymous sources’, and does not back up any of the claims made with even so much as a hint of evidence.
“Our efforts to contact them were futile, as they do not share any contact details on their website and are not listed in regular media lists or databases,” it pointed out.
Bestinet had since lodged complaints with the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to identify and investigate the author of the article and owner of the website.
“We have also taken legal advice and any reproduction of the article henceforth will be followed by legal action against the parties reproducing it,” it added. – Feb 9, 2021.
