ENOUGH is enough. Pressure is now piling up on Putrajaya to get into the bottom of the 25 agencies shortlisted by the Human Resources Ministry to handle the entry of Bangladeshi workers as well as their link to Bestinet Sdn Bhd and Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB).
In conjunction with the forthcoming parliamentary session, the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) which represents 50 Malay economic-centric non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said it welcomed the call by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to demand a full investigation into both companies following allegations about their involvement in a visa scheme and foreign labour racket.
MTEM’s CEO Ahmad Yazid Othman described such obscure links as “casting doubts on the Government’s policies or more accurately, the leadership of the Human Resources Minister himself”.
“MTEM urges the Government, including agencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), to investigate the awarding of these contracts, including if there is a connection with these two companies,” he insisted in a media statement.
“This is a matter of national sovereignty and security, not an issue of who gets the foreign recruitment project. It has also raises the question of what is the priority of the HR Ministry?”
On this note, Ahmad Yazid raised four ‘stinging’ questions:
- What are the selection criteria of the 25 agencies selected to manage the recruitment of foreign labour from Bangladesh?
- Has the HR Ministry received feedback from Interpol and related bodies if the shareholders of these 25 companies are involved in the issue of human trafficking?
- Is the HR Ministry more concerned with the entry of Bangladeshis than managing human resources in the country when the country is experiencing various issues pertaining to rising cost of living and limited employment opportunities?
- Why is it that Bestinet which is mandated to manage the Foreign Worker Management System is at the same time involved in the recruitment process of foreign workers? Isn’t this a glaring conflict of interest?
Recall that Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (IKHLAS) president Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah had on June 21 lodged a police report against HR Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan 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 Bangladeshi Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad who refuted the Tapah MP’s claims that Bangladesh has made the decision to only allow 25 of its agencies to recruit workers for Malaysia.
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. – July 1, 2022
