NARROW minded thinking and xenophobia are among the hurdles preventing authorities from taking the right steps to stem the rise of COVID-19, particularly involving migrant workers.
“We are so used to using our migrant workers as scapegoats whenever something bad happens. In the past, when snatch theft was rampant, the authorities conveniently blamed it on foreigners despite the fact that it triggered by social inequality.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our policy makers used the lie so much they have come to believe it themselves. We now have the anti-foreign workers’ mentality,” Parti Sosialis Malaysia chairperson Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj told FocusM.
In the last two days, Malaysia’s daily COVID-19 infections rates breached the 5,000 mark, leaving many alarmed and puzzled on why the movement control order (MCO 2.0) and proclamation of Emergency did not have the desired effect on the pandemic.
Since last year, several political leaders and unionists such as Klang MP Charles Santiago and UNI-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) president Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal have repeatedly said that the Government would be hard pressed to contain the pandemic unless they get the cooperation from undocumented migrant workers.
With that, they urged the Government to issue a temporary amnesty to them, so they will voluntarily come forward to get themselves screened and quarantined if they are found infected with COVID-19.
To date, the Government have yet to take up the idea.
Citing Selangor an as example, Jeyakumar said that public health officials are having a hard time curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the state as the coronavirus has penetrated the undocumented migrant workers group.
“And that is why we need to offer them temporary amnesty. We have been saying this since March last year but our calls fell on deaf ears,” said the former Sungai Siput MP.
Jeyakumar, a trained pulmonologist, urged the Government to do the right thing and ditch right-wing mentality for the sake of public health.
“It’s not too late. Yes, it is more difficult now but we can still do it. Just get our undocumented migrant workers screened and get them vaccinated so that we can achieve herd immunity,” he remarked. – Jan 31, 2021.
