For the past one week, I have been saying that the federal government has no route map for human resources in this country and hence the cause of our “disorganised, haphazard, random and senseless” migrant workers policy. (Refer: http://dapmalaysia.org/en/statements/2016/02/16/22630/).
In reality, the Human Resources Ministry did inform the Parliament as recent as mid-2015 of its plan on migrant workers, including projection and strategy to reduce industry’s dependence on migrant workers.
The measures outlined by the Human Resources Ministry to encourage the hiring of locals and to reduce dependence on migrant workers, are: automation, implementation of self-service system, implementation of industrial building system (IBS), wage increment, locating manufacturing industry near areas with workforce supply, utilisation of latent workforce, freezing of migrant workers intake in the certain service sector, and, job placement programmes.
All these are good strategies. But what is the problem?
The problem is which “route map” is the federal government following?: Human Resources Ministry’s projection versus Home Ministry’s intake
At an average growth rate of 5.29% from 2011-2014, the Human Resources Ministry in 2015 projected the following demand for migrant workers upto 2020:
| Sector | 2014 (‘000 persons) | 2015 (‘000) | 2020 (‘000) |
| Agriculture | 488.09 | 476.49 | 450.79 |
| Construction | 411.82 | 390.26 | 377.9 |
| Manufacturing | 747.87 | 728.46 | 780.62 |
| Services | 270.05 | 244.01 | 268.26 |
| Total | 1,917.83 | 1,839.22 | 1,877.57 |
Table 1: Human Resources Ministry’s projection on the demand for migrant workers until 2020 (Source: http://pardocs.sinarproject.org/documents/2015-may-june-parliamentary-session/oral-questions/2015-05-21-parliamentary-replies/soalan-11.pdf/view)
Compare this, however, to the current number of migrant workers in the country, approved by the Home Ministry: 2.1 million.
How is it that without any substantial change in GDP growth rate for 2016, the Home Ministry’s intake of migrant workers exceeded an additional 300,000 persons from what was originally planned by the Human Resources Ministry just a year ago?
And even more curious, why does the Home Ministry want another 500,000 Bangladeshi workers to come each year for the next three years?
Who is in charge?
The question now is, who is in charge to plan out and manage human resources strategy and what are its aims?
Is it the Human Resources Ministry whose stated aims are to maximise the employment of Malaysians as well as to reduce dependence on migrant workers? – Whether the Ministry is competent to achieve its goals is another matter.
Or the Home Ministry whose aim seems to be making a profit out of the business of importing migrant workers? (Refer: http://dapmalaysia.org/Kenyataan-Akhbar/2016/02/23/22653/)
With this confusion of roles, not only the Human Resources Ministry has failed to achieve its target, the Home Ministry equally failed in its job to curb illegal immigration leading to 2-3 million undocumented migrants staying in our country today.
Why does this situation happen in the first place? Is it because the lucrative business of importing migrant workers is reserved for the “more senior” Home Minister instead of the Human Resources Minister?