Yesterday’s decision by the Home Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid to reopen the immigration manual counters to handle foreign worker temporary permit renewal ( PLKS ) applications till end February is welcomed, but this does not resolve the main complaint raised by employers—the unacceptable monopoly by MyEG.
The employers’ demand to be allowed to either make renewal manually at immigration counters or through MyEG online service is reasonable and justified.
I therefore call on Zahid to reopen the manual counters permanently so as to effectively resolve the whole controversy which has dragged on since Jan 5.
According to a statement issued by the Home Ministry on Jan 10, the move to implement online renewal of the foreign worker temporary permit was to check abuse by various parties and to shorten the application process to one or two days compared to two to four weeks and to reduce crowding at the Immigration Department’s counters.
The ministry also said the service charge for the MyEG online system of RM38 was reasonable to cover the cost of the operating system and service charges such as online service scope, registration ID and employer password, payment for door-to-door PLKS delivery and confiscation of payment if the worker turned problematic.
However, the Ministry’s explanation has not been well accepted because since the introduction of the compulsory MyEG online, employers have been airing their complaints publicly.
If online renewal service is so good and efficient as claimed, there should be no reason for employers to be unhappy.
It is obvious that Zahid has mistakenly believed that the employers’ unhappiness is merely due to teething problems like being not IT savvy and he has thus only allowed temporary reopening of the immigration manual counters till end February.
Zahid should have held dialogues with employers associations to understand their complaints, especially why they oppose the monopoly of service by MyEG.
Zahid should ask himself why employers should be unhappy if the MyEG can provide better services.
The ultimate point is still this—if MyEG services are good and acceptable as claimed, there is no reason for it to fear competing with immigration counter services.
Zahid should also answer an important question that has been raised by the opposition —that outsourcing the renewal of the foreign workers’ permits to a private firm will threaten the country’s security because of the biometric data involved.
If he cannot guarantee that the nation’s security will not be threatened, then he must advise the Finance Ministry to immediately terminate the outsourcing move.