EVERYWHERE, altruism is a dying virtue. Malaysia is somewhere there. But a dying altruism is better than a dead one. This is glaringly evident in the treatment of foreign workers. Again, everywhere.
In Malaysia, they are a victim of the "You are welcome, but please go" ambivalence and everything that entails. Imagine this. At the exhortation of employers, the government goes head hunting, country-to-country — 15 countries when we last counted — to soothe their cri de coeur. Wouldn't you expect to be welcomed? After all, foreigners though they are, they make the Malaysian economy inch forward, one man at a time.
At the airport itself signs of "please go" become evident. Perplexingly, our employers who begged for them, pleading that crops would rot or assembly lines would halt, are nowhere to be seen. Contrast this, with the welcome accorded to foreign tourists. Call it ministerial welcome. And so is an ancient battle between capital and labour perpetuated from plane to plantation. But here is a bitter truth: without labour capital will waste its wealth away in no time. Employers must be made to treat foreign labour with the love it deserves.
It is in this context that we welcome the government's tighter vetting of foreign workers. We take this to mean that the government will be equally strict with their employers. Sure, there are laws and regulations, but they are not enforced strictly or not at all. Employers, especially the monied ones, have made it their business to mine loopholes in the recruitment process of foreign workers. They have been getting away with it. And if at all they are caught, it's a slap on the wrist.
Some even practise labour dumping. Talk of capital punishing labour! Things will change from now on, the government is promising us. We hope it means business. There are three areas where the government can show its resolve. Firstly, the government must put a stop to fraudulent recruitment. The solution lies in allowing employers, not agents, to recruit foreign workers from approved source countries. In this way, the employers will remain responsible and accountable for bringing in the workers and repatriating them after employment ends.
Overstaying would be hard to do without the complicity of the employers. Fraudulent and exploitative recruitments happen because foreign workers can't tell who the employers really are. The employer-agent legal loophole must be plugged.
Secondly, the government has a moral duty to ensure that employers treat their foreign workers well. This includes their rights and welfare. To be brutally frank, many employers treat them really badly. And they have been getting away with it for the longest time. Employers who mistreat their foreign workers must be punished punitively. Because their errancy comes at a huge cost to Malaysia's image.
And a damaged image has an economic cost, too. Malaysia mustn't be the only one paying the bill. Errant employers must, too. Finally, a government in earnest will lend its ear to non-governmental organisations which have been repositories of foreign workers' plight for years.
By all means, choose those which have no agendas. But choose. Alternatively, establish a vehicle which is manned by people who fight for their rights without fear or favour. To do so is to show love for labour. Call it altruism by another name.