1.5 million reasons to review our economic policies

The government's attempt to bring in 1.5 million unskilled Bangladeshi workers has opened up a Pandora's Box of questions, not to mention xenophobic comments from many Malaysians.

The government-to-government deal was signed in Dhaka on February 18, 2016 but put on hold the next day pending evaluation of current labour needs in the country.

True to form, our ministers blame employers for the flip-flop over the move to bring in the extra migrant workers and blame Malaysian youths for shunning the 3D jobs – dirty, difficult and dangerous.

To the ministers, the youths of today are just lazy and want comfortable jobs. As policymakers, they consider themselves blameless and infallible. To me, they are just lame-duck leaders and irresponsible.

Do we really need another 1.5 million migrant workers when we already have a total of four million migrant workers, out of which almost half are undocumented? If we really do need them, why have we structured our economy in such a way as to rely on a migrant workforce?

According to MIDF Research, the unemployment rate in Malaysia stands at 3.3% or around 478,100 as of December 2015. The question to ask is why aren't Malaysians taking up 3D jobs?

Some have suggested that it is because the pay is too low and without a minimum wage of at least RM1,500, it would be insufficient for a local to cover living expenses in an urban environment.

To prove the point that low wages is the reason, some said that many locals are willing to travel overseas to do such jobs. There are over 200,000 Malaysians who commute daily to Singapore to work in the manufacturing and service sectors there because they can receive almost three times the salary they would have gotten here doing the same job, with the favourable exchange rate for the Singapore dollar.

Some others defended the government's decision to bring in more migrant workers by arguing that higher pay would not attract locals. They showed that current daily wages for various sectors like construction, welding and cleaning services are well-above the minimum wage level.

Why is there a mismatch where Malaysians don't mind doing the 3D jobs overseas but shun them at home? Wages could be a factor for some jobs but could there be another D to add to the 3Ds – "demeaning"?

Could it be that such jobs are generally looked down upon by Malaysians? If that is the case, wouldn't the problem be with us collectively as a society?

The reasons why locals shun 3D jobs are complex and should not be addressed with shallow generalisation, like they are lazy or just want comfortable jobs, nor can a simple solution of raising the minimum wage to RM1,500 solve it.

For some industries, increasing productivity through the use of technology and automation could justify paying workers more. I like and agree with Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong's assertion that if we have automated garbage trucks, we could pay the one-man operator at least RM2,000 per month. That would also force all sectors to raise their wages, because, otherwise everyone would want to be a garbage collector.

But what about industries that are automation-adverse, such as oil palm plantations, where the harvesting of fresh fruit bunches requires manual labour? This is a labour-intensive task that is impossible to mechanise and when you are competing in the world market with lower cost countries like Indonesia, you cannot afford to pay your workers much more.

Shouldn't we put a moratorium on the clearing of forests to open up more plantations and think of how we can phase out oil palm and replace it with crops that are more ready for mechanisation?

The short-sighted economic policies of the government to seek short-term gains by focusing on labour-intensive and low-wage sectors have forced us to become dependent on migrant workers. Also, allowing the migrant workforce into the service industry has further squeezed out the local workforce who are forced to compete for low-paying jobs with them.

We have to take a long hard look at our economic policies. Do we want to structure our economy to rely on a huge migrant workforce or to first ensure that our citizens are gainfully employed?

Setting up a minimum wage policy and restricting foreigners from certain sectors would be some of the immediate steps the government can take. These would have the immediate effect of reducing unemployment and raising the income level, thus increasing the spending power to boost the local economy.

Not allowing foreigners in certain sectors also opens up the job market for a large pool of married women who want to supplement household incomes but have to compete with cheap foreign labour.

To mitigate the cost of hiring local workers, the government could give incentives like tax breaks and subsidies for automation and the use of technology.

But to truly raise the earning power of Malaysians and attract high-end industries, the long-term goal must be to raise the education standard of our population.

The vision to make Malaysia a high-income developed nation by 2020 must be rooted in the reality that most Malaysians are earning a decent living wage and not a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita figure that is based on macro figures of income derived from big corporations that hire migrant workers.

Can we expect the current government to review and reverse its economic policy or should we hope that Pakatan Harapan proves itself worthy of our votes by coming out with concrete and robust solutions to raise the income levels of ordinary working Malaysians? – February 22, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.