The danger of creating a new race in the nation

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THE furore over the state’s plan to import 12,000 Bangladeshi workers to work in the palm oil plantations has yet to die down when we were hit with a bigger manpower bombshell – the recent announcement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi that the nation has to recruit 1.5 million workers from the same country to cope with our chronic labour shortage.

The very idea of adding another 1.5 million foreign workers to the estimated 5 million already in the country is horrifying to most Malaysians.

Exacerbating the situation is the fact that only about 2 million of the workers are registered while the rest are working illegally in the country.

However, like the 12,000 foreign workers approved for the state’s plantation industry, the import of 1.5 million foreigners is a necessary evil that we have to bear to maintain our economic growth.

Despite the negative vibes swirling against the government, there is no denying that Malaysia is an economic success story.

We are more affluent than most of our neighbours but have far lower population than them – a combination of circumstances that makes a perfect recipe for perpetual labour shortage.

In South East Asia, Malaysia is the most preferred destination for foreign workers after Singapore.

Foreign workers are a cure to our chronic labour shortage but like all medications it comes with side effects.

Ultimately we have to decide if the benefits of this ‘foreign labour medication’ outweigh its social side effects.

However, there are measures we can take to mitigate the negative impact of so many foreign workers in our nation.

One of them is to diversify the recruitment sources of foreign workers.

The strong opposition to the proposed import of foreign workers stems from the fear of recruiting all the 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh.

Their presence is bound to create social and even cultural problems as there will more Bangladeshis than many races in Malaysia.

Having so many of them will alter the demography of the nation as it is akin to creating a new race in the country.

Then there is the difficulty of getting them to leave after their work permits expired as Muslim workers from Bangladesh tend to assimilate easily into the local Malay community.

And there is the complication of them marrying local girls and having children and as some cynics said creating a new race- Mangla.

The government must weigh the social and cultural impact of recruiting so many workers from a single nation carefully.

The potential social upheaval caused by the presence of so many Bangladeshi workers can create more harm than good in the long run.