Tawau plantations prefer Indonesian workers

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Chen Ket Chuin

TAWAU (July 14): The plantation sector in Tawau will be affected by Indonesia’s decision to stop receiving new job orders for migrant workers in all sectors.

Warisan member Chen Ket Chuin said on July 13, Indonesia had decided to stop allowing Indonesian workers to come to Malaysia to work.

He said one of the reasons was that the use of Maid Online System (MOS) that was not supposed to be applicable to Indonesian workers following the memorandum of understanding signed in April between Malaysia and Indonesia.

“In short, Malaysia does not honour its end of the bargain on the memorandum of understanding,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

Indonesia yesterday suggested to the Federal government to terminate the said memorandum of understanding.

Chen said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin did not seem to worry too much and claimed that Indonesia was just one of the many sources of foreign workers for Malaysia.

“It is a fact that Tawau rely heavily on the foreign workers from Indonesia, especially for the local smallholder plantations. The Indonesian workers are always the preference for the plantations in Tawau.

“The shortage of Indonesian workers, especially in the plantation sector has always been an issue, particularly after Covid-19. One of the local oil palm planters said that nobody can harvest the fruits when the palm oil prices rose sharply due to the shortage of the foreign workers from Indonesia.

“The failure of our Home Minister to address the issue worries us. It looks like the current federal government does not understand the hardship the people in Tawau is facing,” said Chen.

He said the Home Minister should not forget that Sabah actually have unfettered control over the movements of persons under the Malaysia Agreement 1963. Hence, the power of Home Minister in Putrajaya on migrant workers is not exclusive!

Chen said Hamzah should consult the Sabah government, in particular the people in Tawau before he simply issued the statement that “Indonesia was just one of the many sources of foreign workers for Malaysia”.

“The Federal government does not understand the hardship Orang Tawau is facing. We prefer Indonesian workers!” he added.

Chen also said Warisan is the party that will fight for Sabah’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“The recent statement made by leaders of some political parties that there should be a new Malaysia Agreement is absurd and this again tells us how dishonest these leaders are to Sabahans. The failure of our Home Minister to address the migrant workers from Indonesia is a good example why we Sabahans should not support these leaders, and continue to fight for the rights as contained in Malaysia Agreement 1963. Please take note that if this issue cannot be resolved, there will be no more workers from Indonesia anymore,” he said.