Thanks to Chinese New Year, a typical weekend became a four-day holiday for many in Malaysia. According to several sources including TV3, foreign laborers flooded Kuala Lumpur for recreational purposes on Sunday. In the news reports, locals expressed discomfort of seeing foreign laborers walking around so freely in large number. I thought it was normal for the locals to feel some discomfort and since I have blogged about such xenophobia earlier, I decided to let it go. When I saw a post by The Malaysian which quotes the International Herald Tribune however, I changed my mind. In the IHT:
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Foreign laborers in Malaysia’s largest city denounced Monday proposed legislation that would restrict them to their work sites unless they receive special permission to leave.
Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said he intends to propose a bill next month that could see nearly 2 million foreign workers in the Southeast Asian nation confined to their living quarters, the Star newspaper Web site reported Sunday.
The bill is xenophobic and must not pass. We are talking about humans here, not dogs.
If the bill goes through, then Malaysia must be prepared for rocky relationships with several countries which will inevitably include our neighbor, Indonesia.
Further in the report:
Police Chief Musa Hassan said foreign laborers may be restricted to their living quarters and their “activities monitored” as part of efforts to curb crime. Musa said 5,000 crimes were committed by foreigners last year from a total of about 230,000.
And:
“It is a way to prevent those employees from committing crimes,” he said adding 2% of the crimes committed in the country are by foreign workers.
Based on the statistics, if we are really concerned about crime rate, we should restrict the locals instead. But no, there are those that are encouraging the Mat Rempits to disregard the law in the name of fighting crime:
BALING: Putera Umno will reward Mat Rempit here with motorcycles for helping police detain snatch thieves.
Its chief Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said the incentive was one way of curbing snatch thefts in the Baling district and to encourage the illegal racers to be police informants.
However, he added, before the Mat Rempit could take home the motorcycle, they would have to catch at least 30 snatch thieves and be rewarded RM50 per head.
A great policy from a person whom “graduated” from the “prestigious” “Preston University“. For more on Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, please read an article by Joceline Tan.
In the end, are we as a society being honest here?
4 replies on “[1102] Of a xenophobic bill”
[…] crime than foreign workers. As if that is not enough, our legislature even considered of passing a xenophobic bill. Now, we see claim that all Rohingyas in Malaysia are beggars or criminals, the people as a whole […]
[…] happy to jump onto the bandwagon that appeals to protectionism and central planning. This is indeed not the first time xenophobes have spoken out their […]
It’s not only xenophobic but can also add another notch to our outstanding human rights record.
Re: plugins for Youtube in WP – I don’t use any. Plain cut and paste of codes.
Cheers.
Isn’t this the Malaysian malaise?
Prevent dissent by locking up protesters and dissidents.
Prevent rape by locking women up in chastity belts.
Prevent crime by locking up foreign workers in their quarters, even if foreigners – and that just includes the workers – commit less than two percent of the total crimes.
Sounds suspiciously like the ultimate solution to me. We have come a long way and now reach 50 years of Independence but the solution remains the same.
Lock Up. Coming to You. Now.