Media Statement: MITI and HR Ministry incompetent, uncoordinated. E&E Sector risks becoming a Victim. MP Bayan Baru to file Emergency Motion in Parliament.
25 November, 2014
A week ago, I raised the issue of Verite Report to Deputy MITI Minister YB Dato’ Hamin Samuri and the damning implications if US Labour Department put Malaysia on its Forced Labour Watch List. The Deputy Minister told the parliament that it is HR Ministry’s jurisdiction and I should raise it in HR Ministry’s committee debate.
Yesterday evening in HR Ministry committee debate, when I dutifully warned the deputy HR minister YB Dato’ Ismail Mutalib of the same issue, he passed the issue back to MITI. I was shocked and upset by both deputy ministers’ responses. Both deputy ministers have been passing buck to one another without claiming necessary responsibilities. The E&E sector risks becoming a victim of these irresponsible and incompetent ministries.
I pressed further, I asked who would coordinate the matter. At first Deputy HR Minister told the parliament MITI would, but later he told the parliament both MITI and HR will do this together. His response showed rather clearly that MITI and HR Ministry have not coordinated nor met to resolve this important matter. However, he kept promising the counter report will be sent to US Labour Department by December 1st. If both ministries failed to meet each other over the last week, I seriously doubt they can produce a comprehensive counter report within 6 days.
Verite took 2 years to investigate and produced a comprehensive report on labour practices in Malaysia. In the report, Verite interviewed 501 male and female workers across all major producing regions, electronic products and foreign nationalities. They found about 28% of workers to be in situation of forced labour. The issues they highlighted were:
1. Recruitment fee charging and indebtedness compelled workers to work.
2. Deceptive recruitment
3. Passport retention, constrained in freedom of movement.
4. Poor living conditions, in housing provided by employers or third party employment agents.
5. Foreign workers difficult to leave before the end of their work contracts.
Finally, I asked the Deputy Minister whether he has got a counter report ready. He flatly said Not Yet! From this chain of events, it is now fairly clear that the Malaysian Government has failed to coordinate a concerted effort to counter Verite Report.
The heated debate in Parliament was a trivial matter compared to the devastating challenge faced by E&E sector. E&E sector risks becoming victim of incompetent ministries. Malaysian Government must wake up to the fact that Malaysia’s E&E sector is facing the single biggest threat to its survival. In 2013, E&E sector produced RM236.8 billion exports, equivalent of 32.9% of total export of Malaysia. At least 3 million manufacturing jobs are at stake.
By 1st December 2014, if US Government ranked Malaysia unfavourably, it has potential damning implications for the E&E sector in Malaysia. Some of the implications might be:
1. US companies maybe prohibited to do business with Malaysian Manufacturers.
2. Shrinking of future FDIs into Malaysia
3. E&E export products to US-Europe market affected where labour practice compliance is required.
Not everything reported in Verite report are entirely true. Malaysia in fact has comprehensive laws and regulations to protect workers, irrespective of whether local or foreign. These positive actions must be communicated to US Labour Department.
I urge MITI and HR Ministry to immediately respond to this urgent issue. They must immediately do the following suggestions:
1. Respond to US Labor Department to counter the issues raised by Verite Report.
2. Work with American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) to produce counter report.
3. Strictly enforce existing laws to clean up irresponsible parties/agents.
4. Assemble all stakeholders including E&E chieftains and labour representatives for emergency meeting to find solutions.
5. Commit to best practices of labour standards.
6. Reduce foreign labour dependency and prioritize local workers
7. Allow E&E sector to set up labour unions to improve workers conditions.
This is a matter of survival for Electrical and Electronic Sector in Malaysia, MITI and HR (hopefully they sort out among themselves), must get their acts together as soon as possible.
This issue is urgent, specific and affect public interests. Therefore I will file an emergency motion based on the Standing Order section 18 to debate this important matter today. I hope the speaker would allow it to be debatedtomorrow.
Sim Tze Tzin
MP Bayan Baru where most E&E factories are located.
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