LETTER | Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s recent admission at the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) conference demands serious examination. 

Ismail Sabri said foreigners who work in Malaysia are also benefiting from government subsidies that are meant for locals.

The country is under attack, economically. 

We have come full circle and are backed into a tight corner where the government is now finding its coffers threatened, so much so that subsidies to relieve its own citizens are becoming an insurmountable challenge.

For the prime minister to state that foreigners are benefiting from government subsidies, it reveals two truths.

One, the population of foreign workers (documented or not) in the country is so disproportionately huge that even subsidies are being put on the line. 

Two, from a human rights and humanitarian perspective it is gross and heinous to now marginalise the very foreigners who slogged to build Malaysia’s economy on dirt-cheap wages and dehumanising living and working conditions these past four decades. 

Despite his admission, one of his ministers is out on a canvassing trip overseas to secure more cheap labour. 

The continuation of high, uncontrolled and exploitable dependency on cheap, imported labour has always been squarely pinned on the claim that Malaysians shun the 3D jobs and that private enterprises would collapse if not for cheap labour.

At the same time, this system enriches political and business leaders’ purses and saw many well-connected companies be publicly listed in record time and make multi-billion ringgit profits.

And then we celebrate all these with the laurels of “Progressive Malaysia”. 

The truth is that our country’s leadership these past years have failed. It has gone so awry that the country is buckling in the face of global challenges.

Why and how? The words are on everyone’s lips. It is widespread corruption fuelled by unbridled greed. Greed for power. Greed for overwhelming control. Greed for short-term, quick, and ugly profiteering. 

We have deviated from the very fundamentals of good and clean governance for far too long. 

Today, in the face of global supply chain disruptions, war, geopolitical manoeuvrings, and the pandemic, many weak and corrupt governments are falling victim to their own doing, while able, clean, and just nations are operating as in the expression “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. 

If the people do not wake up to the truth but remain hooked to the shield of failed policies and grand corruption, we are in for a long-lasting and paralysing eventuality. 

The coffers are drying up fast, so much so Ismail Sabri is worried about how to stretch the subsidies and blamed workers for swallowing a chunk of it. 

If this is not an imploding disaster, what else is? 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.