Umno: Don’t bring in Pakistani workers, create jobs for locals first
PUCHONG: Stop mollycoddling foreign workers and create jobs for Malaysians first, said Umno youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
In a statement yesterday, Asyraf said that the Pakatan Harapan government should focus on creating high quality jobs for Malaysians first before offering positions to foreigners.
“In their election manifesto, the government pledged to create one million jobs for Malaysians and work towards sending back foreign workers in stages.
“But as usual, the Pakatan regime has backpedalled on their pledges and are now set to bring in a high number of low-skilled Pakistani workers to Malaysia,” he said.
Recently, the Pakistani High Commissioner to Malaysia Amna Baloch announced that both governments would be signing an agreement to allow 150,000 low-skilled Pakistanis to work in Malaysia.
She also said that Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would be signing a memorandum of understanding on the matter, during his upcoming visit to Pakistan.
Amna added that the document would ensure the Pakistani workers would get equal treatment as local workers.
Training his guns at the government, Asyraf said that Malaysia’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%, which roughly translates to 1.04 million people.
“We have more than one million Malaysians being unemployed. Plus, we already have two million foreign nationals working in Malaysia. That is excluding those working here illegally.
“While our high-skilled locals remain jobless, the government is happily opening our doors to low-skilled Pakistanis to work here,” he said.
Asyraf then urged the government to stop bringing in more foreign workers into the country and prioritise Malaysians instead.
“Please stop insulting the rakyat. This will only bring shame to our country,” he said.
By G Vinod