The influx of foreign workers in Malaysia, especially in urban areas, has always been a pressing issue here. While there are many reasons for the abundance of foreign workers in Malaysia, our beloved Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad reckoned that our refusal to take up a job that involves manual labour is also one of the reasons, reported The Malay Mail.
Speaking to the Malaysian and Thai business community in Bangkok, Tun M said that the dependence on “foreign labour” has taken its toll on our economy by causing problems like “outflow of funds”.
Source: The Malay Mail
He was quoted as saying,
“On the other hand, the reason why foreigners like to come to Malaysia is that Malaysians don’t like to work. That’s very simple.”
“Today the Bangladeshis are coming. Why? Because Malaysians don’t want to work. They want to have an easy life. They want to work in air-conditioned places and all that, and the hard work is carried out by foreigners.”
Tun M then shared that there are approximately seven million immigrants in Malaysia as of now. That’s a lot of people!
Source: RoketKini
He then added that the outflow of funds is caused by foreign workers sending money which they have earned back to their home country. Therefore, Tun M hopes to have more Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to ensure there’s inflow of currency to curb the problem.
He continued,
“This can cause us problems. The first thing that happens is that they all remit the money back home, and there is an outflow of funds all the time out of the country, and we hope to have foreign direct investments too, to cause the inflow of currency, and we need the FDI badly because we have a lot of unemployment in Malaysia. Many graduates from universities are also unemployed.”
Source: TODAY
Well, Tun M has made some serious statements about the attitude of Malaysians towards manual labour and, IMO, his statements have been repeated several times by other leaders and employers. Perhaps, it’s time we change our perception and attitude towards manual labour, don’t you think?
Do you agree with Tun M that it is our Malaysian attitude towards manual labour that’s causing the influx of foreign workers here? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Also read: Tun M Welcomes Skilled Foreign Workers to M’sia, Even Offers Citizenship
