Can a Country’s National Identity be Threatened by Foreign Labour?
In some areas of KLCC, Jalan Chow Kit, Kompleks Bukit Jambul or Komtar and many parts of Sabah, one can see the overwhelmingly high number of foreign labor who congregate there on a weekend. Just step into any fast food joint or restaurant and you can see many workers who hail from Myanmar, Nepal, Indonesia etc. It is a known fact that these foreign workers get PR status more easily than expatriates who have resided in Malaysia for more than 20 years or even the expatriate spouses of Malaysians!
By Masterwordsmith
My last visit to Singapore was in May 2008 when I went there to visit my childhood friend and to get my older boy an electric violin. We had a gala time reminiscing, shopping and sightseeing. While moving around in MRT trains, I was quite taken aback by the cosmopolitan nature of the population with whom I encountered in MRT trains and buses. I wondered to myself if all that Lee Kuan Yew had worked for might fizzle out with the influx of foreigners and the emigration of Singaporeans to other countries, especially Australia and Canada.
The same scenario exists in Malaysia, at least in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. In some areas of KLCC, Jalan Chow Kit, Kompleks Bukit Jambul or Komtar and many parts of Sabah, one can see the overwhelmingly high number of foreign labor who congregate there on a weekend. Just step into any fast food joint or restaurant and you can see many workers who hail from Myanmar, Nepal, Indonesia etc. It is a known fact that these foreign workers get PR status more easily than expatriates who have resided in Malaysia for more than 20 years or even the expatriate spouses of Malaysians! What will happen to the nature of Malaysian society, the ethnic composition, the dependency ratio in economic terms and national identity of our country? National identity is the depiction of a country as a whole, encompassing its culture, traditions, language, and politics.
We have to realize that these foreign workers will seek to retain not only their inherited customs but even their native language when they settle here because traditions which are so vital in any culture, are specific. One cannot be a citizen of the world. One’s identity is local and represents the characteristic of a group of people who have inhabited a country over a period of time and have developed their own cultural forms and traditions which are not universal traits but are rooted in centuries past and depend upon a historical consciousness, an attention to the deeds of ancestors past.
National identity can be threatened from two sources: the immigrant who refuses to assimilate and the secular Malaysian whose mentality permeates the major media, the entertainment industries, and the universities. If our country is one that is conscious of its past, then we can withstand any threat but are we that cohesive a unit to be able to do this? I have to be realistic to acknowledge that cultural and moral standards are specific and yet inconsistent as these differ from particular people across time periods and places. In fact, nothing seems to define a nation or region better than the philosophy it has produced or the adherence to the rule of law under which it functions. Sadly, we have yet to reach that stage where we can think of ourselves as ONE nation so I argue that while some leaders are playing race cards, the situation may be exacerbated in future by foreign immigrants, especially the illegal ones who unscrupulously get legal status.
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