It’s about money, not about race

By MT Webmaster Last updated Dec 2, 2014

If you want to end this problem then stop employing cheap illegal workers. Employ Malaysians. But then you would need to double or triple the salaries and that would make Malaysia uncompetitive. And then, just like in the UK, all manufacturing will collapse.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

To understand why the Malay race in Malaysia has been ‘diluted’, for want of a better word, you must study and understand history, although many say history is about the past and hence not important (and that only the future is important).

By not understanding history one may make silly comments that are devoid of reality. And if you do that then you would be seen as silly and might even think that there is a conspiracy behind what is happening whereas there is no conspiracy but just a natural process that many other countries, too, have gone through.

Take the UK as one example. Back in the 1960s my late mother used to tell me that if I do not want to study (which I did not because I preferred to party and go to rock concerts) then I could always ‘go back’ to England and become a road sweeper.

You see, at that time, the UK was facing a labour shortage. Actually, it was not so much a labour shortage as much as the Brits did not want to work as porters, road sweepers, and whatnot. So foreigners were allowed into the country to do these ‘degrading’ jobs that the Brits refused to do (they would rather be on welfare than carry bags or sweep roads).

Today, about 10% of Britain’s population is non-white and many are second or third generation Brits. And because of that shops now open seven days a week and no longer work nine-to-five like in the past (as recent as the 1980s). In fact, we even have 24-hour shops, something impossible to see in the past where shops opened during ‘office hours’ only.

Back in the 1800s, Malaysia was still a feudal country so all land was owned by the crown. It was normal for the monarch to grant land ‘as far as the eye can see’ or ‘as long as there is the moon and stars in the sky’ (which means in perpetuity). And the land title would stipulate that the land was granted to you by the monarch.

Even the British colonialists had to buy or lease Penang and Singapore from the Sultans.

Tin and rubber were two commodities that the British needed. The industrial revolution in Europe in the 1800s and the invention of the motorcar made these two commodities necessary. Hence mines and plantations were set up in Malaya and by World War Two 30% of Britain’s economy depended on Malaya.

The official importation of workers by British Malaya was between 1850 and 1920, although before and after that immigrants were still coming into Malaya. This was to bring in Chinese and Indians to work the mines and plantations.

The reason the British had to bring in foreign labour, or allowed foreign labour to be brought in by the companies that owned the mines and plantations, was because the local population was not prepared to work in the mines and plantations.

At that time ‘local population’ meant Malays and Malays were predominantly fishermen and farmers, not labourers who worked for a salary. Hence the Chinese and Indians were brought in to do those ‘degrading’ jobs, just like what happened in England after the war.

Furthermore, the Indians had already worked in the plantations in India and Ceylon so they had the experience that the Malays did not. And the same went for the Chinese who had already been mining in China for generations.

Hence, by bringing in Indians and Chinese, the British were bringing in what can be considered skilled labour to do the jobs that not only the Malays did not want to do but were not trained to do as well. And, more importantly, the Indians and Chinese, being foreigners, could be exploited and paid pittance. They only wanted to work so that they could send money home to their impoverished family.

However, as I said, this was only started in 1850 and ended in 1920 because by then Malaya already had enough labour for the mines and plantations (plus there was a recession then).

The Malays would never work and live under those most pathetic conditions where people were just slightly better than slaves and entire communities died due to diseases. But the Chinese and Indians would. So the Chinese and Indians did the jobs that the Malays would not.

So, basically, the capitalists (and not all were whites) exploited desperate labourers who would have starved back in their mother countries if they did not come to Malaya to work (and die) for low salaries. The Malays were not starving so they did not have to suffer the indignation of ‘slavery’ like the immigrant workers did.

Eventually, the descendants of these immigrant workers of the 1800s were no longer poor and starving (like those Asians in the UK who are now very wealthy). By the 1980s, Malaysia, under the new Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, embarked on a new plan to industrialise Malaysia and to reduce the country’s dependence on commodities, which was losing its market anyway.

Dr Mahathir wanted Malaysia to become just like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and so on. In fact, Dr Mahathir even wanted Malaysia’s population to touch 70-80 million, just like the other ‘tigers’ of Asia. Dr Mahathir even launched a ‘Look East Policy’ and encouraged Malaysians to learn Japanese and adopt Japanese values.

So Malaysia was promoted as the place where foreign investors could set up their factories and take advantage of the country’s cheap labour. However, while labour was cheap in Malaysia, compared to Singapore, the country did not have enough labour. There were only about 20 million people in Malaysia compared to 70-80 million in Japan, Korea or Taiwan. But costs in Japan, Korea and Taiwan were now too high so it made economic sense to relocate from those countries to Malaysia. And tax holidays and cheap land were offered as an added incentive.

Soon labour costs in Malaysia increased as well in spite of the government resisting the call by the labour activists to set a minimum wage. The government did not agree to a minimum wage so as to keep labour costs down.

By the late 1980s, the government asked the Ministry of Trade to no longer promote Malaysia as the place for cheap labour. Malaysia was no longer cheap compared to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. So they were asked to promote Malaysia as the place for skilled labour. And Malaysians were asked to go to vocational schools and learn blue-collar skills so that they could fill the industrial work force.

But still it was not enough. Malays were more interested in working as Felda settlers where families even in places like Gua Musang could earn RM3,000 a month. The Felda settlers were getting wealthy (some became millionaires when they sold their land) so why should they work in factories for pittance or suffer on construction sites?

Employers could not afford to pay Malaysian workers higher salaries. As it is, Malaysia was already becoming uncompetitive. No Malay, Chinese or Indian would slog for salaries that they could not survive on. And employers were not prepared to pay Malaysians double or triple the market rate. Malaysians were more interested in working in Singapore where even maids earn more than a university graduate in Malaysia.

So workers from the neighbouring countries were brought in (or allowed in) to do the jobs that Malaysians would not do for salaries that no Malaysian could survive on. In the past, in the 1800s, Malays would not do the jobs the foreign workers would. Today, Chinese and Indians, too, do not want to do those jobs that they would have done more than 100 years ago.

So, today, Malaysia has a huge number of foreign workers. More than 100 years ago it was the fault of the Malays. Today, it is the fault of all Malaysians, Chinese and Indians included. And this is what is happening in the UK as well where cheap labour from Eastern Europe is monopolising all the ‘lower’ jobs.

The Chinese and Indians, in particular, are grumbling about the high influx of foreign workers in Malaysia. But amongst those employing these foreign workers are also the Chinese factories and construction companies. I have read comments from readers blaming the Malays for this. They allege that the Malays are too lazy to work and hence this is the reason why foreign workers need to be brought in. Would the Chinese and Indians do that work they accuse the Malays of refusing to do?

True, it was because Malays refused to work in mines and plantations in the 1800s that the British had to bring in Chinese and Indians to do those jobs. If the Malays had been prepared to do those jobs then Chinese and Indians would not be in Malaysia today in large numbers. So Malays have not changed since 200 years ago.

But today this is not just a Malay ‘problem’. Even the non-Malays, too, will not do a labourer’s job for pittance. Gone are the days when we see Chinese with coolie hats building houses or Indians laying railway tracks or paving roads. That is now the job of workers from the neighbouring countries.

This is not about race. This is about economics. Most Malays, Chinese and Indians go to school. Many also go to university. They are not going to lay bricks or tar roads any more. They want jobs suitable to their education. So we need foreign workers for Malaysia to develop, just like we did more than 100 years ago.

Take the Cameron Highlands issue as one example. We are blaming the problem on ‘illegal workers’. But then who are the ones employing these illegal workers? Is it not the capitalists who want cheap labour and refuse to pay a decent salary so that Malaysians can do those jobs?

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK