- Singaporean social worker Suraendher Kumarr on a sinkhole incident

COMMENT | The quote that opens this piece is in reference to a news story about a group of migrant workers who rescued a woman in a sinkhole in Singapore.

As a BBC piece elaborates, this ignited a debate about how migrant workers in Singapore are treated. In Malaysia, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng claimed that there was no need for a minimum wage or Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for existing migrant workers.

In response, former Klang MP Charles Santiago reminded Lim that: “It’s unbecoming of a leader who pretends to champion the working class while denying the most basic social protections to those who do the dirtiest, dangerous, hardest, most essential work just because they weren’t born here.”

PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan also chimed in, saying: “This hypocrisy is staggering, especially after years of government efforts to align with International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.” Migrant rights activist Adrian Pereira pushed back as well at Lim’s suggestion.

“It is not about whether ILO asks us to do it or not, it is about doing the right thing,” he said. Politicians rarely, if ever, want to do the right thing, therefore, this point, however laudable, is moot.

While I see no reason for Lim to apologise as Tenaganita demanded - after all he was just protecting the corporate interests which is his true constituency - the migrants rights group reminded Malaysians that: “To deny migrant workers EPF is to rob them of dignity in retirement and strip them of the right to long-term security, while employers and corporations continue to profit off their labour.”

Demonising progressive policies

Non-Malays often lament about the injustices and inequality of the system, but are the first to demonise progressive policies when it comes to issues like these.

The most vociferous defenders of the plutocrat class are most often non-Malay politicians and, by extension, their supporters. Here we have fat cat politicians who are paid lavishly with our tax ringgit, telling the folk who do the work that the locals do not want to do, that they should be content with their unequal treatment.

Which of course is a similar narrative of Malay uber alles politicians in the sense that non-Malays should be grateful for the opportunities this country affords them and just shut their mouths when it comes to the systemic inequalities. Also part of ketuanan (supremacy) strategies is cherry-picking international conventions and norms, which would maintain the status quo and not reform it. This is exactly what Lim is doing, which normalises the inequality embedded in his policy proposal.

Economic competition

Mind you, there are real issues affecting the majority community when it comes to migrant workers. The fact that there are tensions between working-class Malays and migrants when it comes to economic competition is well documented and remains a flashpoint, which is why Madani is cracking down.

Let us not forget the religious aspect of this. While there are many news reports of migrant workers benefiting from marriage to local women, the Islamic Development Department recently developed a module to curb extremism among foreign workers.

“We want them to return to the true moderate teachings of Islam. If we can assist in rehabilitating their ideology, we are not only protecting our country but also helping to prevent threats in their countries of origin,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Na’im Mokhtar said.

Money matters

All this is about money, of course. When it comes to cartels bringing in cheap labour, there is a connective tissue between the political class, bureaucrats on all levels and the plutocrat class. This is about cheap labour to satisfy the dodgy economic initiatives of the government, oftentimes to artificially prop up the economy.

The shakedown money, the illegal granting of citizenship – which is treasonous if you ask me – the unreported rapes, physical and mental abuse and a host of other crimes that are inflicted upon foreign workers, which are in themselves a cottage industry carried out by low to mid-level government bureaucrats and those from the state security apparatus.

We have to look no further than certain race-based groups, which demonise foreign communities but at the same time collude to bring them in because they know that cheap foreign labour makes this an ideal country to produce cheap goods or carry out development for the "real" citizens to profit from.

As usual, when it comes to money, it is the exploited who are made scapegoats while the business folk get to rely on governmental programmes which merely enable them to carry on with business as usual instead of admitting that they, like us, are part of the problem.

Don’t take my word for it, Malaysiakini did an exposé on a system which had been operating for decades, exploiting migrant workers and making millions in the process.

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READ MORE: Migrant workers: 'Employers' raking in millions through 'A to B' syndicate

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It was reported that Malaysiakini learned that this syndicate began its activities in 1996 and was purportedly unstoppable with the help of corrupt law enforcement officers.

While several civil servants were caught colluding with the syndicate over the years, many of them only got a slap on the wrist with punishments such as getting transferred to another department, which was considered mild in comparison to the hefty bribes they received, the report added.

Commenting on the exposé, Arutchelvan said: “Looking at how our MACC hides behind bureaucratic reasoning as in the recent Sabah video cases, one wonders how we are to fight corruption when it is deep within the system of governance.”

This kind of corruption trickles down. Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming had to remind Malaysians not to “loan” their licences to foreigners. "That is why, as Malaysians, we should appreciate the government's efforts and policies in spurring the local economies and not give the benefits to foreigners, especially the undocumented migrants," he said.

Cretins go on about how this unduly places a burden on small businesses, but seem clueless that small businesses also exploit their migrant workers.

Do you know the difference between a “mom and pop” business and corporations exploiting the migrant class? The former, when it is exposed, makes for good press, and the latter, which rarely gets exposed, is just business as usual.

The plutocrat class relies on this argument to sustain these types of policies, understanding there are always useful idiots (Russian propaganda term) ever willing to throw the most disenfranchised under the bus and celebrate “fearless leader” types while ditching egalitarian principles, which would benefit all Malaysians. The problem with ketuanan privilege is that it really does not extend to non-Malays, even those with power and influence.

KK Mart is an example of how non-Malay businesses had to supplicate before the riff raff of the ketuanan system, and non-Malay power brokers were helpless in the face of Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh’s rampage, and indeed the state colluded with the riff raff.

Then there’s the "Ah Pek" flag error - yet another incident where the riff raff have targeted the non-Malay mercantile class and the DAP is helpless to do anything about it. It demonstrates how odious it is for Lim to defend the collusion between the ketuanan state and the plutocrat class. However, this collusion does not lend any privilege or protection from the riff raff of the ketuanan state, who are bankrupt of any policy ideas or the legitimacy that democratic and secular ideals confer.

Striving for equality

This is about equality, something the ketuanan system and its adherents rage against. More importantly, this is about striving for equality in a system which nature pits groups against each other. At every opportunity, genuine reformists should attempt to change the system in favour of the disadvantaged.

Whenever you want to deny someone equal treatment, the rational question is why? Why deny this person or group equal treatment? What Lim is attempting to do is normalise ketuanan dogma using Singapore, which has its very serious issues with migrant labour, as a fig leaf for efficient policy.