KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is open to approving foreign workers for oil palm harvesting, provided the plantation industry commits to reducing its reliance on migrant labour through mechanisation.
He also said any abuse of workers, including foreign workers, must be met with firm action.
Speaking at the 14th Malaysia Madani Scholars Forum today, Anwar was responding to a question from a plantation industry representative who said most planters had yet to receive their foreign worker quotas for this year.
Also on the panel were Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, SD Guthrie Bhd president and group chief executive officer Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad, and PNB Research Institute chief executive officer Dr Sarena Che Omar.
The representative said machines were already being used for fertilising and weeding, but none were yet available for harvesting oil palm fruit, a task that still relied on foreign labour.
He told Anwar that recruitment took about three months, with a further three months needed for training.
Production could be affected next year if workers were not secured now, particularly with El Niño and haze expected, he said.
Anwar said he would view the matter “sympathetically” and raise it with the minister concerned.
He said the government could approve foreign workers for harvesting, on condition that the industry committed to reducing its reliance on them through mechanisation.
He said major plantation companies had not invested sufficiently in mechanisation to reduce their workforce, even when profits were high.
“A company makes a billion in profit. Raise wages by RM20 a month, they attack it. Until we, the government, had to make it mandatory.
“That is why I say the economy must also be humane,” he said.
Anwar said Malaysia could not allow oppression and the dehumanisation of workers in the pursuit of economic growth.
He cited foreign workers being housed in conditions resembling slavery a century ago.
“I cannot accept that,” he said.
He said the government was negotiating with source countries individually to reduce recruitment costs, describing agents who held workers’ passports as engaging in “modern slavery”.
Anwar also said he had negotiated with Myanmar’s president on the repatriation of its nationals in Malaysia.
“We have 200,000 Myanmar nationals here, including economic refugees. If they are sent back, human rights groups protest. If they stay here, the people protest,” he said.
He said more than 10,000 had since been sent home under the arrangement.
“Anti-foreigner sentiment has sometimes become excessive and is no longer humane,” he said.
“Tightening (the policy) will affect certain industries. Loosening it creates serious economic and social problems.”
Last month, Anwar said 10,493 Myanmar nationals had been repatriated by air and sea following talks with Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing during the latter’s official visit to Malaysia.
Myanmar had also agreed to take back between 3,000 and 4,000 of its nationals held at immigration depots, at its own expense.
In November 2024, the government approved a one-off special quota of 24,570 foreign workers for 143 plantation companies to address labour shortages in the sector.
In February 2023, Anwar called for an end to the use of agents in foreign worker recruitment, saying the high costs involved amounted to modern slavery.