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PETALING JAYA: An activist group has called for the employment of people from the Rohingya community in sectors that Malaysians tend to shun.

Commenting on Jempol MP Salim Sharif’s complaint that Rohingya migrants were managing padi fields in Malaysia, Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das told reporters: “The reality is that factors like the pandemic have slowed the recruitment of foreign workers, and Rohingya can contribute to our country’s economy while sustaining their livelihoods.”

However, she called for the drafting of employment policies to prevent the exploitation of refugee workers, saying the rise in labour violation cases in several sectors had made this necessary.

Yesterday, during the Dewan Rakyat debate on the 2022 Supply Bill, Salim said: “These Rohingya are becoming padi towkays. In a few years, they are likely to end up controlling more padi fields.”

Speaking to reporters, activist John Quinley of Fortify Rights said the government should discourage anti-refugee and anti-migrant sentiments.

He said it should instead support collaboration between Malaysians and Rohingya in all fields.

Natural Farming Association vice-chairman Adi Setia said the government was short-sighted in ignoring refugee manpower.

“Allowing the Rohingya to work in padi fields will effectively address some of the country’s refugee-related issues,” he said.

“Of course, a legal framework must be put in place to ensure that the Rohingya are not exploited.”

According to the agriculture and food industries ministry, more than 200 Rohingya are managing padi fields across the country.

Officially, there are 103,090 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia.

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry reported 48 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, according to its GitHub database.

Of the total, 10 were classified as brought-in-dead (BID). The death toll now stands at 30,195.

Kelantan and Terengganu each recorded eight deaths, followed by Sarawak (6), Perak (6), Selangor (5), Sabah (4), Pahang (3), Penang (2), Kedah (2), Kuala Lumpur (1), Johor (1), Negeri Sembilan (1) and Melaka (1).

There were no deaths reported in Perlis, Putrajaya and Labuan.

​As of midnight, there were 68,755 active cases including 516 in intensive care units (ICU), 272 of whom require respiratory assistance.

There were also 6,602 recoveries reported.

The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia now stands at 2,608,979.

KUALA LUMPUR: Violent and property crime cases decreased by 21.4% in 2020 to 65,623 from 83,456 in the previous year, according to chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said violent crime dropped by 19.5% to 13,279 cases in 2020 while property crime decreased by 21.8% to record 52,344 cases during the same period.

“Among the reasons for the decrease in criminal cases were due to restrictions on social activities and cross-district and state borders following the movement control order (MCO) which has restricted the movement of individuals.

“In addition, there have also been stricter enforcement activities by the authorities and greater public awareness in enhancing protection from the threat of crime,” he said in a statement last night.

Uzir said based on the record of violent crime cases by administrative district, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan recorded the biggest decline in 2020, dropping by 40.6% to 326 cases from 549 cases in 2019.

​This was followed by Johor Bahru (-36.7%) and Melaka Tengah (-26.3%), while in terms of property crime, Seberang Perai Tengah, Penang recorded the biggest decline, dropping by 35.8% to 982 cases in 2020 from 1,529 cases in 2019.

According to Uzir, the number of cyber crime complaints received by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in 2020 increased by 99.5% to 20,805 complaints compared to 10,426 in 2019.

The statistics department yesterday published the Crime Statistics, Malaysia, 2021, which comprised eight selected crime statistics, namely crime index, drugs, corruptions, environment, traffic offences, cyber crime, maritime crime and correctional facility.

​PETALING JAYA: The health ministry reported 37 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, according to its GitHub database.

Of the total, nine were classified as brought-in-dead (BID). The death toll now stands at 30,147.

Most of the fatalities were recorded in Terengganu with seven deaths, followed by Sabah (5), Negeri Sembilan (5), Kelantan (4), Selangor (4), Perak (3), Johor (3), Kedah (2), Pahang (2), Kuala Lumpur (1), and Sarawak (1).

There were no deaths reported in Melaka, Perlis, Penang, Labuan and Putrajaya.

As of midnight, there were 69,261 active cases including 506 in intensive care units (ICU), 270 of whom require respiratory assistance.

There were also 5,082 recoveries reported.

The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia stands at 2,602,853.

​KOTA KINABALU: After the heavy beating it suffered in Melaka months after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the federal government, will Pakatan Harapan face another setback in Sabah, where it has proposed the Sabah Reform Agenda (SRA)?

Very likely, says political analyst Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

​Oh told reporters he agreed with Warisan vice-president Junz Wong’s assertion that PH’s defeat in Melaka was largely due to the coalition’s MoU with the federal government.

He said PH could suffer a similar fate in Sabah if the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) administration accepted its proposal for the SRA.

“The federal MoU confuses many PH supporters over whether it is still a proper opposition or now an unofficial part of the government,” he said. “As such, many would prefer to abstain from voting until the situation is clearer. The state MoU is likely to land PH in a similar predicament in Sabah.”

Wong recently said PH’s abysmal performance in the Melaka polls was proof that the people were unhappy with the opposition’s decision to sign the agreement with the government.

Sabah PH presented the seven-point SRA to chief minister Hajiji Noor on Nov 15. Among other things, it proposed a number of political and administrative reforms, the pursuit of state rights under the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 (MA63) and a post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan.

The coalition said it welcomed Hajiji’s assurance that he would discuss the deal with the parties in the government to obtain a consensus.

Observers have said the essence of the SRA, despite its fine tuning to suit the state’s needs and issues, was the same as the federal MoU, which is to find common ground to work together and thus create political stability.

But PH has denied that the SRA is a version of the agreement signed at federal level.

Warisan has declined to be a party to the cooperation, questioning the need for a pact at state level when there is already one at the federal level.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) lecturer Lee Kuok Tiung agreed that such a deal would erode the support for PH.

“It will only be one of the factors for a loss of support, but definitely not the main one,” he said. “There are many other factors as well, such as the choice of candidates and maybe the manifesto, which will play a more important role.”

Romzi Ationg, also of UMS, said one should not be too certain that the SRA would be detrimental to PH.

“Sabah politics tends to be different from peninsula politics,” he said. “I am not convinced that there will be sentiments similar to those in Melaka although anything is possible in politics.”

He told reporters he also did not believe the MoU had caused PH to lose in Melaka. Instead, he said, the defeat was likely caused by internal problems and the lack of a clear direction.

“PH’s failure in upholding its promises and the growing interest among its leaders to question Malay supremacy during PH’s tenure as the government also significantly contributed to such a result.”

SINGAPORE: The reopening of the land border between Singapore and Malaysia sparked a rush for bus tickets, with thousands of hopeful travelers left waiting online to buy seats.

More than 20,000 people were queuing on the ticket portal of Handal Indah, one of the two operators that will serve the route when it opens on Nov 29.

​Earlier today, the Malaysian bus company’s website had crashed due to the surge in traffic.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Transtar Travel directed users to a “virtual waiting room” and said the ticket-purchase page would open when slots became available. “We are experiencing high user volume,” it said.

As many as 2,880 people a day will be allowed to travel in the initial phase of the reopening of the causeway linking Singapore and Johor Bahru, according to the details of the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) agreement announced yesterday. Each bus has a maximum capacity of 45 passengers.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, some 300,000 people crossed the land border each day, for work on the other side or tourism. Those who have been working in either country will get priority for tickets, the Singapore government said yesterday.

“Many workers from both Singapore and Malaysia have not been able to see their families for many months,” Singapore’s trade and industry minister Gan Kim Yong said in a statement.

“We seek the understanding of workers who may not be able to purchase a bus ticket to travel home immediately due to limited capacity.”

Transtar’s website showed all tickets for the next 30 days sold out in about 20 minutes.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has expressed concern that the majority of its members are now at risk of falling into old-age poverty as Covid-19-related withdrawals have caused insufficient savings for a dignified retirement.

EPF chairman Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir said this would not only be detrimental to individual livelihoods, but would also be challenging for the economy and its fiscal health.

He said 48% of members below the age of 55 had critically low EPF savings. This was a 28% increase in members reaching critically low EPF savings from before the pandemic.

“With Malaysian life expectancy at 75 years, and assuming EPF members start to draw down their retirement savings at age 55, the savings would need to be sustainable for at least 20 years.

“The median savings for EPF members below the age of 55 stands at RM13,000, which translates to RM54 a month for their retirement years,” he said in his speech at the ninth International Social Wellbeing Conference (ISWC) 2021, held both virtually and physically today.

Badri further said that the median savings of EPF members at age 54 was at RM38,000, which translated to RM159 a month for the next 20 years. In order for members to recover the loss of savings from the pandemic-related withdrawals, they would need to work an extra four to six years.

As of Oct 31, 2021, a total of RM101.1 billion was withdrawn under the i-Lestari, i-Sinar, and i-Citra pandemic assistance schemes.

This was equivalent to 22% of the total RM530 billion of the government’s stimulus programmes for Malaysians, he said.

On the issue of adequacy, Badri said social protection was a human right for all which included all forms of work, formal and informal sectors.

​Roughly, only three out of 10 adults in Malaysia are covered by any form of social protection, such as the government pension scheme and EPF coverage.

“We are looking at only 7.5 million out of the 23.5 million working-age population in the country.

“The pandemic has also shifted the employment landscape towards informality. The growth of the self-employed and informal bracket is expected to increase from the current 5.7 million to 8.8 million in 2040,” said Badri.

To address these issues, he said the country would need far-reaching solutions covering an effective safety net programme.

“EPF is truly supportive of the government’s Budget 2022 initiative to extend the i-Saraan programme to include those from age 55 to 60.

“This will make i-Saraan more attractive to those in the informal sector to save for their retirement,” he said.

The Caruman Sukarela Insentif Suri, or i-Suri, which has been integrated with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and renamed “Kasih Suri Keluarga Malaysia”, meanwhile, gives housewives and widows registered under the e-Kasih system access to social security.

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry reported 47 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, according to its GitHub database.

Of the total, 10 were classified as brought-in-dead (BID). The death toll now stands at 30,110.

Most of the fatalities were recorded in Kelantan with 8 deaths, followed by Sabah (7), Melaka (5), Selangor (5), Johor (4), Penang (4), Sarawak (4), Kedah (3), Pahang (3), Terengganu (2), Kuala Lumpur (1), and Perak (1).

As at midnight, there were 68,625 active cases including 532 in intensive care units (ICU), 266 of whom require respiratory assistance.

There were also 4,908 recoveries reported.

The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia now stands at 2,597,080.

PETALING JAYA: Vegetable prices are expected to remain high until after the Chinese New Year holidays.

According to Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association president Wong Keng Fatt, the main cause is the north-east monsoon.

He told reporters the monsoon was causing floods and landslides in Cameron Highlands and other vegetable-growing areas, affecting crop growth and supply.

The prices of cauliflower, beans, chillies and several other vegetables have risen by about 200% over the last two weeks.
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Wong also attributed the shortage and thereby the high prices to a lack of manpower. “The slow recovery of the economy is making it difficult to bring in workers from overseas,” he said.

He said distributors in Cameron Highlands, where much of the country’s vegetables are grown, had notified him of the floods and landslides and the shortage of manpower.

Malaysia imports about two-thirds of its vegetable needs and, according to Cameron Highlands Vegetable Farmers Association president Chai Kok Lim, global restrictions due to Covid-19 have hurt supply.

“These prices are greatly influenced by the laws of supply and demand,” he said. “Vegetables like chilies are expensive because they are seasonal and depend on import factors.”

He said the cost of transportation was also going up, leaving suppliers with no choice but to raise prices.

The issue of rising vegetable prices was brought up recently by the Consumers’ Association of Penang. It urged the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry and the federal agricultural marketing authority to investigate, saying it feared suppliers were violating the Anti-Profiteering Act.

KUALA LUMPUR: The immigration department is ready for the implementation of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with Singapore which is scheduled to begin on Nov 29.

Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the department had made thorough preparations to ensure the programme ran smoothly.

“This includes adequate preparation in terms of manpower as well as systems that have been reactivated following a hiatus of about two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said during a press conference on enforcement operations in Balakong, here, last night.

On Nov 18, Johor menteri besar Hasni Mohammad, said that the VTL via the Causeway and the Second Link would be activated simultaneously with the one between Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Meanwhile, Khairul said the Recalibration Plan for Illegal Immigrants programme which ends on Dec 31, would not be extended.

​“For employers who register their employees in the portal (by the end of December), even though the temporary working visit pass (PLKS) has not been issued (and) is under process (after that), enforcement action will not be imposed on them,” he said, urging employers to make full use of the facility.

Meanwhile, he said 129 illegal immigrants were detained at a factory producing metal tools in Balakong, Seri Kembangan, here, at 8pm last night, on suspicion of not having any valid documents and misusing documents issued by the immigration department.

He said they comprised 110 men and 19 women from Indonesia, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh aged 20 to 49.