Dayaks working abroad

The issue of Dayaks working in Peninsular Malaysia has become a hot issue during the winding-up speech by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud on Wednesday afternoon the last day of the sitting of the Dewan Undangan Negeri.

Let us read what transpired during the debate between the Chief Minister and the leader of the Opposition Wong Ho Leng, who is also the Member for Bukit Assek. (The following are the unedited version):

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud:

We have to concentrate on manpower development to ensure that all Sarawakian can be properly trained so that they can get good jobs which spare a few thousand dollars a month. The benefits of SCORE will be distributed to the rakyat according to the degree skills they have. The degree of their willingness to work, the degree of their mobility, their ability to adept, their ability to cooperate and their willingness to learn on the job and be really focused when they undertake any job and not deviated by some other agendas.

No Fear of Creating Too Many Jobs

Tuan Speaker, some Honourable Members of the House fear that the government is creating too many jobs. We should not be afraid of creating too many jobs. Our concern should be to make sure that these option jobs, so that when we grow, we do not victimize those who cannot cope with the change.

We have to bring them together so that they can undertake better skills. And when we do develop even in some elements of cross subsidy in the way we pay our labour will take place like developed countries. But, the proportion of people without skills cannot be too big otherwise the economy will sink with the subsidy. The more jobs that we can create in Sarawak the greater is the chance that ordinary Sarawakians especially those in the rural areas can earn a decent wage and live a good life that modern society can offer today.

Sarawakians Working Abroad

In an open economy like ours, it is inevitable that these are to happen. Sarawakians working abroad in search of better life not only for jobs, it’s a natural privilege of people living in an open economy. Many have been trained overseas and they have seen another way of living which they may initially find refreshing and wish to try.

I know that there are also many Sarawakians working abroad who longed to be at home but could not because their focus is now establishing financial independence. These are personal choices that people are free to make. I do not know where some people try to say that 100,000 Dayaks have migrated to Peninsular Malaysia and that we are being accused of exporting good jobs and importing people with low pay. I don’t think this is a, I don’t know how the figure comes up. But if the Dayaks are today consist of 700,000 people; it’s not easy to get 1:7 the population working somewhere else without draining your labour supply.

Moreover, this is not the export of people, export of people doing higher jobs. There are people who want to try to work in Peninsular Malaysia. Averagely their skills are lower and they do not run away because they got better qualification. It is for them, of course, to decide where they want to work. Some Dayaks have been very well. Okay. I hope it’s relevant.

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Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: Tuan Speaker, thank you very much and thank you, Yang Amat Berhormat. The issue of 100,000 Dayaks working in Peninsular Malaysia.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): It’s not 100,000 where do you get your fact in the first place?

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: I am just trying to elaborate.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): No, no. Get your fact correct first.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: I am just trying to elaborate, give me... (Interruption)

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): That maybe 1/7 of the Dayak population going out. And if you add on the family become 250,000. I don’t think that Dayaks have migrated that much. I think you have missed calculated your figure... (Interruption)

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: Do I have a chance to speak or not?

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): Okay, do you admit that you are miscalculated the figure?

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: No, I don’t. That is the reason I’m telling you.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): Okay.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: The basis of my figure.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): You had miscalculated your figure. You admit it now.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: In Johor 40,000... (Interruption)

Tuan Speaker: No, no. There is no more clarification, it’s an argument. No.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): I give you a chance. I tell you your figure is wrong.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: (Inaudible).

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): You said 100,000 in your speech. Yes, what is your authority? What is the authority for the Honourable Member for saying that? It is look ridicules

Tuan Speaker. It is look ridicules if 100,000 workers are going to Semenanjung then the total of Iban going out there will be 250,000. 250,000 out of 700,000, that is a serious thing that cannot go unnoticed.

Tuan Speaker: You put forward what you want to clarify. You don’t use that to argue and create an altercation otherwise I am not allow. Proceed Yang Amat Berhormat Ketua Menteri.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): I sit down. I hope what you are going to say it is sensible.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: (Inaudible)

Tuan Speaker: No, under 33(b) I disallow... (Interruption)

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): If you explain the basis of what you have said of 100,000 I’m willing to listen. If not, you must admit it is wrong.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: Tuan Speaker, my question is very simple. Let say Yang Amat Berhormat doesn’t agree with the figure, there is a large number I am sure a large number of Dayaks working in Johor, in Klang Valley. Now my question is, let me tell the question. What strategies, I am talking about the strategy now. What strategies Yang Amat Berhormat implement to make sure these Dayaks or non-Dayaks, those anak-anak Sarawak come back to Sarawak to work instead of getting brain drain from Sarawak.

Tuan Speaker: Okay, alright.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: It’s a very simple question.

Tuan Speaker: No altercation.

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: Ya.

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud): Okay, Tuan Speaker, now the Honourable Member has not clarified himself no tells the basis of his 100,000. For that, if you are honest enough please admit you are wrong. (Applause)

Y.B. Encik Wong Ho Leng: (Inaudible)

Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Perancangan Sumber dan Alam Sekitar (Y.A.B. Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Bin Mahmud): Make that and proof it next time, next session and I bet you cannot do because it ridicules 100,000 in a family of five will involve a migration of 250,000. Nobody has gone out, out of Sarawak for 250,000 to migrate. That is pure imagination on the Honourable Member’s part, correct. Don’t make accelerated statement as you can see I am going to reply. You indirectly to show we have created more jobs that are in higher paying rank than exporting them out. You listen, you listen.

It is worthwhile for me Tuan Speaker, to emphasis at this juncture that this government in our development strategy has been constantly transforming the Sarawak economy. As a result, even the last 20 years have seen significant economic structural change as the evidence from the data for employment by industry. You check that data and use it as your basis for any criticism in the future.

Don’t come in manufacture and its figure that is not justifiable. The share professional and technical workers rouse from 5.2% of the total employment in 1980 to 13.3% in spite of increase in population in 2010. This means that the number of professional and technical workers employed in Sarawak rouse from 23,800 people in the year 1980 to 165,000 people in the year 2010.

The structural change in the economy implies a significant change in the skill set as well as mindset required for the transformation to take place. The labor market is fluid especially in the current globalize world with the internet, advance communication and low budget air travel.

The mobility of the Sarawakian around the world is a good sign that Sarawakian are capable of quick adaptation in the modern world. Because of this demand called the modern life, it is inevitable that we must quickly transform the Sarawak economy and society further through SCORE so that we can modernize Sarawak even more and build up the core of skill and professional worker taking the advantage the potential plan under SCORE.