Not all foreigners in the State playing useful role

Published on: Sunday, May 03, 2009

Not all foreigners in the State playing useful role  I REFER to the letter by Jul "PTIs Do Menial Jobs, So What's The Worry?" in Forum recently.

Maybe the writer is not aware but not all the PTIs in the State are working as labourers, odd job workers, etc. The way I see it, many are mere troublemakers and doing "jobs" that are against the law, i.e., drug pushers, smuggled fags vendors and pirated DVD sellers.

With their numbers increasing, social problems have been cropping up. It is only that the politicians and families who are sympathetic to them are insulated by their chaffeur-driven cars and security-manned compounds.

As for Jul's notion that PTIs are working as labourers in the construction sector and as such should not be viewed negatively, I would like to ask him: What about locals, especially those who have undergone training who want to work in the sector?

Construction companies would rather hire foreigners and PTIs, not so much because they have the skills, but hiring them is much cheaper.

To makes matters worse, there are locals who it seems have a policy of hiring foreigners first rather than their own.

The authorities must conduct more stringent checks at all the entry points in the state as well as the "unofficial" entry points or 'laluan tikus' as some people call it.

With the downturn affecting their countries more of them will be forced to come here to join their relatives and friends and cause a headache to the police, especially, by committing crime.

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