Troubling whims

The latest developments surrounding the deal, titled, 'Government to Government Plus (G to G Plus), signed recently between Bangladesh and Malaysia on recruiting workers from the former, are quite puzzling.
The  developments -- signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers, decisions taken by the Malaysian government on the recruitment of foreign workers immediately after that and the response of relevant Bangladesh authorities to such decisions -- are enough to confuse anyone.
On February 18 last, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam and Malaysian Human Resource Minister Dato' Sri Richard Riot Anak Jaem signed the MoU in Dhaka on behalf  of their respective countries.
The new deal came on the heels of failure of another deal (G to G) struck between the two countries in 2012 after long-drawn negotiations to recruit a sufficient number of workers from Bangladesh. The new deal ensures the involvement of the private recruiting agencies alongside the official ones of the two countries to speed up recruitment.
Under the 2012 MoU, only 10,000 workers could be sent to Malaysia though this Southeast Asian country needed a greater number of workers in sectors such as plantation, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and services. Earlier on February 08, the Bangladesh Council of Ministers approved the MoU in its regular weekly meeting.
The signing of the deal raised great hope among thousands of workers who got them registered with the manpower bureau for jobs in Malaysia. The private sector recruiters, who have been going through a very difficult time due to the squeeze of job opportunities abroad, also saw some ray of hope.
But a rude shock was awaiting them. On February 19, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced the suspension of recruitment of foreign workers, including those from Bangladesh. Malaysia also decided to send back all undocumented workers to their respective countries. Nearly 600,000 Bangladesh workers, including undocumented ones, are now employed in Malaysia.
However, a Malaysian daily, The Star, on February 20, quoting the human resources minister said the decision to freeze recruitment of foreign workers will not affect the validity of the MoU signed with Bangladesh.
The report raised again some hope among all concerned in Bangladesh. But optimism did not last that long. After a gap of a couple of weeks, Malaysian cabinet decided not to recruit foreign workers, including those from Bangladesh.
Manpower recruiters and migrant rights activists in Bangladesh have found the actions on the part of Malaysian authorities, particularly relating to the MoU with Bangladesh, 'whimsical'. But the Malaysian actions, according to many local observers, deserve to be considered in harsher ways.
The question that must be haunting the minds of many in Bangladesh is: Why did Malaysia sign the MoU with Bangladesh in the first place on February 18 when its DPM would announce freezing of recruitment of foreign workers next day? Did the HR minister of Malaysia take a long flight to Dhaka from Kuala Lumpur to make fun of a serious matter like striking a bilateral deal with another country?
What is more troubling is that the Malaysian government until now has not informed its Bangladesh counterpart officially about the fate of the MoU on recruitment of workers.
Media reports said manufacturers, trade unions and rights activists in Malaysia are now opposed to any move to recruit foreign workers in view of sluggish economic activities in their country. They want the government also to deal with the thousands of illegal foreign workers.
It seems that Malaysian authorities did not take the opposition to the recruitment of foreign workers that seriously. But the news that about 1.5 million workers would be recruited from Bangladesh added fuel to the opposition which the Malaysian authorities had found hard to ignore.
This might have forced the Malaysian government to suspend recruitment of foreign workers. But can it overlook the international conventions and practices involving a deal struck with another sovereign country?
Frequent visits by government leaders of the two countries and interactions between them have led the people here to consider the bilateral relations to be excellent. One Malaysian minister paid quite a number of visits to Bangladesh in the recent past offering help to build large infrastructure projects in this country. But the Bangladesh government following proper scrutiny did not find the proposals that attractive.
Dhaka should take up the issue of manpower recruitment under the 'G to G Plus' MoU with its Malaysian counterpart and seek a clarification. Malaysia may be better-off now, but it too had to go through many difficult times economically. It has every right to take any decision on manpower recruitment. But it will not be fair on its part to act whimsically when it comes to bilateral deal/s with other countries.
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