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Malaysia takes an Indian tiger by the
tail
By Arun Bhattacharjee
KUALA LUMPUR - What could have ended as a simple
raid against illegal immigrants by the police in Kuala
Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, at Brickfields, which has
a high ethnic Indian population, has turned into a
diplomatic nightmare for the Malaysian government, and
especially for acting premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Badawi is the hand-picked successor of Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohammad, who steps down in October.
Mahathir has ruled Malaysia for over two decades, and
among other things, he has forged close economic and
cultural ties with India. Thus, the latest diplomatic
spat has put Badawi on the spot as he is in charge of
both police and immigration.
Six days after the
March 9 punitive raid on Indian IT professionals, Badawi
called the incident "serious" and asked the Inspector
General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, to "investigate
personally" as "we have excellent relations with India".
But by that time the first batch of 32 Indian IT
professionals had already left Malaysia.
One-hundred-and-fifty others whose work permits and
visas were defaced by the police were told by the
Immigration Department that they would have to pay for
new work permits, each costing about US$35, which they
refused to do.
Many people are wondering over
the timing of the incident, which took place shortly
after Mahathir went on leave for two months following
the Non-Aligned Conference, first to add credibility to
his announcement to retire and second to "give Pak La
[Badawi] a free hand".
The affected IT
professionals belong to the world's fifth largest
software house, Infosys of India, and whose owner, T N
Narayanmurthi, is an adviser to Malaysia's Multimedia
Super Corridor (MSC) and helped Malaysia in creating it.
Apart from the embarrassment over the incident
of which the police version now appears questionable,
the economic fallout for Malaysia is likely to be
considerable. For one, Malaysian Airlines (MAS),
expecting to be in the black this year, has applied to
increase the number of its flights to India - from three
times a week to daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai, in
addition to retaining its daily flights to Chennai. MAS
has also applied for four flights each to Bangalore and
Hyderabad, and finally to Cochin, and two flights to
Kolkata, where it does not presently fly. India has
already prepared her lash list that includes a travel
advisory to Indian tourists to avoid Malaysia and a
freeze on the application by MAS for extra flights. New
Delhi will also reconsider the issue of Indian IT
professionals working in Malaysia, and stop further
progress on a road construction contract in India, worth
$150 million, the first phase of which was awarded to
Malaysia.
Last year, Samy Vellu, Minister of
Works in Mahathir's cabinet, visited India three times
to clinch road construction contracts to build two major
toll highways in India, one connecting Delhi to Jaipur
in the tourist belt of Rajasthan and the other for a
north-south super highway. The total contract value
would be over $15 billion.
The other soft area
of Malaysia's economy is palm oil. During the past three
years of economic downturn, India's gesture to purchase
palm oil from Malaysia boosted its economy as palm oil
still accounts for 20 percent of Malaysia's economy;
another 20 percent comes from tourism. Following a slump
in tourist arrivals from Western countries in the post
September 11 period, tourists from India have been
filling Malaysia's hotels. The Legend Hotel in Kuala
Lumpur, for example, says that almost 80 percent of its
occupancy is due to tourists from India.
That is
not all. Malaysia has emerged as an ideal country for
the shooting of a large percentage of India's 1,500
films made annually in Hindi by Bollywood, or in the
Tamil language, at reasonable cost. K Swamy, an event
manager who helps to organize "shoots" in Malaysia,
says, "This is mega business as a four-day shooting will
mean about 100,000 Malaysian ringgit [US$26,000] per
day." Last year, Genting Highland, Malaysia's Las Vegas,
earned 10 million ringgit from the Bombay Film Award
ceremony held there.
The Malaysian government
was surprised by the strong stand taken by the Indian
High Commissioner, Veena Sikri, who said, "We will have
to warn our citizens if we do not get any explanation,
apology and assurance that it will not happen again."
Apparently, neither the Indian Foreign Office in Delhi,
nor its High Commission in Malaysia, is going to be
mollified by anything short of an apology.
"There is something not connected in Malaysia's
immigration policy," says a Southeast Asian diplomat.
"First it was Bangladesh, then Indonesia, followed by
the Philippines, and now it is the turn of India. Next
will be Nepal, from where nearly 200,000 workers are
being imported. Only this time Malaysian police were not
dealing with illiterate maids," he comments.
True, Malaysia has a major problem with illegal
immigrants. With the bulk of the ethnic Malay population
refusing to do simple jobs, Malaysia needs workers as
shop assistants, barbers and maids, for land clearing
and the construction industry. It is the immigrant
workers who fuel the Malaysian economy. IT professionals
or "knowledge" workers are on the high end of the totem
pole and are generally regarded with respect as they do
something that Malaysians cannot.
That is why
the recent raid on the Indian IT professionals is being
seriously probed. The incident received a new twist as
the police, who rounded up four people holding Pakistan
passports along with the Indian professionals, treated
them differently and provided them refreshments and
released them immediately. This did not go down well
with India, which sees a Pakistani intelligence agent
under every bed.
An immigration official who did
not want to be quoted by name says,"We have about 30,000
Chinese illegal immigrants, 10,000 Bangladeshis, and
even after operations against them, 20,000 Indonesians,
5,000 Filipinos and around 10,000 Indians. The problem
is that they have genuine passports as well as visas
issued in Malaysia by the immigration department
illegally. You need to spend around 10,000 Malaysian
ringgit to get a visa, for which there will be no
records in the office file. Unfortunately, this time,
the police made a mess and went beyond their duty by
defacing the visas. It is not their job," he adds.
Malaysian immigration officials and the police
have few friends in either diplomatic or United Nations
circles. Many complain about inordinate delays in the
bureaucracy in issuing genuine visas. One UN official
pointed out that the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization left Malaysia
because of this, and another UN organization is trying
to relocate to Bangkok from Malaysia. All said, Malaysia
has major infiltration problems with porous land borders
and an almost open coastline, made unmanageable because
of compliant officials.
Relations between
Malaysia and India are most likely to return to normal
if Kuala Lumpur tries seriously to smoothen India's
strong feelings over the onslaught on its elite soldiers
who carry the country's IT flag not only in Malaysia but
around the world. For in the long run, Malaysia probably
has more to lose than India if the spat continues.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
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