ALWAYS VERIFY MESSAGES
Offers that appear too good to be true are often not so
in Kuching for the mission.
As an obviously elated Fatimah recounted, following the arrival in Kuching of the entire group by chartered aircraft last Sunday, the success of her mission owed much to the fact that they adhered to a reminder from Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Abang Openg — to be respectful of Cambodian laws and processes at all times.
“We did it through the proper channels and the good news finally came last Friday — the detainees would be released after being detained in the prison (in Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province) for more than two months,” Fatimah related to local media back in Kuching.
There were, to be sure, some loose ends to tie up before the group could board the aircraft to fly home. The fact that a high-level official delegation was on hand to sort through all the expected and unforeseen wrinkles obviously helped. Thus, with some well-deserved justification, the overseeing minister could in the end boast: “This is a government that puts Sarawak first.”
It could not have escaped anyone’s notice that the relative ease with which the group’s release came about would likely not have happened without its plight having caught the attention of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who sent one of his ministers as the leading interlocutor with the visiting delegation.
The novelty of this unusual drama was such that, hopefully, it will have an edifying effect for all concerned. Foremost must be the imperative to verify anything one receives online in today’s digital era, especially if a message on one’s mobile phone offers anything that appears too good to be true.
The publicity surrounding this particular episode should be a timely reminder to all concerned that human trafficking is not something we all read about that happens only to others. Several police reports have been made over the matter and it is to be hoped that if there are local culprits found to be behind it, the full force of the law will be brought to bear on them.
Some commentators took issue with the fact that a group of local folk see the need to seek their fortune abroad and fault the government for not providing adequate employment opportunities. This argument is largely false, though.
Employment opportunities go abegging in Sarawak such that the state has developed an unhealthy reliance on foreign workers in many economic activities. As elsewhere, there has been a long tradition of Sarawakians seeking greener pastures elsewhere. They are free to do so and this must remain.
What must be discouraged, perhaps, is the tendency for locals to be enticed by marginally better wages or perks to move outside the state for employment in factory floors or menial tasks in restaurants and coffee shops, crimping local businesses’ growth prospects owing to the difficulty in recruiting local manpower.
It has often been suggested that the ready availability of cheap foreign labour tends to depress overall wage levels. If true, this obviously has an overall negative effect as locals spurn the low wages offered and attempts for the nation to move out of the middle-income trap are stymied. This Gordian knot needs to be loosened, if not entirely cut.
The publicity surrounding this particular episode should be a timely reminder to all concerned that human trafficking is not something we all read about that happens only to others.
The writer views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak