Local cooks only policy: Call for thorough, comprehensive study

KUCHING: A thorough and comprehensive study is called for to look into the possible effects of implementing the ‘local cooks only’ policy next year.

This suggestion came from Sarawak Business Federation secretary-general Jonathan Chai, who observed that many restaurants and food premises were constantly facing shortage of cooks.

“I think the Ministry of Human Resources should conduct a thorough and comprehensive study on the possible effects of the policy before its implementation next year.

“As it is, many restaurants and food outlets have already encountered shortage of cooks and the problem is expected to exacerbate if only locals could be employed as cooks,” he said yesterday when prompted for comments on the recent announcement of the policy.

On Friday, Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran said all food operators in the country would be given up to the end of this year to ensure only local cooks work in their restaurants.

After Chai offered his comments, Kula Segaran was, however, quoted by a national English daily as saying the call for restaurants to recruit only local cooks ‘was just a suggestion’.

He added that his ministry would be ‘reasonable’ in getting food operators to recruit local cooks.

It is believed that the minister made such clarification following many food owners associations having expressed shock over the announcement.

Chai, who is Kuching Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCGCCI) secretary-general, said he was not certain whether similar policy, which had been implemented in Penang, also covered restaurants.

He said it would be acceptable to require licensed hawkers in food courts or markets to hire only local cooks to maintain the authenticity of local cuisine so as to preserve the local heritage.

However, he said it would be impractical to expect restaurants to follow suit given the prevailing issue of the shortage of labour.

He added it would not be easy to get locals to fill the vacancies when the labour shortage problem is already there.

“Personally, I don’t see any problem in getting foreigners to be cooks in restaurants especially certain menus that require their specialty.

“For example, Chinese cooks for Chinese restaurants, Indian cooks for Indian restaurants or even Thai cooks for Thai restaurants.”

Chai said it might warrant immediate intervention of the ministry if there were many unemployed cooks since the suggested policy served to protect the interests of the locals.

“Besides, unless the government could come up with some vocational programmes to train enough local cooks of different varieties before the suggested implementation date, I would suggest that the proposed policy is deferred.

“This is because many restaurants nationwide would encounter hardship as longer grace period would be needed to train up locals to fill the vacancies,” he added.

On Friday, Kula Segaran was quoted as saying that the proposed policy would be able to reduce dependence of local restaurants on foreign labour and ensure the quality of the local food.

He added that his ministry would follow in the Penang government’s footsteps to ban foreigners as cooks in food premises, restaurants and stalls in the island.

Penang government reportedly implemented the ‘no foreign cooks’ policy in 2014 as a move to protect national food heritage.