Call to reopen border to fill Singapore’s job vacancies

JOHOR BARU: The government should look at ways to reopen the border with Singapore in view of the rising number of job opportunities available there for Malaysians, says Malaysian- Singapore Workers (Pemas) Task Force president Dayalan Sreebalan ( pic).

He said he had been getting positive feedback about the increased job vacancies in the republic.

“The Malaysian government should immediately address the teething problems with regard to the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) and Periodic Commuting Arrangement (PCA),” he said.

Under RGL, 400 Malaysians and Singaporeans are allowed to travel between the two countries every week on official business.

As for PCA, a total of 2,000 residents from both countries with long-term work permits are permitted to cross the Causeway and Second Link daily.

But they have to remain in the destination country for at least 90 days before returning home.

Travellers entering Singapore under this scheme are required to self-isolate at their declared place of residence for at least seven days and undertake a Covid-19 test.

When the PCA and RGL initiatives were introduced in August, the quarantine period was two weeks for both countries but since Sept 1, Singapore has revised the Stay-Home Notice to seven days for people travelling from low-risk countries or regions.

Dayalan said one of the main issues that Malaysia should immediately look into was to reduce the 14-day quarantine to seven.

“If Singapore can reduce it since Sept 1, I do not see the reason why our government insists that returnees stay in hotels for up to 14 days,” said Dayalan.

“We should not impose a blanket policy as those coming from prevalent Covid-19 countries,” he said, adding that other issues that must be addressed include allowing Malaysians with permanent resident status in Singapore to apply for PCA and not just limit their options to RGL.

Dayalan said PCA was a good scheme but instead of requiring Malaysians to travel only after 90 days, the period should be shortened to 30 days.

“Each day we get hundreds of calls and at least 60 people turn up for help at our office in Tampoi Indah,” he said.

For comparison, he observed that there had been no infections despite hundreds of lorry drivers sending goods to Singapore daily during the movement control order without being quarantined.

He also pointed out that only 5,542 Malaysians had travelled to Singapore under these two initiatives between Aug 17 and Sept 23.

There should have been “thousands of people” using the chance to commute, he said, adding that this reflected a problem in these initiatives.

He also claimed that the PCA application in Singapore was done within 10 minutes while in Malaysia it took up to 10 days.

Pemas, which had previously gathered about 800 people to submit a memorandum to Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad, would organise a big gathering at the Johor CIQ on Oct 18.

He said Pemas had been getting complaints from people over the travel arrangements.

Dayalan said his association was offering help to Malaysians in a quandary over the travel arrangements.

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