Letter: A third of MCO offenders are foreigners

LETTER | Of the 364 movement control order (MCO) violators nabbed at roadblocks in Selangor, a third (114) are foreigners as of March 30, 2020.

What does this tell us?

Foreigners are not compliant to the laws of our nation.

But the counter-argument could be that one should not be prejudiced or victimise foreigners because two-thirds of offenders are Malaysians themselves.

Now suppose a Malaysian was to be living and working in a foreign land, what are the chances of him or her violating laws in the host country?

In every likelihood, Malaysians would dare not run the risk of being hauled up the law overseas.

We need to think long term.

As we continue to rely on foreigners and harbour large numbers of undocumented and illegal migrant workers, someday in the future, in the face of difficult situations like the current health concern or even some national security threat, how on earth are we going to control the foreigners here who seem to show an inclination of not observing local laws?

What if in the face of this current MCO where employers will be unable to pay their foreign workers, these migrant workers revolt out of desperation?

Or maybe the third of MCO violaters are not migrant workers but tourists. And if that be the case, why are visitors so blatantly not following our laws in force?

We need to debate and resolve this long-suspected problem now. 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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