DAP must clarify its stand on migrant workers’ rights

Murray Hunter


DAP must clarify its stand on migrant workers’ rights

P Ramasamy
Aug 09, 2025






Comment: The plight of foreign guest workers in Malaysia is still dreadful. Some being treated as virtual slaves, with no one taking up their cause in Malaysia. Over the years I have written extensively, with the same issues unresolved. It would appear, the situation remains as such so ‘fat cat’ politicians can financially benefit.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/what-you-think/2019/11/27/malaysias-massive-foreign-worker-dependency-murray-hunter/1813773

https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/malaysia-depends-foreign-workers-asia-sentinel

https://international.astroawani.com/malaysia-news/problem-foreign-workers-its-cause-and-impact-285744

https://indepthnews.net/the-coming-paradigm-shift-in-migrant-labour/

https://mysinchew.sinchew.com.my/news/20230329/mysinchew/4573748

Recently, former DAP secretary-general, current MP, and party advisor Lim Guan Eng made a statement in Parliament. He argued that Malaysia need not pay minimum wages to foreign migrant labour nor provide them with Employees Provident Fund (EPF) benefits.

He even cited Singapore’s exclusion of migrant workers from Central Provident Fund (CPF) as justification for his stance. Such a position might be expected from the leader of a pro-capitalist political party, but coming from the leader of a party long considered social democratic, it is both baffling and deeply troubling.

The DAP is a member of the International Progressive Alliance and is affiliated with the Network of Social Democracy in Asia (SocDem Asia).

To deny migrant workers these basic protections is to contradict the very principles the party claims to uphold.

Malaysia’s Constitution makes no distinction between migrant and local workers in the provision of legislated minimum wages. All workers—foreign or local—are equal before the law.

While Malaysia is not a signatory to certain ILO conventions on wages and benefits, the absence of these legal commitments does not prevent the enforcement of universally accepted labour standards.

Lim’s statement is not just an affront to migrant workers; it undermines the DAP’s claim to be a social democratic party. By rejecting minimum wages and social security benefits for migrant labour, the party appears to side against the most basic democratic demands of a vulnerable section of the workforce.

The DAP leadership must now answer clearly: is the party still committed to social democracy, or has it abandoned those principles entirely? Silence will be taken by the Malaysian public—especially the working class—as proof that the DAP no longer represents the rights of the subaltern sections of society.

If this is indeed the case, the party should openly redefine its political ideology, and its regional and international umbrella bodies must consider whether DAP still deserves to be recognised as part of the global social democratic movement.

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Prof Ramasamy has been correct - yes, I too was surprised by Tokong's assertion that Malaysia need not pay minimum wages to foreign migrant labour nor provide them with Employees Provident Fund (EPF) benefits.