Amnesty : Warning! - Xenophobic Rant Ahead

Amnesty? Amnesty my foot! Why are we behaving like some sort of benevolent nation giving amnesty to illegal immigrants and foreigners who overstay? And there is this country that has the gall to ask us to extend the amnesty. Please, take care of your own borders, and don’t let your bad management of socio-economic conditions spill into our country. We are already being kind.

I say we should confiscate all their money (earned illegally mind you and tax free) and deport them and bill their respective countries for the cost of feeding them while in detention, rental of the detention centre per head (with premium for opportunity cost), time cost of our personnel, transport cost, et cetera. Or perhaps if we shoot them, we can charge ammunition cost. We can even have a game show to see who can shoot the most illegal immigrants within a timeframe. And we won't run out of supply for the game show since there are millions of them. It may prove to be the longest running game show in Malaysian history. What about their children? Boys grow up to be men. And girls grow up to be women. Kill them before they can avenge.

And for those who employ the illegals, perhaps they can join in the game show as bonus point targets too. That should be a strong enough deterrent. As for the agents and those who have cooperated in letting the illegal immigrants set foot in our country, we should make them walk on (walk, no running) 100 metres of hot coal and the one that finish the course the fastest should be shot in their kneecaps. The others will continue, till all their kneecaps have been blasted by bullets (there will always be someone that finish the fastest every round :P)

But seriously, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is futile. They will be back. In fact, it is much better for them as they can have a safe passage home to a heroic homecoming. Once they have had their holiday and the economic reality of their home catches up with them, they will leave for Malaysia or some other country again, seeking fortunes they cannot earn at home.

The influx of illegal immigrants is a national security threat. It is a threat because it shows that our national borders are not well-guarded. It shows that we can’t control the dependence on illegal foreign labour. Illegal immigrants are not screened for diseases and criminal records. This is the third amnesty programme. We look like fools. An amnesty is supposed to clear a substantial number of illegals, and it obviously has not reached its objective.

Like it or not, we do need immigrants in our workforce. This county was built on mass migration. And it continues needing foreign labour as development outstrips our human resources. But we forget, uncontrolled migratory inflow brings a host of problems in terms of housing, social control and unity.

The irony is, it is so easy for them to get PRs, fake or real but so hard for Malaysians and spouses of Malaysians with skills to resettle here. Or even foreigners with actual skills, they can’t hope to get a PR here. What sort of policy prevails in our country? We want to be a ‘knowledge based’ economy and reduce dependence on labour, and have higher productivity, yet we cannot attract the right people to do this. Look at Australia, with a population less than ours, yet their GDP is so much higher. And look at their immigration policy. I need not say more.

Immigration needs more control. It needs to be transparent especially in terms of criteria for admission into Malaysia. And let’s be honest, corruption at all levels need to be weeded out. It’s real hard to explain how fake ICs and PRs can be obtained or how easy it is for illegal immigrants to slip through and live in our country. It’s all about integrity and enforcement.

Let’s see what the authorities can achieve come January 2005, as they say they want to crackdown on illegal immigrants. And why January, shouldn’t it be ongoing? And isn’t prevention a lot easier to do, looking at how we have such a gargantuan problem at hand now?