Kenyir Hydro-Electric Dam – Korean Exploitation of Malaysian Workers

In the Government’s Look East campaign, Japanese and South Korean companies have moved into Malaysia in a major way to take over the big construction projects, displacing local contractors and workers of the contracts and job opportunities.

The Government had justified this on the ground that the Japanese and South Korean construction giants could impart needed skills to Malaysian workers and transfer technology.

But the actual experiences of such cases seem to show that there is imparting of very little skills to Malaysians nor transfer of technology.

Recently, representatives of local workers in the $700 million Kenyir hydro-electric dam project in Trengganu, which was awarded to Hyundai Construction Co. Ltd., and which at one time reached to some 1,200 local workers most of whom are Malays, came all the way from Trengganu to see me to ask me to raise in parliament about their bad experiences with the Hyundai Construction Ltd.

Those who came to see were Mat Jusoh bin Mat (secretary), Adzehar bin Cik (Acting Chairman), Musa bin Mat Zin (Treasurer), and Yusuf bin Taib (Committee Member) of the Contruction Worker’s Union, Hulu Trengganu branch. Hyundai Construction Ltd. crushed the union’s efforts to unionise all the local workers and secure recognition.

This is their complain:

1. Bilangan pekerja-pekerja tidak mahir daripada Korea terlalu ramai

Pada 4.12.82 terdapat 760 orang pekerja daripada Korea and kira-kira 990 pekerja tempatan. Pada 1.2.83, pekerja-pekerja Korea meningkat kepada 870 orang.

Kedatangan pekerja-pekerja Korea yang begitu ramai adalah bercanggah dengan dasar kerajaan untuk memberi peluang pekerjaan kepada rakyat tempatan dan amnya pada rakyat Malaysia yang ingin mendapat nikmat dari arus pembangunan di Negara kita. Pekerja-pekerja Korea terdiri daripada pekerja-pekerja biasa seperti Pemandu jentera, Tukang Kayu dan lain-lain. Kerja-kerja ini memangnya mampu dilakukan oleh pekerja-pekerja tempatan.

Pekerja-pekerja tempatan tidak diberi kesempatan untuk mendapatkan teknologi daripada kemahiran pekerja-pekerja Korea tetapi sebaliknya pekerja-pekerja Korea datang ke sini untuk belajar dengan pekerja-pekerja daripada sini dan ini adalah bercanggah dengan dasar kerajaan.

2. Pembuangan pekerja

Pembuangan pekerja dibuat sewenang-wenangnya tanpa diberi sebarang notis terlebih dahulu, misalnya seorang yang bernama Abdullah bin Ismail telah dibuang kerja tanpa notis dengan alasan bahawa pekerja ini telah tua, sedangkan umurnya 44 tahun dan telah bekerja dengan Projek Haidro dua tahun yang lepas. Dua orang yang lain lagi yang dibuang dengan alasan bahawa pekerja ini cacat anggota, sedangkan semasa diambil bekerja dua tahun yang lepas mereka sudah memang begitu. Dua orang itu ialah Abdullah bin Muhammad and Tahir bin Yunus.

3. Perbezaan Gaji

Gaji yang diterima oleh pekerja tempatan jauh lebih rendah daripada yang diterima oleh pekerja Korea walaupun jenis pekerjaan yang dibuat adalah sama.

Alasan yang diberi pekerja-pekerja kita tidak mahir. Misalnya pekerja-pekerja tempatan Cuma mendapat di antara $20.00 hingga $30.00 bagi kerja membawa kenderaan berat tetapi diketahui bahawa pekerja Korea mendapat $50.00 hingga $60.00 bagi kerja ini.

Pekerja tempatan dibayar antara $10-$15 sehari terutama buruh am dan buruh separoh mahir. Memandangkan tempat kerja yang jauh dipendalaman (45km dari Kuala Trengganu) dan tinggal di kongsi-kongsi kerja yang berbeza dengan barrak pekerja-pekerja Korea serta dengan kerja yang membahaya, amatlah tidak wajar dibayar gaji yang begitu murah. Berbeza pula dengan gaji pekerja-pekerja Korea, melalui risek pekerja-pekerja tempatan, tiada seorang pun pekerja Korea dibayar gaji kurang daripada $1,000 sebulan tidak termasuk elaun lain sedangkan mereka ini membuat kerja yang sama. Bahaya kerja di project haidro Kenyir boleh dibayangkan daripada kenyataan bahawa lebih kurang dua-puloh orang pekerja telah mati dalam pekerjaan mereka.

Kenaikan gaji tidak seimbang adalah dengan alasan pekerja tempatan malas dan selalu ponteng kerja. Apabila bantahan dibuat oleh pekerja kepada pihak pengurusan mereka hanya berjanji untuk memberi kenaikan tetapi janji hanya tinggal janji sahaja.

4. Arahan Kerja Bertindih

Seorang pekerja tempatan menerima arahan yang tidak selari daripada dua tiga orang ketua kerja Korea. Kadang kala arahan yang diterima adalah bertindih di antara satu sama lain. Ini memeningkan pekerja tempatan menyebabkan prestasinya menurun.

Setengah-setengah peraturan Cuma dikenakan kepada pekerja tempatan dan tidak kepada pekerja Korea. Misalnya pemandu-pemandu jentera berat tempatan diarahkan supaya mengikut peraturan memandu dengan tepat dan jika mereka ingkar tindakan diambil ke atas mereka. Tetapi pekerja-pekerja Korea bebas untuk tidak mengikuti peraturan ini.

5. Kemudahan Bekerja

Kemudahan yang diberi adalah berbeza. Misalnya ada pekerja-pekerja Korea, makan minum mereka adalah ditanggong oleh pihak majikan tetapi tidak diberi kepada pekerja-pekerja tempatan. Alat penyelamat tidak dibekalkan kepada pekerja-pekerja simen dan ini membahayakan keselamatan mereka.

6. Sikap orang korea tidak menghormati adat susila orang Malaysia

Dalam pergaulan antara pekerja-pekerja tempatan dan pekerja-pekerja Korea, pekerja-pekerja Korea banyak menyentuh soal-soal sensitif yang menyakit hati pekerja-pekerja tempatan. Mereka langsung tidak menghormati adat susila orang Malaysia.

Pekerja-pekerja tempatan selalunya dimarahi dengan kata-kata yang kasar dan biadap walau pun atas kesalahan-kesalahan yang kecil. Pekerja-pekerja Korea tidak pernah memikirkan akan masalah perhubungan puncanya kesilapan menerima arahan-arahan kerja mereka sewenang-wenangnya memaki hamun seolah-olah kesalahan itu sengaja dilakukan oleh pekerja tempatan-tempatan.

Kata-kata sensitive ditujukan kepada pekerja-pekerja tempatan seperti Malaysia tidak bagus. “All Malaysians are bananas” atau maki hamun dalam bahasa Korea. Si-kye maknanya anak anjing atau Si-balama kata lucah dan banyak lagi yang perkerja-pekerja tempatan tidak faham. Mereka berlagak lebih dari penjajah sedangkan mereka ini datang sebagai pekerja bukannya Tuan.

Bukan sekadar maki hamunnya sahaja malahan tingkah lakunya kasar juga, mereka membaling batu apabila memanggil pekerja tempatan; memukul pekerja tempatan dengan topi (helmet) jika membuat sedikit kesilapan.

Pernah pada satu ketika seorang pekerja tempatan yang bekerja dengan Syarikat Perunding – Snowy mountain Engineering, dibelasah oleh sekumpulan pekerja-pekerja Korea yang menimbulkan kemarahan pekerja-pekerja tempatan.

All of these problems of the ‘Look East’ policy had been brought to the attention of the authorities, including the MP for Ulu Trengganu, Alias Ali, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, but they all came to nought. Although Datuk Abdullah promised the worker’s representatives when they came to Kuala Lumpur to raise their grievances in his office on 10th February 1983, that he would visit the Kenyir work-site to see things for himself, he never kept his promise although he was in Kuala brang to open the UMNO Delegates’ meeting of Ulu Trengganu about a month later, which is only 12km from Kenyir dam.

When the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Post, Datuk Leo Moggie, visited the Kenyir dam site in June 1981, the Koreans deliberately created a wrong picture about the Malaysian workers by telling them to go back to their quarters, so that machinery were idle, giving the impression that Malaysians were lazy and Hyundai needed more Korean workers.

The workers tell me that they are very disappointed by the MP for Ulu Trengganu, for although they had repeatedly taken up their problems to him, the MP for Ulu Trengganu behaved as if he was the MP for Hyundai, taking the side of the Korean company.

ASSAULTED

A good case in point was the assault of a Malaysian by a group of Koreans when the Malaysian, working for a consulting firm, refused to approve the Korean work as up to standard. Why wasn’t the group of Koreans who committed the assault charged and prosecuted in court as a lesson to all others? Why did the authorities swing into actions only when the Malaysians workers retaliated by attacking the Koreans?

The workers are also very dissatisfied with the Hyundai;s staff in charge of labour, who I understand is a close relative of the MP for Ulu Trengganu, who should educate the Koreans about Malaysian worker’s right and sensitivities. But on the contrary, he was even more Koreans than the Koreans. Thus, one of the worker’s representatives, who had worked for three years as dump-truck driver (35 ton), told a South Korean personnel sometimes in July that he wanted to go Mecca for pilgrimage. The Korean said this was no problem, and he could be away for two or three months. Near time for departure to Mecca over a month later, he went to see Wan Mohd. Nor, the assistant in Hyundai in charge of labour, to ask for leave. Wan Mohd. Nor said the worker must be regarded as bring retrenched and not as going on leave!

The Hyundai case in Kenyir should make the Government to take a second look at this ‘Look East’ policy, for we must not allow South Koreans and Japanese to come and exploit Malaysian workers, to help them solve their unemployment problem by mass despatch of their workforce to Malaysia, displacing Malaysians of contracts and work.

The Government should reprimand Hyundai for its disregard of the rights and sensitivities of Malaysian workers, for failing to impart skills to local workers by having training programmes and failing to effect transfer of technology

The original cost of the Kenyir dam was $250 million, but it had recently escalated to $684 million, and according to a consultant reengineering source, the cost was likely to go up to $720 million.

Can the Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Posts give Parliament an explanation for such trebling of the construction costs?

In August 1982, 400 Malaysian workers engaged by Hyundai engineering and Construction on the Penang Bridge project downed tools and staged a lighting strike, when three truck drivers were summarily dismissed.

I call on the Government to monitor the work of all Hyundai and all Korean and Japanese firms in Malaysia closely and protect the interests of Malaysian Workers and the nation.

(Speech by Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang in Dewan Rakyat on the estimates for the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Post on November 28, 1983)