Dhaka-based Financial Express, which quoted the ACC spokesperson, named several other elected representatives involved in the migrant labour recruitment sector being investigated by the authorities.
Prothom Alo, a Bengali-language daily, had also reported extensively on the ACC crackdown and named other elected representatives.
SERIOUS RAMIFICATIONS
The graft crackdown on the so-called syndicates operating in the export of labour – which is part of a sweeping and ambitious campaign initiated by the new interim government led by Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Mohammad Yunus to clean up the bureaucracy and reform institutions, such as the judiciary and police – has serious ramifications for Malaysia, say labour activists and political analysts.
The country is host to more than 400,000 documented Bangladesh workers and several thousands more who enter the country illegally, and they make up for the one of the largest proportions of foreign workers, which collectively account for roughly 30 per cent of the national workforce that is estimated at 17 million people.
Bangladesh journalists covering the corruption crackdown and executives in Dhaka-based recruitment agencies told CNA that the central aim of the crackdown by the ACC is to dismantle a network comprising Bangladesh and Malaysian businesses that has a stranglehold over the recruitment of foreign labour.
A major Malaysian player is Kuala Lumpur-based company Bestinet Sdn Bhd.
“The main objective of the crackdown is to move away from dealing with Bestinet and its network of agencies and others in the syndicate that work outside the law,” Mr Md Rezaul Karim, the managing director of Dhaka-based recruitment agency Hope Human Resources, told CNA in a telephone interview over the weekend.
He added that the crackdown in Bangladesh has led to recruitment agencies and labour brokers involved in the sourcing of workers for the Malaysian market to shutter their offices.
“The ACC move is very effective, and the winds of change are blowing in the Bangladesh labour market,” he said.
WINDS OF CHANGE
The developments in Bangladesh are roiling the waters in Malaysia.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who is leading a separate campaign to reform the country’s controversial foreign worker recruitment sector, has ordered agencies under his ministry to investigate allegations of corruption raised by the Bangladesh authorities and their possible links to Malaysian government officials and companies involved in the recruitment of labour.
Mr Saifuddin and Bestinet did not respond to CNA’s requests for comment.