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India-Malaysia ties in perspective

Bilateral relations between India and Malaysia have flourished over the years, with quiet, constructive diplomacy dissolving misunderstandings and allaying misapprehensions on either side. Even when the recent controversy over the treatment of ethnic Indians in Malaysia threatened to sour relations, both governments acted swiftly to calm things down. Malaysia woke up to Indian sensibilities on the issue, and India took care to avoid any chauvinistic overstatement of ethnic affinity with Malaysian citizens of Indian origin. With misinformed reports about Malaysia ‘suspending’ the intake of workers from India making the headlines in a section of the Indian media, bilateral relations were again on test. There are approximately 150,000 Indian citizens working in Malaysia, and reports of Kuala Lumpur slashing the period of renewal for work visas naturally raised concern in India. The Malaysian government did well to spot the potential of these reports to harm relations and Home Minister Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad sought to “clear the air” by denying that there was any move to freeze the intake of Indian workers or to cut down the renewal period of work visas for temple priests from India. Although Malaysia would not admit that work visas for temple priests are being treated differently from those for other categories of workers, Mr. Radzi indicated the government’s preference for Malaysian Hindus in any recruitment of temple priests. But if norms for work visas are being revised uniformly, India can have no real cause for complaint.

A more “orderly” system of issuing work visas, as proposed by the Malaysian government, could actually help workers from India, many of whom are lured on the strength of dubious promises by employment agents in India. Potential employers in Malaysia would now have to obtain a go-ahead certificate from the Ministry of Human Resource before recruiting workers from other countries. Hopefully, this should help prevent Indian workers from becoming victims of exploitative work arrangements. The Indian government was quite judicious in not rushing to react to the alarmist media reports but choosing to wait for the true picture to emerge before giving its response. There is a great future for Malaysia-India bilateral relations. A diplomatic row over a wrongly construed issue is the last thing the two countries need.

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