Plantation workers cannot be treated as a profit-making commodity for employers as they have needs to be fulfilled and the right to decent living, a support group said today.

Plantation Workers' Support Committee co-ordinator Kohila Yanasekaran said that if plantation employers could not give decent wages, then the plantation industry should be shut down as it condoned poverty.

"Likewise, if elected representatives cannot address the people's views, then they should just resign and seek employment with a plantation company," she said in a press statement.

Kohila was responding to National Unity and Community Development Ministry parliamentary secretary S Veerasingam's statement in The Sun newspaper today that plantation workers must place more importance on productivity and avert social problems instead of dwelling on wages.

Veerasingam was also quoted as saying that workers should not be exploited by certain non-governmental organisations which only wanted to run down the government by urging the workers to demand for free housing.

The MIC, he said, could instead hold talks to reduce house prices from RM42,000 to RM25,000.

Selling land

Kohila said, however, contrary to Veerasingam's statement "which seems to be consistent with the employers' lingo", statistics have shown that plantation workers' productivity has always been on the rise.

"Today, after MIC has failed miserably in obtaining a decent monthly wage for plantation workers, they are now saying wages is not the issue.

"Veerasingam must bear in mind that it was the MIC which was shouting in its annual general meeting two years ago that workers should be given a decent monthly wage. Then the workers got a safety net of RM325 a month, way below the poverty line," she said.

She added that it was impossible for the workers to pay RM25,000 for a house when their salaries could not make ends meet.

"Our research shows that most estate owners are converting their estates to profit-orientated businesses such as selling estate land to the property market.

"These companies just need to sell, at the most, two bungalow lots and they will be able to subsidise the entire housing woes of that local community," said Kohila.

Economic status

She also pointed out that social problems were influenced by the economic status of a community and easy options were to always blame the victims and look at the symptoms rather than the causes.

"So, if the economic problem is not solved, how can the social problems be eradicated?

"Veerasingam only seems to seek simple short-cuts rather than address the key fundamental issues," said Kohila.

Meanwhile, Keadilan national publicity bureau assistant secretary N Rajen Diran said it was ironic that Veerasingam's statement was a complete reversal from MIC president S Samy Vellu's frequent outbursts against the unsympathetic attitude displayed by plantation employers and the government towards workers' plight.

"Is this a direct backhanded admission that the MIC has failed to resolve the decade-old plantation wage issue?

"If it is so, then even the token representation that the MIC has offered the Indian community is in danger of being eroded!" he said.