KUALA LUMPUR: The government has approved 100,000 applications from new foreign workers since last October, following appeals from several manufacturing companies.

The applications were approved for the electronics, plastics, furniture and gloves industries, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said today.

Nevertheless, he said, the government remained committed in gradually reducing the number of foreign workers in the country.

PETALING JAYA: The meeting between Malaysian and Indonesian officials to resolve the domestic maid recruitment stalemate, originally postponed from December to later this month, has again been postponed to next month.

KUALA LUMPUR: Local security guards will get a pay hike soon. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said at his ministry’s "Meet The Clients Day" in Damansara Heights this morning that the new salary structure for security officers is expected to be announced in two months.

“We hope this salary revision will attract more locals to become security guards,” he said.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resource Ministry is already dealing with the intake of migrant workers into Malaysia.

Its Minister, Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, said at present, the ministry was doing so through a "multi-ministerial" joint committee.

He was responding to a call by Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez yesterday that the Human Resource Ministry handle the intake of foreign workers to avoid exploitation.

“DATUK V. Govindaraj and Datuk S. Subramaniam are pathological liars”.

That is MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu's reaction to our front-page report yesterday that former MIC strongman Datuk V. Govindaraj rigged the party’s 1977 polls to favour Samy Vellu.

FORMER Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo has laughed off a police report lodged against him for labelling cows as stupid animals.

He said all Malaysians, whether in rural or urban areas, regardless of race know the Malay proverb! “as stupid as a cow” well.

Dr Khir was asked to comment on a police report by MIC Youth Social and Charity Bureau chief S. Subramaniam for allegedly labelling cows as “stupid” animals.

DATUK V. Govindaraj has been in the Malaysian Indian Congress since he was a young lad, running chores for its leaders since the party's founding in 1946.

He has often said that he introduced Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to politics in 1960, when the latter became a member of the Batu Caves branch.

Govindaraj was elected to the MIC's Central Working Committee (CWC) in 1978 and the very next year was elected the Port Klang Member of Parliament. In 1981, he was made chairman of Selangor MIC and was elected party vice-president.

HUMAN Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam will be part of the ministry's Meet-the-Customer session
in Penang on Sunday.

It will be held at the Festival and Expo Site, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Sungai Nibong, from 9am to 2pm.

"Members of the public having problems related to the departments or agencies under the Human Resources Ministry should come and meet me," he said.