KOTA KINABALU, Jan 28 — Sabah is relying too much on foreign workers to perform local jobs and may soon lose out in terms of employment opportunities due to rusty work skills, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun warned today.

He expressed concern that the local labour market will see more Filipinos and Indonesians muscling in on work that could be carried out by Malaysians.

“In villages, it used to be that if we wanted to build a home, we would call a gotong-royong, or get a local carpenter. These things, the first thing that comes to mind is to get a Filipino in. I am in no way looking down on them but my worry is that we have lost the skills that our forefathers have harnessed.

“The farms in Kundasang are beginning to hire more and more Indonesians, too. Again, I have nothing against them but every foreigner we hire is one local who could’ve had that job. We have become too dependent on them,” said Masidi who was speaking at the launch of KupiKupiFM, a new radio station focused on Sabah.

Masidi said that Sabah was putting itself in a position to be economically displaced and needed to correct the dependency.

“What happens if they go back? The industry will collapse. This is a wake-up call that we need to have a mental overhaul. To those who are complaining about joblessness, I say that there are always jobs, but you have to be willing to work hard and not be choosy,” he said.

The Ranau-born minister said he was a manual labourer and farmer and was not embarrassed to do the work.

“We have to revive the hard working spirit and do not be too selective. I am brave enough to say it because I have done it myself. Don’t just wait for the perfect job. That comes after a while of working hard at something,” he said.

On that note, he said he hoped the new radio station would be able to spread the positive message of unity and motivate local communities to work hard and improve their livelihoods.

Rising living-costs nationwide have highlighted the lack of high-income jobs and unemployment among local graduates with federal International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan even going as far as to suggest that Malaysians take up two jobs.

As of mid-2015, there were 435,100 unemployed individuals in Malaysia, of which a quarter comprised undergraduates. Sabah has the highest unemployment rate with 77,100 people, followed by Selangor (71,200 people), Johor (52,200 people), Sarawak (43,700) and Perak (32,800 people).