KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — Deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today challenged Malaysian youths to get involved in various fields like agriculture and manual labour if they were against the intake of foreign workers in the country.

He said the youths should take up his challenge in order to reduce our dependency on foreign workers.

“I challenge the youths, take up whatever jobs filled with foreign workers. We take over from them and push them out,” he said during his speech at the Selangor Youth Council’s (MBS) meeting in Shah Alam today.

A transcript of his speech was made available to Malay Mail Online.

Zahid was addressing concerns on Putrajaya’s planned intake of 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers.

He went on to ask the youths present if they wanted foreign workers out of the country and would be willing to replace them to work in “palm oil estates” and construction sites.

“I ask the youths now, whether you all agree to work under the hot sun at construction sites to build houses?,” Zahid asked, to which the youths present shouted “agreed!”.

But the Bagan Datoh MP explained that the reason why they had to bring in foreign workers was because Malaysian youths were unwilling to take on certain jobs.

“Everything you all agree to but the reality is to boost the economy we need workforce. There are areas that need skilled workers and there are areas with low-skilled workers.

“I want to challenge the young people to work in these fields. I want to see if it happens,” Zahid added.

“The ones who want to hire foreigners are the employers not the government,” Zahid added.