PUTRAJAYA,  Feb 17 — In a two-pronged bid to cut Malaysia’s over-reliance on foreign workers in its plantations sector and to rehabilitate drug users, the government has identified 1,000 former substance abusers to fill a massive labour shortage in 20 oil palm plantations nationwide.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim said today the Oil Palm For Life (OPAL) programme is coordinated by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) together with Mantap (Mahasiswa Turun Parlimen) and the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK).

“This effort is to reduce the dependency on foreign workers and to give these locals a second chance in life to work,” he told a news conference here.

Razali said the first batch of 50 workers will be sent to work at a Felda plantation in Negri Sembilan starting the middle of next month.

“The workers will be bonded for two years and will be monitored carefully by AADK officers as during this time, they would be motivated and given counselling to be independent,” he said.

“There are 10,000 job vacancies in Felda and FGV but we are being realistic with our number of people selected under OPAL as we need to see if this programme is going to be a success,” Rafizi added.

He said OPAL is a pioneer programme, adding that there were more vacancies in other plantations belonging to Sime Darby and Lembaga Tabung Haji.

Asked if the programme clashed with another government plan to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshis to deal with labour shortage in dirty, dangerous and difficult industries, Razali said OPAL only focused on plantations in Felda and FGV and not in placing workers in other sectors.

“There are the services and manufacturing sectors and maybe you need workers there but that you have to ask Datuk Zahid to explain,” he said, referring to Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“In OPAL, it is all about placing those from CCRC in Felda and FGV plantations only as we do not look at other sectors,” he added.

Ahmad Zahid had reportedly said that the bringing of 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers into the country was to cater to the requests of the many industries.

He said the workers will be coming in the country in stages over three to five years.