The president of the Malaysian-Singapore Workers (Pemas) Task Force, Mr Dayalan Sreebalan stated that the government should find a way for the border to be reopened with Singapore due to the rising number of job opportunities available there for Malaysians.
Under Reciprocal Green Lane, 400 Malaysians and Singaporeans are allowed to travel between the two countries every week on official business.
As for Periodic Commuting Arrangement, a total of 2,000 residents from both countries with long-term work permits are permitted to cross the Causeway and Second Link daily.
But the issue is that they have to remain in Singapore for at least 90 days before they are allowed to return home.
He also pointed out that only 5,542 Malaysians had travelled to Singapore under these two initiatives between Aug 17 and Sept 23.
There should have been “thousands of people” using the chance to commute, he said, adding that this reflected a problem in these initiatives.
He also claimed that the PCA application in Singapore was done within 10 minutes while in Malaysia it took up to 10 days.