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KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli said he has received a letter of demand from Datuk Seri Aminul Islam Abdul Nor, the founder of Bestinet Sdn Bhd, over the foreign worker recruitment system issue.
The letter of demand follows a lawsuit filed by Bestinet against Rafizi currently playing out in court, the former economy minister said in a statement on Thursday. The nature and details of the demand were not disclosed in the statement.
“I have asked my legal team to handle this matter,” he said. “The legal team will take the appropriate action based on their assessment.”
Earlier this week, Rafizi and a number of fellow PKR backbenchers issued a statement to oppose a reported proposal to award Bestinet a new government contract to replace the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), which was also developed by the company.
The lawmakers warned that past findings have shown weaknesses in FWCMS that had operated for years without a formal contract, had serious control weaknesses, and had unsatisfactory management, according to a bipartisan Public Accounts Committee report as well as an Auditor General’s report.
On April 16, Bloomberg reported that the government is planning to roll out the Universal Recruitment Advanced Platform, a new system also known as Turap and said to be developed by Bestinet, to replace FWCMS used to process foreign worker entry into Malaysia.
Bestinet and Aminul Islam filed a defamation suit against a number of media outlets and individuals for defamation earlier this year over another Bloomberg report in January and subsequent reports in other media on Bestinet's operations of FWCMS.
Media outlets named in the suit were Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd, MNow Media Sdn Bhd and Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd.