Urimai chairman P Ramasamy said Ramanan’s proposal underscored his ignorance of labour economics as well as the social and economic realities of the Indian community.

Ramasamy, who has spoken up on labour issues in the past, said those employed at saloons, goldsmiths and restaurants were generally low-skilled workers who were also underpaid.

He said such working conditions produced “cheap and malleable labour”.

“Indians may be unskilled or unemployed, but as Malaysians, they require wages that can sustain a reasonable cost of living,” he said in a Facebook post.

Ramanan was reported by Scoop as saying that he had received many text messages about a shortage of Indian workers at restaurants, barbershops and goldsmiths.

“Now instead of us taking foreign labour, why not explore – we train the unemployed (local) Indians and fit them into these industries? Why are we giving these opportunities to foreign labour when we have the labour here and we can provide them?” he was quoted as saying.

Ramasamy said that for years, working-class Indians had sought to break free from the vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment by aspiring to jobs in high-growth sectors of the economy.

He said many were turning to business and entrepreneurship in the private sector, but that their efforts were repeatedly thwarted by “overt and covert discrimination by the state”.

“Is Ramanan prepared to address the denial of business opportunities to Indians, particularly in the form of licences and permits?

“Why should Indians, as dignified citizens of this country, be locked once again into low-skilled employment sectors?”