Army to supervise Indonesian labor export

Army to supervise Indonesian labor export

JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces says it will deploy personnel
to bring order to the labor export industry because illegal
Indonesian workers in Malaysia have sparked immigration disputes
between the two countries.

Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. A. Wahab Mokodongan said
yesterday that in response to President Soeharto's recent call
for better discipline in the industry, officials of the Agency
for the Coordination of Support for the Development of National
Stability would oversee all stages of labor exporting.

He said the decision was made at a recent meeting of the
agency.

"Many Indonesian workers enter Malaysia through illegal
channels and work in the neighboring country without proper
documents," Wahab said.

"They have got our country into a dispute with Malaysia," he
said.

Mokodongan's announcement came on the heels of reports about
illegal Indonesian workers being deported from Malaysia.

Indonesian navy vessel KRI Tanjung Oisina arrived in
Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port Tuesday carrying 1,605 illegal
workers from Johor Baru, Malaysia.

A total of 792 workers from Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and East
Nusa Tenggara disembarked at the port. From Surabaya, they were
sent to their respective hometowns by bus, train or ship.

The ship, under the command of Navy Lieutenant Col. Suryono,
continued on to Lombok and West Nusa Tenggara to return the last
of the workers.

Suryono said Oisina would return to Jakarta when it had
dropped off the last of its passengers.

Antara reported that one of the workers died of a heart attack
about four hours after the vessel set sail from Malaysia.

Unscrupulous

Last week, Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief told President
Soeharto that he had discovered, in a recent trip to Malaysia,
that Indonesian workers were being illegally and unscrupulously
sent to Malaysia.

Malaysia, with 21 million people, is a lucrative job market
because its Gross National Product is not less than US$3,500.

Latief said labor brokers lured young people to work in
Malaysia with promises of big salaries.

He said 1.4 million of the 2.5 million foreign workers in the
country came from Indonesia. In addition, there are about one
million illegal, mostly unskilled, workers.

A 1996 labor report said that there were about 11,000
problematic Indonesian "workers" in Malaysia, while the Malaysian
government says the number is closer to 600,000.

President Soeharto has ordered the Armed Forces to back up the
provincial authorities crackdown on unscrupulous labor
racketeers.

The President also instructed Latief to accelerate the
repatriation of illegal workers detained at Malaysian immigration
centers.

Tuesday's repatriation was the third operation of its kind.
The first batch of 1,020 illegal workers were sent home before
the May 29 general election.

Another 1,529 workers were sent home shortly afterward.

Wahab again called for tighter supervision of the screening
processes before granting exit permits to job seekers.

Wahab said the agency's role would be primarily to enforce
discipline and regulations.

The government had earlier attempted to solicit the agency's
help in collecting television fees.

This sparked debate about the "wide-range" nature of the
agency, which replaced the much-feared Kopkamtib in September
1988.

The agency, for instance, helped the General Elections
Committee screen prospective legislative candidates from the
three political parties -- Golkar, the United Development Party
and the Indonesian Democratic Party.

The agency's provincial chapters and municipal branches
launched an operation against criminals and transportation touts
during Idul Fitri Moslem holiday and the Chinese new year.

It is also involved in operations to put a stop to the student
brawls which have been rampant in Jakarta for a decade. (imn)