Crisis managed

The progress of the migrant-worker issue proves once again that in crisis there lies opportunity. Following the recent rampages of Indonesian workers, corrective action and forthright policy decisions followed upon each other with commendable celerity. Troublemakers were sent home; Indonesians were denoted workers of last choice; nationals of other foreign countries were invited to take up the slack. The sudden shock to those parts of our system that had come to depend on Indonesian labour was quickly softened by the relaxation of the new strictures on household staff -- a good move in ensuring that not all Indonesian nationals are tarred with the same brush.

Concurrently, Royal Professor Ungku Aziz's suggestion that our rural poor be tapped for manpower needs dovetails nicely with the growing willingness of employers to avail themselves of local labour through government agencies such as the Manpower Department. It is a matter of matching needs, with a greater determination to bring manpower resources back in line with overall objectives of national socio-economic development.

Where a month ago we had hundreds of thousands of foreign workers at the outer limits of control, now we have a new approach to manpower resource management, a renewed focus on poverty alleviation, and the basis for greater regional co- operation on migrant workers. Finding solutions that not only cure the problem but prevent it -- this is truly making the best of a bad situation.

-- New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur