Crisis managed

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