Defend migrant workers

Defend migrant workers

From Pelita

When the Singaporean government banned Muslim students from wearing head scarves, Indonesia's Muslim activists and mass organizations reacted strongly to this matter. They did likewise when Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew accused our country of being a den of terrorists.

Later, when Tamsil Linrung and his friends were arrested by the Philippine government on the grounds of involvement in international terrorism, Muslim activists, mass organizations and political parties focused on his arrest.

Unfortunately, when a number of Indonesian migrant workers were abused by their employers in Singapore, no defense of their cases was heard, as if the issues were commonplace. In my opinion, however, this case has humiliated us as a country.

Republika in its March 20 issue carried a photo on its front page portraying the cruelty of Singaporean Jennicia Chow, who had tortured Kusmirah, 19. Previously, the same daily, in its March 6 issue, reported that a Singaporean woman had bitten off the nipple of a migrant Indonesian woman worker.

Apparently, Muslim activists, mass organizations and political parties as well as those keen on upholding Islamic law, are more interested in dealing with political issues such as Muslim head scarves, the Jakarta Charter, international terrorism and the like.

House of Representatives members like A.M. Fatwa and Soemargono also tend to be concerned with rich people like Tamsil Linrung, and not with the poor such as Indonesian migrant workers who have been mistreated by their employers abroad. Their act is therefore comparable with that of the people's representatives from secular parties like the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar and the Indonesian Awakening Party (PKB), which take care of the affairs of the rich only.

More ridiculously, the Indonesian Muslim Workers Brotherhood (PPMI), led by Eggy Sudjana, is more frequently plays a role in the political arena. PPMI has hardly ever been heard to defend the interests of workers, including Indonesian migrant workers subjected to abuses and torture abroad, such as in Singapore, South Korea, etc.

AMIR WIJAYA

Jakarta