Indonesia apologizes for rioting workers in Malaysia

Indonesia apologizes for rioting workers in Malaysia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

On behalf of the government, Minister of Manpower and
Transmigration Jacob Nua Wea made an apology to the Malaysian
government for the violent riot in which some 400 Indonesian
workers in a textile factory ran amok in a town outside of Kuala
Lumpur last Thursday, sparked by the arrest of 16 Indonesians on
alleged drug charges.

"The government regrets the incident and we hope the Malaysian
government will retract its recent penalty imposed on Indonesian
workers employed in that country because the two countries's
people are brothers," he told The Jakarta Post by telephone here
on Monday.

Some 400 Indonesian textile workers staged a violent rampage
in protest of the arrests, directing their anger at Malaysian
police. The workers employed by Hualon Corporation SDN Bhd, a
textile industry in Negeri Sembilan state, overturned several
vehicles, ransacked facilities at their dormitory and jeered
security personnel deployed to handle the angry mob.

The incident was the fourth of its kind in the last three
years. Previously, in December, hundreds of Indonesian workers
burned down a detention camp in Johor as their way of protesting
deportation.

Another 70 Indonesian construction workers armed with machetes
went on rampage and damaged food stalls run by fellow Indonesians
at a Malaysian township late Sunday, police said Monday.

No injuries were reported in the incident at Cyberjaya, south
of the capital, but five food stalls were destroyed, central
Selangor state acting police chief Fauzi Saari was quoted by AFP
as saying.

The workers and stall operators were from the Indonesian
province of Aceh, he said, adding that police had yet to make any
arrests.

He said the rampage was triggered by a quarrel between an
Indonesian and a Bangladeshi at one of the stalls.

Police were now monitoring places where there were large
numbers of Indonesian workers, he added.

Following the (Thursday's) incident, Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad has called on Malaysian employers to put
Indonesia on the bottom of their lists when recruiting foreign
workers. He said his government would give priority to workers
from countries other than Indonesia.

The Malaysian police have arrested at least 28 workers who
were involved in the most recent incident and they are now being
investigated by police.

Jacob insisted that the Indonesian government could not
interfere in Malaysian law to provide protection for workers
arrested because of their involvement in the rampage.

"Malaysia has its own law, our government cannot interfere
with the Malaysian authorities' investigation into all the
suspects in the incident. But, we do not want the incident to
create negative impacts for other Indonesian workers employed in
that country and to afflict the two countries' good relations,"
he said.

Some 700,000 Indonesian workers are employed in plantation,
construction, industrial and informal sectors and a part of those
working in the informal sector are employed as domestic helpers.
Besides, hundreds of thousands of others who have migrated
illegally through the Malacca Strait or the border between
Kalimantan and East Malaysia, live in that country without any
necessary documents, such as a passport or a working visa.

Currently some 5,400 Indonesian workers are being detained in
a number of immigration detention centers in Malaysia for having
entered illegally. They are scheduled to be deported to Indonesia
by the end of February, 2002, at the cost of the Malaysian
government. Malaysian authorities have, in recent years, deported
tens of thousands of Indonesian job seekers for similar
violations.

Indonesian people prefer to work in Malaysia since, in
addition to the scarcity of work here and higher wages there,
they have felt that Malaysia is like their "second home" because
of the similar race (Malaysia is roughly 60 percent ethnic
Malay), language and religion. Many who have stayed for more than
10 years in that country have created their own groups such as
Kampong Jawa and Kampong Madura in Kuala Lumpur and Johar Baru.
During the New Order era, they also participated in Malaysian
elections to support Mahathir's regime.

Jacob said further he would leave for Malaysia immediately to
meet with his Malaysian counterpart and other officials to
discuss the incident and the planned deportation of the illegal
migrants to Indonesia.

He also called on authorities at home to join forces to
prevent Indonesian people from migrating to Malaysia illegally
because such an illegal migration would bring suffering to the
people.

"Local authorities in regions where job seekers come from and
immigration officers should be selective in giving documents,
while police and the Navy should net unauthorized brokers who
have smuggled the job seekers in an attempt to minimize the
risk," he said.

Separately, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda concurred and
said the trouble should not be extended to other Indonesians
employed in that country.

"We hope the handling of the riot will be limited only to
those involved in the incident who must accept any possible
penalties imposed against them," he said after accompanying UN
Human Rights Commission Chairman Leandro Despouy to meet with
President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace on Monday.

He also hoped the incident would not negatively affect the two
countries' ties.