Indonesians must accept passport rule

Indonesians must accept passport rule

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

Employers will have more choices in recruiting foreign workers
following the Government's decision to include more countries in
the exercise. This will definitely ease the present tight
situation the Government is in, having to depend on one or two
countries for such labor.

It is not a good policy to be dependent on so few suppliers,
which can lead to problems later on.

Indonesia used to be the main supplier of such workers,
particularly in the construction, plantation and domestic help
sectors.

However, if Jakarta should place new restrictions on the
hiring of these workers, Malaysia could be badly affected.

While Indonesians have been the preferred workers for most
local employers requiring such services, the negative effect is
that there are too many of them in the country with perhaps the
illegal ones outnumbering those who came in with proper
documents.

This has resulted in serious social and security problems as
many of the present serious crimes are believed to have been
committed by the Indonesians.

Another concern is that some of them have brought their ethnic
problems into the country and there have been several gang fights
based along such tribal lines.

This is the kind of trouble the government and police do not
need and the only way of resolving this issue is to reduce the
number of Indonesian workers here.

The Human Resources Ministry is even having difficulty in
signing a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia because
Jakarta does not want the passports of its citizens working here
to be held by their employers.

This impasse is going to undermine the smooth recruitment
exercise and this will be detrimental to the Indonesian side.

Malaysian employers will face a temporary delay in getting the
foreign workers but once deals have been struck with other
governments, things will smoothen out eventually.

It is not unreasonable that the government would like
Indonesian workers, especially the domestic help, to deposit
their passports with their employers as such maids have the
reputation of running away after a while.

Sometimes they even abscond without their passports, quite
often taking their employers' cash and valuables along with them.

They would immediately become illegal immigrants and it is a
real headache to pick them up later for deportation.

This is a situation the government cannot allow to continue.

Malaysia welcomes foreign workers so long as they come in
through the front door as legitimate employees.

By picking on small issues, Indonesia is jeopardizing the
employment opportunities of its own citizens and if it should
keep on dragging its feet over this matter, it will give other
nationals a chance to take their places.