Labor row expected to dominate Malaysia-Indonesia meeting

Labor row expected to dominate Malaysia-Indonesia meeting

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

A controversial crackdown on the hiring of Indonesian workers in
Malaysia is expected to dominate a meeting of ministers from the
two countries here on Tuesday.

Senior officials who gathered on Monday to prepare for the
meeting were tight-lipped over the controversy, which was sparked
by two riots by Indonesian workers in Malaysia in January.

An Indonesian official said they were "still negotiating" over
the agenda for the ministerial meeting of the Malaysia-Indonesia
Joint Commission, with 12 to 14 issues expected to be proposed.

Malaysia's foreign ministry secretary-general Ahmad Fuzi
Razak, who is co-chairing the senior officials' talks, said
Monday's preparatory meeting would discuss "many issues"
including labor, but did not elaborate.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda was scheduled to
arrive here late Monday for a three-day visit to attend the talks
with his Malaysian counterpart Syed Hamid Albar.

Malaysia was angered by a riot by 400 Indonesian textile
workers at their factory over police drug tests on co-workers on
Jan. 17. Three days later, more than 70 Indonesian construction
workers armed with machetes went on a rampage in a suburb south
of Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia initially announced a temporary ban on the hiring of
new Indonesian workers and said it would halve the number already
in the country.

But the government later said Indonesians would be hired only
as maids and plantation workers and it would look to Thailand,
Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and India to fill
positions in other sectors.

Indonesians make up 566,983 out of a total of 769,566 legal
foreign workers in Malaysia.

Syed Hamid was quoted by Monday's The Star as saying that he
would use the meeting to clear the air over Malaysia's new labor
policy.

"We do not intend to trouble anyone and it was merely a
strategic move but at the same time, we value the good relations
we have had with Indonesia all this while," he said.

Wirayuda has said Jakarta would ask Kuala Lumpur to reconsider
its plan to cut the number of Indonesian workers in Malaysia.
The meeting would also discuss other issues including border
problems, trade and security, he added.

This would be the seventh joint-commission meeting between the
neighbors, with the last one held in Indonesia in 1997, officials
said.