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.