Law to require foreigners to speak 'Bahasa'

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The requirement for foreigners to take a Bahasa Indonesia proficiency test, a move aimed at improving communications with locals, will be stipulated in the investment law, says a minister.

"I want foreigners who are going to work in Indonesia to be able to speak Bahasa Indonesia, so they will be able to communicate with the other employees," Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said before a hearing with House of Representatives's Commission VII on labor and social affairs here on Tuesday.

He added said he had proposed that a clause be inserted in the investment bill that would immediately be submitted to the House for further deliberation and endorsement.

"However, we expect the bill will be endorsed and take effect before the new ministerial cabinet (is formed in 2004)," he said.

Earlier, the director of the language center at the Ministry of National Education, Dendy Sugono, said that the test would function like the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) on grammar, reading comprehension, vocabulary and listening.

If one fails to pass the test, a course on Bahasa Indonesia would be provided by the government to improve his or her language proficiency.

"Want to work in Taiwan? Indonesian workers should be able to speak Mandarin. Want to work in America and you will have to be able to speak English. In the same vein, why don't we require foreigners working here to have a mastery of Bahasa Indonesia?" said Nuwa Wea.

"I will make it harder for foreigners to enter Indonesia for work. We have a lot of unemployed workers so why should we employ foreigners? Employ our own people first," said the minister.

"Only in certain positions, such as on technology fields, employing foreigners would be acceptable. Other than that, I do not agree with it at all".

He believes such a policy would not violate the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement on the free flow of workers in the region.

"If we are talking about AFTA, see Malaysia. The regulation does not apply there. Many Indonesians are still working there illegally. If the AFTA agreement is really being implemented, why are there still illegal workers?" he said.

According to data at the manpower ministry, the number of foreigners working in Indonesia has reached around 30,000 and most are employed in the industrial zones in Batam, Jakarta, East Java, Kalimantan and Papua.

In addition, there is also Presidential Decree No. 100/1997 which allows local and foreign companies in Indonesia to recruit expatriates for managerial positions and for positions that cannot be filled by locals for one reason or another.

In fact, foreigners also contribute to a country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In Singapore, some 41 percent of their GDP growth in the 1990s came from foreigners. Without overseas talent, as quoted from The Straits Times, Singapore could not have reached an average quarterly growth of 7.8 percent in the 1990s.