Megawati told to meet Mahathir over workers

Megawati told to meet Mahathir over workers

Yogita Tahil Ramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri should speak with Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to address Malaysia's plan to
halve the number of Indonesians working in the country and its
introduction of a "hire Indonesian last" policy, a former
manpower minister said.

Bomer Pasaribu, who is also the director of the Center for
Labor and Development Studies, said on Wednesday that Indonesia
needed to make extra efforts to prevent strained bilateral ties
between Indonesia and Malaysia, a country that had offered many
job opportunities to Indonesian workers.

"President Megawati should address the matter personally with
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad because the livelihoods of
hundreds of thousands of Indonesian workers are at stake ... what
will their families eat, when they come back to Indonesia without
jobs?" Bomer told The Jakarta Post.

"Sending ministers to Malaysia to deal with this messy issue
is not going to bring about change. Mahathir himself has been
addressing this issue openly to the general Malaysian public and
the media ... he is making the policies. This issue needs to be
dealt with at a national level. Megawati needs to address this
matter with him, or risk worsening ties between both nations."

Malaysia has reportedly issued a new policy in regard to
Indonesian migrant workers. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that
Indonesians would be hired only as maids and plantation workers
in Malaysia. The country has also introduced a "hire Indonesian
last" policy under which Indonesian workers will be considered
the last option for other jobs.

Upon his recent return from Malaysia, Indonesian Minister of
Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who was sent there
by Megawati to discuss the migrant worker issue with Mahathir,
assured the general public here that only illegal workers would
be deported by Malaysia.

However, Mohamad Hamdi, the Malaysian Embassy's consul for
immigration and labor affairs here, said that even though the
illegal Indonesian workers would be sent home, the matter of
legal Indonesian workers was "not yet decided."

Bomer admitted that the sensitive migrant worker issue would
be an extremely tough job to try and "smooth over" at this point.

"Megawati is the President ... as the nation's leader she
should at least try to speak with Mahathir," he reiterated.

Malaysia, one of the wealthiest countries in Southeast Asia,
also stated on Tuesday that it would whip illegal immigrants and
their employers to deal with the growing problem of foreign
aliens.

Bomer said that the Indonesian government needed to realize
that the country's severe employment crisis and the migrant
worker issue would eventually lead to the explosion of a social
time bomb.

"It is my estimation that some 42 million out of our potential
workforce of 102 million people will be unemployed. Can you
imagine that," Bomer said.

Official figures, Bomer said, may state that some 900,000
Indonesians were working in Malaysia, but his estimate based on
studies conducted by his Center for Labor and Development Studies
said there were some 1.5 million Indonesians, if not more,
working there.

Bomer added that both Indonesia and Malaysia should address
the mafias in each country that handled the inflow of illegal
workers into Malaysia. Indonesia had to stress that Malaysia had
every right to legally punish Indonesians found guilty of
breaching the laws of Malaysia, he said.

A Malaysian court sentenced four Indonesian migrant workers to
30 months in jail each on Monday, for their involvement in a
violent protest over drug testing in the Nilai industrial estate
in Negeri Sembilan state, on Jan. 17.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea
expressed confidence on Wednesday that the Malaysian government
would not deport all Indonesian workers there, stating that such
a policy would inflict losses on Malaysia.

Malaysia, he said, was in need of affordable workers in large
numbers to man factories and plantations there.

"I agree with Malaysia's plan to send back 5,400 illegal
Indonesian workers. But I appeal to Malaysia not to send back the
hundreds of thousands of others who have done no wrong. It will
cost the Malaysian government dearly, paying to send back all
these people," he told reporters after the meeting with host
country representatives.