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.