Migrant Workers

Migrant Workers

From Media Indonesia

I am concerned about the violence experienced by our migrant
workers, legal or otherwise, in Malaysia recently. It is time
that the Indonesian government find solutions to problems related
to migrant workers. One possible solution is to turn Sumatra into
a center for agribusiness, just like the Malaysian peninsula.

Known in ancient literature as Svarnadwipa, much of the
potential of Sumatra is still untapped. If Java can be the home
to 60 percent of the country's population, Sumatra, which is
larger in size, could be home to a great number of resettled
people and offer ample land for these people to work on. It is
now time for Sumatra to be intensively managed by setting up, for
example, a sort of Sumatra development commission. The commission
would be responsible for large-scale land opening on the island
and also for the management of industries to be established
there.

Take Malaysia as an example. It is the world's largest rubber
producer. In fact, we could also establish thousands of hectares
of rubber estates in Sumatra. Later on, we could secure a greater
market share in the rubber industry and pocket greater amounts of
foreign exchange from such advances. We could also establish
extensive oil palm estates on the island.

Another thing to do would be to open up secondary and tertiary
timber estates in Sumatra. In this way, natural forests on the
island could be well taken care of, while at the same time we
could set up pulp mills to produce paper of better quality than
that of recycled paper. Such paper could be sold at a lower price
as well.

After the opening up of land on a large scale, Sumatra could
be turned into a storehouse of rice and other crops.

The island also has a lot of attractive tourist resorts, like
in West and North Sumatra. So business investments would be
profitable here, such as the establishment of special golf courts
for executives like those in Penang, Malaysia's prime tourist
resort.

In the long run, many domestic and foreign tourists would come
to these tourist resorts.

Many things can still be done to improve Sumatra. In human
resources development, for example, the government should provide
workers decent living accommodations. Carpets could be used
instead of expensive beds. To economize on living expenses,
public kitchens could be set up to provide meals to workers.

To finance these schemes, the government could set aside, for
example, a third of the US$3 billion in aid from the
International Monetary Fund.

Now is the time for the government to prove that it really
intends to establish good governance and make a clean break from
all practices of corruption and collusion. Now is the time for
the government to prove that it really means to help people in
need of jobs. The government could introduce a sort of work
contract system.

I believe the government is capable of organizing and managing
the above. Unless steps are taken now, human resource problems
will drag on and get worse.

ENDANG R. SETYAWATI

Jakarta