Nasution, TKI specialist

Nasution, TKI specialist

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

There is one piece of parental advice that M. Arif Nasution
always keeps in mind: "Education should be the best guiding light
in your life."

Nasution absolutely believes in this advice and therefore he
puts it into full practice.

Thanks to this conviction he has devoted his life to education
and he has reaped the rewards. He will soon become a professor at
the School of Social and Political Sciences at the North Sumatra
University (USU).

Nasution has always been especially interested in migrant
workers' affairs. He has conducted various research, particularly
those related to Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia.

He has published books on this subject, such as Mereka yang Ke
Seberang (They Cross the Seas, 1996), Meniti Ombang Menggapai
Impian (Riding on the Wave Reaching Dreams, 1997), Globalisasi
dan Mobilitas Tenaga Kerja antar Negara (Globalization and
Interstate Mobility of Workers, 1999), and Labor Movement in
Southeast Asia (2000),

Born on July 3, 1962, Nasution has long traced the problems
Indonesian migrant workers face in Malaysia. Between 1991 and
1997, he conducted research on this subject in Malaysia.

To find out information about illegal Indonesian workers in
Malaysia, Nasution visited numerous places in both Indonesia and
Malaysia, visiting establishments where the workers were staying.

In his opinion, the presence of illegal Indonesian migrant
workers does not need to be viewed only from the perspective of
a geographical movement but also from economic, cultural and
historical perspectives.

Professor Samad Hadi of the Malaysia National University (UKM)
was the first person to offer Nasution the chance to conduct
research on Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia.

At first he did not feel up to this job. However, thanks to
the recommendation and encouragement from Graine Hugo, his
advisor while he was studying at Flinder University in Australia,
he took up the offer.

In 1989, Nasution, a 1986 graduate of the School of Social and
Political Sciences of North Sumatra University, earned his
master's degree from Flinder University under the sponsorship of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

He then received a scholarship from the Malaysian government
to pursue a doctorate degree at UKM. In 1998, Nasution, the son
of (the late) Kamaluddin Nasution and Kalidjah Lubis, earned his
degree from UKM with a dissertation titled The flow of Indonesian
workers to Malaysia, a case of Indonesian workers in the
fostering sector in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He received the scholarship because he was considered
successful in his research on Indonesian migrant workers in
Malaysia.

"Malaysian scholars have failed several times to make a study
on this subject from Indonesia's perspective so they asked me to
do it," said Nasution, a father of three.

To carry out the project, he received a grant of US$10,000
from the Malaysian government for his doctorate studies.

His first assignment from UKM was to study the presence of
Indonesians in Chaw Kit, a trade area in Kuala Lumpur previously
controlled by the ethnic Chinese. The ethnic Chinese later left
the area following the presence of Indonesians.

"At first, the Malaysian government did not seem to believe
that Indonesians could economically take the place of the ethnic
Chinese, something that indigenous Malaysians had tried before
but failed to do.

"Malaysia had tried to find out why Indonesian workers there
had so much strength in unity. They failed to get a satisfactory
answer so they asked me to study this matter under the control of
UKM," said Nasution, a lecturer in the post-graduate program of
USU.

Nasution will be installed on Sept. 7 as a professor at the
School of Social and Political Sciences of USU.

His research found that Indonesian workers in Chaw Kit were
strongly bonded to one another because of their families and the
mutual help they developed in the form of arisan (solidarity). An
example of this, Nasution said, was if a newly arrived migrant
worker, in Malaysia for only a day or two, is suddenly arrested,
then other Indonesian migrant workers, out of solidarity, will
provide bail for his release.

"Every ethnic group in Indonesia, such as the Buton, Minang
and Madurese, are united although they live in their own groups.
They are very great in number," he said.

After doing research for a year, Nasution accepted an offer
from the Malaysian government to teach at the geographical
department of UKM. He began his career at UKM and was appointed
research assistant.

Nasution, who is married to T. Kemala Intan, is the first
scholar to have studied Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia.

He is especially happy and proud to learn that the result of
his research, published in his 600-page dissertation, was made a
guideline by the Malaysian government for the study of the flow
of Indonesian migrant workers, legal or otherwise.

That is why, he said, Malaysian police could easily arrest
illegal Indonesian migrant workers, because his dissertation
graphically showed their exit and entry points into the country.

In his dissertation, Nasution also explains that the push and
pull theory, which some people hold true, is, in fact, wrong.
The common theory states that Indonesian workers go to Malaysia
more out of a common cultural factor, economic attraction or
geographical proximity.

But Nasution has his own answer. The flow of migration from
Indonesia is caused by economic pressure, a consequence of
disparity in domestic development. This condition, which forces
some people to leave the country, continues to be utilized to
pursue the economic interests of some companies and labor
recruiters disguised as Indonesian labor recruitment companies
(PJTKI).

"So it is not a matter of Malaysia being more economically
attractive. Logically, they should have chosen Singapore, which
is more advanced than Malaysia," said Nasution, who believes that
it is better for the government to dissolve these labor
recruitment companies.

Nasution has frequently been criticized by Indonesian
representatives in Malaysia. In 1994, he spoke at a seminar in
Malaya, where he described the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia as
"performing poorly" in handling workers.

"The Indonesian Embassy did not consider me an Indonesian
citizen because I exposed the rottenness of my own nation
abroad," said Nasution.

He said he simply ignored the criticism because he had all the
data to support his allegations.