No more mercy for illegal RI workers

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Malaysia has extended its amnesty offer for Indonesia's hundreds of thousands of illegal workers to Dec. 31, but urged its neighbor on Wednesday do more to make sure the undocumented migrants had returned home by the New Year.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak said Kuala Lumpur would enact stiff immigration legislation that would no longer consider Indonesians an exception.

"The Malaysian government agreed to extend the amnesty period until Dec. 31. We hope all Indonesian illegal migrants leave before the law comes into force on Jan. 1, 2005," Razak announced here during a press conference after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the latter's office.

Razak is on a two-day visit to Indonesia to discuss various issues, including the return of the illegals to their respective hometowns.

Malaysia had originally offered the amnesty until Nov. 14 to mark the Idul Fitri holiday and expected around 700,000 Indonesians to take the opportunity leave voluntarily rather than face severe punishment and mass deportation.

Apart from the offer, the illegal migrants would also received pocket money.

But only an estimated 80,000 people have left, according to data from the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Earlier in the day, Razak held talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but there was apparently no discussion about the illegal workers. They talked of cooperation in rebuilding the image of Islam as a religion of peace and efforts to empower moderate Muslims in the two countries.

In the 30-minute meeting, they agreed that further cooperation among the civil society in the two countries was needed to present a peace-loving image of Islam.

"The cooperation will be pursued in the form of diplomatic cooperation, as well as among organizations in the two countries that represent moderate Muslims," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said after the meeting.

Indonesia and Malaysia both have a majority Muslim population and Indonesia's is the largest of any country in the world. Both have generally been known as moderate Muslim nations, but that image has changed somewhat since the ongoing war on terror put Islam in the spotlight.

In the meeting, the two leaders also discussed various issues, including economic and cultural cooperation.