No more mercy for illegal RI workers

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.