Protection for workers

Protection for workers

Near the end of 1994, a married Indonesian couple working in
Saudi Arabia was beheaded for killing their employer. The act was
committed by the husband in defense of his wife, who was about to
be abused by the employer. In Indonesia the case was met with
indifference. Apparently, nobody felt any sense of responsibility
for the incident, which took the lives of two persons.

Reactions to the case were very much different from, say,
those we saw in the case of Flor Contemplacion, the Filipina maid
who was hanged in Singapore. There, the incident had wide
repercussions and shocked both the people and the government of
the Philippines.

It is because of such a situation that President Soeharto felt
it prudent to arouse our conscience to the fate of our workers
abroad. In an address to the participants in a national
conference by the Ministry of Manpower on Wednesday, the
President asked all Indonesian embassies abroad to protect
Indonesian workers. Our embassies have also been asked to pay
greater attention to the lot of Indonesian workers and provide
them with assistance whenever necessary.

Perhaps we do not want to follow the Philippine example
entirely. However, their example of caring for the fate of their
workers is worth following. After all, the courage of our workers
in taking up employment in a foreign country has helped us solve
a number of our considerable manpower problems at home. The money
they send home has helped raise the living standards of their
families. By the year 2000 the foreign exchange they'll be
earning will total no less than US$12 billion a year.

Considering all that, it would only be proper to give them
better protection.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta