RI workers say Malaysia no longer land of opportunity

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post/Makassar

Malaysia, which had long been a land of hope and promise for Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) seeking better lives, has now closed its doors.

Ants are drawn to sugar, and Malaysia was sugar for Indonesians laboring to make a living and improve their families' welfare, even if it meant going abroad.

Malaysia was a country that promised an adequate income to unskilled laborers, and each time a migrant worker returned home, they would take their relatives or friends back to Malaysia with them.

The number of TKI in the neighboring country thus continued to increase, and in many cases, Indonesian workers entered Malaysia without proper immigration documents -- in other cases, their recruitment agencies neglected to provide them with identification and immigration papers.

Many illegal migrant workers were able to live and work in Malaysia in relative peace because local authorities had rarely questioned their presence, and because many employers preferred to hire TKI for their lower wages and the advantage of not having to pay related labor taxes.

However, this is no longer the case, and some TKI have been forced to move from place to place or job to job as Malaysian authorities launched nationwide raids to net illegal workers, following the 2002 enforcement of tough immigration laws.

Murah, 44, and Tima, 42, a couple from Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, were among the thousands of migrant workers who repatriated under the amnesty scheme provided by the Malaysian government, which will end on Nov. 14.

Murah and Tima had left their hometown for Malaysia hoping for decent life, and worked there for two years. Murah worked as a gardener and his wife worked as a domestic help in Keke, Sabah, East Malaysia. The couple said their wages were higher than they expected: Murah made RM 15 a day (US$4).

Murah saved his wages and sent money back home to his children once a month.

"I sent about Rp 1 million every month," said Murah, who arrived recently in Parepare seaport, South Sulawesi, along with hundreds of other TKI from the same province.

Their early days in Malaysia were pleasant, they said, but after their passports expired about five months ago, everything changed. Life in Malaysia became frightening, as Murah was often pursued by the police and had to hide.

"We were afraid because if we were caught, we could be imprisoned or even caned," he said.

Another migrant worker also from Buton Island, Andi, 29, had a similar experience. Before he migrated to Malaysia, he worked as a gardener in Buton, but his pay was extremely low. He traveled to the neighboring country seeking better pay and found work at an oil palm plantation and sometimes worked as a construction worker, making anywhere from Rp 2 million to Rp 3 million a month.

Andi also repatriated under the amnesty program to escape harsh punishment. He wants to return to Malaysia, but realizes he would need proper documents this time.

The government offers services to process appropriate documents for aspiring migrant workers, but the majority of them do not understand the procedures involved, nor the legal basis for documentation. The registration posts set up by the manpower ministry and social welfare ministry have thus been unable to reach out to migrant workers.

On the other hand, many workers are unwilling to resort to the documentation services offered by the government, because they assumed they would have to pay for the facility. Some even think that if they registered at the posts, they would not be allowed to return to Malaysia.

As of now, only three hundred people have registered at the government-sponsored TKI documentation posts.