The Nunukan tragedy

It seems that the old and dated adage of "no news is good news" still has some considerable life in it. This is certainly true for what is currently happening at Nunukan, some 1,700 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, in East Kalimantan, off Tawau. That tiny island -- a mere dot on the map -- has been in the news quite a bit lately since the arrival there of some 22,000 illegal Indonesian workers expelled from Malaysia.

Even under "normal" circumstances, the island's only health center with its staff of 10 -- only three of whom are on full- time duty while the rest are involved in other duties -- is barely equipped to meet the needs of Nunukan's 40,000 inhabitants, let alone those of an additional 22,000 deported migrant workers from East Malaysia who are stranded there at present.

To further strain the island's public facilities, hundreds of hopeful workers continue to arrive at Nunukan each day, either from Surabaya in East Java or from Makassar in South Sulawesi, on their way to East Malaysia looking for jobs, with or without the proper documents. Hundreds of others arrive from Malaysia on their way back to their home villages in Java or the eastern Indonesian islands.

Little wonder food and water shortages and lack of medicine are the order of the day and diseases are rampant. Like so many other remote places in Indonesia, Nunukan appears to have received scant attention from the authorities, both in Jakarta and in East Kalimantan, even in the best of times.

Mow, however, with at least 64 workers and their children reported to have died on the island in the past few days of hunger and disease, it is more than a little disheartening to see that the authorities, especially in Jakarta, appear to be still unable to garner the attention and the empathy needed to properly address the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian workers deported from Malaysia, not to mention the local population whose life is also under strain because of the arrival of tens of thousands of newcomers.

True, in the past several weeks since the exodus of illegal Indonesian workers from Malaysia began, a number of measures have been taken to make their plight generally a little easier to bear. Naval ships have been dispatched to Malaysian ports of departure to help with the repatriation. Camps, meant to serve as transit points, have been set up and assistance in the form of medical supplies and other necessities have been provided in as far as they can be made available under current crisis circumstances.

Most of these measures, however, have been of benefit to those deported workers disembarking at points along the eastern coast of Sumatra. But if an illustration is to be drawn of the suffering which the expulsion of Indonesian workers from Malaysia has brought to a section of the Indonesian population, it is probably here in Nunukan that the most vivid manifestation can be found.

Nunukan has long been the base from which Indonesian workers found their way into East Malaysia, where most of them were employed on the agricultural estates that are the foundation of the region's economy. Most of these workers lack the modern skills and education that are required for employment in the construction or service sectors. Nevertheless, these workers were important foreign exchange earners for the eastern parts of Indonesia.

Given the human tragedy that is currently taking place at Nunukan, the government is well advised to make every effort to lighten -- and to be seen to lighten -- the suffering of the workers stranded at Nunukan. Already, President Megawati's present foreign tour is seen by many as being insensitive to the plight of these workers. Vice President Hamzah Haz has promised to visit Nunukan, but only after having heard the report of the government team that is currently taking stock of the situation on the island. Neither is Minister of Manpower Jacob Nuwa Wea being seen as doing much to alleviate the situation.

At this point in the drama, we can only suggest that, with President Megawati being abroad, Vice President Hamzah Haz waste no time going to Nunukan to send to the people the clear signal that the government cares.