The Nunukan tragedy

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.