The spirit of cooperation

The spirit of cooperation

As the human drama that is affecting hundreds of thousands of
Indonesian migrant workers who are being expelled from Malaysia
continues to unfold, observers here are placing their hopes for a
solution to the problem on a top-level meeting that is slated to
take place on Wednesday in Bali between the two countries' heads
of government.

There, in the peaceful environment of Bali, barring unforeseen
developments, Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri will
meet with Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Among the
several various issues that both may want to broach on this
occasion, no doubt that of the so-called Indonesian illegals will
dominate the discussions.

A high-level meeting between the top leaders of the two
neighboring countries to come to some sort of accord on this
currently burning issue is indeed urgently needed. With the
economy in tatters here after almost six years of crisis and tens
of thousands of internally displaced people from provinces torn
by conflict to feed and shelter, Indonesia now has to find a
place for the estimated half a million illegal workers -- mostly
unskilled laborers -- from Malaysia whom it can hardly afford to
feed.

One could bemoan the fact that the Indonesian authorities --
as usual, one is tempted to say -- failed to adequately
anticipate this newest quandary much earlier, given that the new
Malaysian immigration law, under which the expulsion is being
executed, had been hanging over the illegals' heads for months in
advance. As a consequence, thousands of Indonesian workers who
have been expelled from Malaysia are forced to wait in dire
circumstances at ports, on boats, in trucks and at border posts,
waiting to go back to the towns and villages from whence they
came.

All the government can do at this stage is to appeal to the
Malaysian authorities to allow the workers some respite and delay
implementing the new law so as to give them and Jakarta enough
time to prepare for the necessary measures to be taken. Indeed,
it appears that on the Malaysian side as well, some harmful
effects have resulted from the sudden expulsion of workers, and
more time might be needed.

Reports of labor shortages in the construction and estate
sectors in Malaysia following the mass expulsion of illegal
Indonesian workers, seems to indicate that this might indeed be
true. What seems to be the problem is that plans worked out in
Kuala Lumpur to replace the Indonesian workers with others from
Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region have not exactly worked
out as expected. Seen from this perspective, the Indonesian
appeal for a delay appears reasonable enough. It would benefit
the short-term interests of not only the Indonesian workers but
the Malaysian employers as well.

Be that as it may, both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur must stop
looking at the issue as a problem that concerns their two
countries only. Nowadays, no country in the world can afford to
be isolationist and act in total disregard of the needs and
interests of others. Clearly, Indonesia can ill afford a Malaysia
that is destabilized by economic hardship due to a labor force
that is bloated by an excessive number of migrant workers from
elsewhere. On the other hand neither can Malaysia afford to have
an Indonesia that is destabilized by unemployment and poverty on
its border. On a wider scale, economic problems in one country
could affect the region as a whole.

It is time that both Jakarta and Malaysia sit down, set their
emotions aside and discuss the issue of the illegal workers
rationally with an eye on the interests of both. By so doing,
they would be doing not only themselves, but the whole Southeast
Asian region a service. Surely, a solution can be found that is
of benefit to the interests of both Indonesia and Malaysia. It is
in this spirit that the meeting starting today between President
Megawati and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad should be held.