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.