From: C580503@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (Albert Foo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Re: NO MORE ILLEGAL WORKERS, PLEASE !!!
Date: 11 Jan 1993 23:20:23 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

On 11 Jan 93 14:18:33 CST <thtee@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu> said:
>        I just recieved a news from my parents. It says  that the illegal
>Indonesian Workers involved in a crime which killed two residents in my home
>town and raped a Malay girl which is just fifteen years old. These kind of
>crimes is not new for us any more, but why, the police or the government
> seems not taking actions that there are suppose to do.
>
        [ chomp chomp ]

>        In addition, just look at what those illegal workers have done to
>our society. They become robber, killer, theif, and involve in all kinds of
>crimes. Why we still want to keep them in our lands ? Just because there are
>Muslim or because they are cheapper worker ?
>
>        PLEASE WAKE UP ALL MALAYSIANS !!! TELL OUR GOVERNMENT WE DO NOT WANT
>THOSE ILLEGAL WORKERS ANY MORE. FOR YOUR OWN ADVANTAGES, OUR SOCIETY, AND OUR
>LAND, PLEASE KICK THEM OUT.
>
>TEE
>BY ANGER.
>

Nobody wants ILLEGAL workers.  The problem lies within Malaysia.  As Malaysia
moves toward industrialization and development, there are abundant of
jobs, which are labor intensive and nobody wants them.  Reason: Low pay!
Nowadays, I hardly seen any Malaysians work in plantations, or construction
sites.  Mostly dominated by foreign laborers from Indonesia and Bangladesh.
How about domestic homes jobs?  The answer: Filipino maids.
I believe the Malaysian government is trying its best (but not good enough)
to get laborers for these jobs, but since no locals want them, cheap
unskilled laborers from neighbouring countries are brought in.  Bringing in
foreign workers involve a lot of red-tape in Malaysia, and therefore
some people try to make a quick "buck" by bringing in illegal workers
by boatloads.  These "scumbags" are the ones who are causing the problems
of large influx of ILLEGAL immigrants/workers to Malaysia.

   I have a relative living in Medan, Sumatra.  He is a blue collar worker
and from what he told me, there are lot of "agents" working for Malaysian
firms are trying to recruit Indonesian workers promising them lucrative
jobs with high salaries.  Some of these agents even told them no paper
work are needed to get a work-permit.  All they are required to do is to
pay a fee (usually a "killer" by Indonesia standard) for a boat passage to
Malaysia.  Malaysia is portrayed as land of opportunity and dream for these
people.  A month pay for a laborer job in Malaysia is equivalent of a half-year
pay in Indonesia for the same job.  Also, success stories of Indonesians who
made it big in Malaysia (Remember the article about the Indonesian who drove
a Proton Saga and has a cellular phone in Malaysia?) reached many hopefuls
that dreams can come true in Malaysia.

    So what happened to those Malaysians who left the jobs in those
plantations and construction sites?  Aha!  The answer maybe lies in those
stories we heard from foreign countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Australia
and U.S. where Malaysians are caught working illegally there!

    From another reliable source (a friend of mine in Taiwan), there are
thousands of Malaysian (mostly chinese) workers in Taiwan and most of them
are illegals working in factories.  Social problems arises when these people
who cannot afford the high cost of living in Taiwan,  resorts to vice
activities such as extortions, larceny and other misdemeanors.  A local
Taiwan paper cried foul and said "SEND BACK THOSE MALAYSIANS!".

    Recent uproar over the Malaysian tourists incident in Boston maybe linked
to those hundreds of illegal Malaysians workers in New York/Boston area (mostly
working in restaurants, I know because my relative owns one!) got the INS
aroused as most tourists (mostly between 30 - 40s) would disappear
after the "tour" (end-up as working in restaurants in Chinatown).  But so far,
I have not heard of any criminal activities involving Malaysian who are here
illegally.

    So, what do you people think?  Who is to blame? or rather what is
to blame here?  People ends up moving out of their country, in search of
better life, only to find more misery and thus create social problems for
another country.  Luckily, this is not always true.  There are success
stories but few and apart.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Albert Foo                            |
Biometric Computer Consultant         | "Red alert, shields up!" - Kira
Fisheries and Wildlife Research Ctr.  |
MO. Dept. of Conservation             | "What shields?" - O'Brien
Email: c580503@mizzou1.bitnet         |