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Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 1992 10:20:44 -0500
From:         ZABDULLA@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU
Subject:      MY: Foreign Labor in Malaysia

Date: 07 Oct 1992 17:59:45 -0600 (MDT)
From: "(Cengkerik)" <tintan@NYX.CS.DU.EDU>
Subject: pekerja asing di malaysia

This article is taken from Far Eastern Economic Review (6 august 1992).
Worrisome influx: Foreign workers raise social, security fears
by: Michael Vatikiotis in Kuala Lumpur

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Five years ago Ali was an angry Muslim firebrand at a university in Bandung,
west Java. Today, in Kuala Lumpur, he totes a mobile phone and drives
a Proton Saga - the Malaysian-made car that is the ubiquitous symbol
of the country's burgeoning middle class. Ali has made the transition
from being an Indonesian to becoming a Malaysian.

Hundreds of thousands of fellow-Indonesians who have crossed over to
Malaysia in the past few years have done the same. Many have acquired
malaysian identity cards. Hiding behind an ethnic identity all but
distinguishible from their Malay cousins, they blend with the locals
perfectly and are soon lost as statistical aliens. "I shall never go
back," Ali says. "Here I have everything I could ever want and could
never get over there."

Indonesians account for the overwhelming majority of foreign workers,
both legal and illegal, who have swarmed into Malaysia over the past
decade. But only now Kuala Lumpur is waking up to the enormity of this
influx and attempting to stem the tide. A registration drive launched
early this year netted just 320,000 before the 30 June deadline. After
the deadline passed, more than 2,000 Indonesians were rounded up. The
government estimates another 100.000 failed to register and could be
deported. Indonesia, meanwhile, is preparing to receive as many as 250,000
deportees.

Malaysian deputy Home Minister Datuk Megat Junid says he is confident
all illegal workers will be flushed out within six months. But an immigration
official admits they may only have scratched the surface. "We can't
possibly solve the whole problem, but we can at least begin to attack the
problem," he said.

Drawn to Malaysia's booming economy and offered wages as much as 10 times
higher than the Indonesian average, what was a steady stream of immigrant
workers has now become a flood. A shortage of labour in Malaysia's
plantation, construction and service sectors offered little incentive to
impose rigorous controls on the influx. But with the number of Indonesian
workers estimated at over 1 million - perhaps as many as Malaysia's
Indian community - concern about their possible social impact is outweighing
economic considerations.

These immigrants workers are increasingly resented by Malaysians. They are
blamed for escalating crime, for displacing local traders, and even buying
up land. Often, the Indonesians are prepared to work harder and for less than
                                 less
than locals. "The problem is that Malay traders are being pushed out, as
the Indonesians move away from manual labour into petty trade," said a
local labour agent.

The Malaysian military, too, is believed to be concerned about the security
implications of such a large Indonesian population. "It is a question of
sovereignty," said Sen. Mohamed Nasri Abdul Aziz, a member of the ruling
United Malays national Organization. "We cannot simply become an extension
of another country, by allowing people to walk in." He believes the
government has acted only to regularise the situation. "We need the workers
and do not want to send them away."

The sudeen shift from a labour free-for-all to a more stringently controlled
situation is causing a degree of disruption to the economy. An Indonesian
who represents immigrant workers confirmed that thousands of construction
workers in Kuala Lumpur have fled for the comparative safety of rural areas.
The government claims 50,000 have voluntarily returned to Indonesia since
the operation began.

Observers say that the government's real motive for the crackdown is to
reduce the flow of Indonesian immigrants. But because of the acute labour
shortage, other sources of labour will continue to be tapped, and more
sectors of the economy will be allowed to employ them.

Because of Malaysia's sensitive racial and religious balance, only Muslims are
are likely to be offered legal status. "The criteria is they have to be Muslims,
though officially this is not said," a local labor agent said. With as many
as 20,000 Bangladeshis already working in Malaysia, Muslim alternatives
to the Indonesians are already on tap. EbHven so, the efficacy of Malaysia's
attempts to control illegal immigration, especially from Indonesia, remains
to be seen. On Indonesia's Batam island just south of Singapore, many
potential migrants are either oblivious to or uncorncerned about the tougher
controls on immigration. Like Ali, they look to Malaysia as they dream of
leapfrogging the limited opportunities for socio-economic betterment
available in their homeland.


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