Indonesian Lawmaker: "Use Public Anger At Malaysia To Seek Better Treatment Of Workers"

Indonesia should use the public anger over the alleged assault of a karate referee to remind Malaysian officials and employers to improve their treatment of millions of the country's migrant workers in Malaysia, politicians and observers have said.

Member of the House of Representatives' Commission I on security and international affairs Djoko Susilo urged the government to continue monitoring the progress of the assault case and more importantly abuse cases against Indonesian maids.

"It is important that Malaysia has said sorry. But we should move beyond that by monitoring if Malaysia is keeping its promise to process the perpetrators, while taking concrete action to protect Indonesian citizens there," Djoko, who represents the National Mandate Party, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

After a week of tension, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi offered a formal apology to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by phone Thursday for the alleged assault of an Indonesian karate referee by plainclothes police.

The row started last Friday when karate referee Donald Luther Colopita was in Malaysia to referee at the Asian Karate Championships in Negeri Sembilan state.
Donald claims that four plainclothes police officers jumped out of a van and attacked him while he was on his way to restaurant. He was beaten, handcuffed and taken to a local police station.

The incident sparked protests in Indonesian cities, with some parties urging the government to take strong action against Malaysia.

International law expert at the University of Indonesia Hikmahanto Juwana said that wide public anger should warn Malaysia of the need to take seriously the assault case and Indonesian migrant worker abuse cases. "It is an accumulative anger towards Malaysia's ignoring on the problems, including the string of cases where our maids have been abused. If it continues then we will see wider dissatisfaction and anger," he said.

Migrant Care founder Wahyu Susilo said that the incident should prompt the Indonesian government to give more protection to its citizens abroad, especially its migrant workers, while making sure that the Malaysian government speeds up the trials of all employers who are accused of abusing Indonesian maids.

"Indonesia should demand Malaysia propose eliminating an article that rules that it is the Malaysian employers that keep the maids' passports in their bilateral (memorandum of understanding). Migrant workers must keep their own passports so that they can be protected from abuse and arbitrary arrest by police," he said.

Numerous Indonesian migrant workers have died in Malaysia, allegedly at the hands of abusive employers. This year along, 46 Indonesians have died in Malaysia without a clear explanation of the cause of their deaths from police.

Of the approximately 1.5 million Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, more than 300,000 are employed as maids.

While Malaysian officials have claimed the mistreatment of domestic helpers is not widespread, some 1,500 Indonesian maids run away from their employers every month, often because of abuse or dissatisfaction with long working hours, their lack of freedom or unpaid salaries.

Indonesia has complained that the legal process for the abuse cases has been unfair and slow. (The Jakarta Post)

***** On previous occasions when the enforcement authorities trampled on the dignity of foreigners, our government got away with it by sending envoys to China and India to 'clarify' and apologize on the quiet. But this time around the Indonesians have probably decided that enough is enough and it's about time to wake up the sleepy heads in the peninsula. Thus the protests and calls for monitoring the way we handle this and other cases involving their citizens.

Such a situation would not have been allowed to happen if Dr Mahathir were still in power. He would have acted decisively and heads would have rolled by now. Sometimes I miss his leadership.
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