The Misery of The Indonesian Labour Force (TKI) in Malaysia
(The effect of Indonesia economics development strategy toward the opportunity of employment)

By : Moch. Faried Cahyono

The lives of those in the TKI is indeed a miserable lot in Malaysia. There are about two million TKIs in Malaysia and a lot of them get a very low income and bad facilities. It began with the failure of the Indonesian government to provide jobs, while they have to face the authoritarian government of Malaysia that follows a system of low payment labor.

Where there is sugar there are ants. Numerous indigenous people of Indonesia get jobs in Malaysia. The Malaysian economic growth since the 1980s that reached the peak in 1987-1997 needed millions of labourers that the domestic workers were unable to fulfill.

Therefore, the government invited foreign labour to be employed in the sectors of plantation, industry, construction, and services. The economic growth also increased the number of Malaysian women to join the work force in Malaysia. Simultaneously, the number of housemaids employed from Indonesia went up.

“The similarity in language, culture, and religion are the main reasons to choose TKI in fulfilling the need of foreign labors in Malaysia,” said Dato Abdul Raman Palil, a member of Komite Dewan Kota Negara Bagian Selangor.

The Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) in Kuala Lumpur annually reports that the number of incoming number of TKIs keeps increasing and reached a peak at the time of Indonesia’s economic crises. Not only TKI from the lower class, but professional and highly-educated ones also moved to Malaysia. Many big industries in Malaysia, including the Petronas Oil Corporation and the hi-tech private corporations absorbed many professional TKIs. Even the Malaysian Airways Service (MAS) needed Indonesia pilots and stewardess.

Bambang Hartoko, a pilot captain who works at MAS, said that working in Malaysia was good because his salary is high and the working environment supportive. The scholarship facility for his children and the guaranteed Malaysian security convinced him to move his family to Malaysia. Moreover, he still carried the trauma of what happened during the riots of May 1998 in Jakarta. “My children were unable to go home for a day and night. This trauma compelled me to move my family,” he said.

Today there are more than 40 Indonesian pilots working in Malaysia. He added that working in MAS was free from political interference.

When he worked at the Garuda Indonesia Airways (GIA), he was forced to join a political party, GOLKAR, and it frustrated him. He became disappointed again when he moved to Sempati Airways, Suharto’s family corporation. He witnessed the bankruptcy of the company through corruption and mismanagement. He accepted the offer from MAS in 1997, at the time Sempati began to embezzle catering and oil from Pertamina.

The exodus of Indonesian professionals to Malaysia was indeed worrying, and has become a topic of discussion among the public. The economic crises also made Indonesian students who studied in Malaysia to feel reluctant to return to Indonesia. Some of them choose to stay to look for a job and become Malaysian citizens. “The main reason is because there are plenty of jobs with good salaries here,” said Sahidul Amin, one of the prominent Indonesian students in Malaysia – a doctorate candidate of Islamic Studies at Malaya University.

Most of the TKIs working in Malaysia are indeed from the lower class that are employed in hard, dirty, and tough environment, but with a low salary. They are highly needed but the situation is very disturbing. According to the data at the KBRI, there are 590,698 TKIs that entered Malaysia legally. They work in plantations (29%), industries (19%), construction (18%), services (7%), and as housemaids (27%).

On May 2003, there were 233 PJTKI distributing 59,710 TKIs to 389 employers through Malaysian agents. If there are half a million legal labors, there are more than a million of those who came illegally. The unofficial number showed said that there are about 2 to 3 millions illegal Indonesian workers in Malaysia since there are so many easy passages to enter Malaysia both legally or illegally. Illegal TKI certainly cause many problems in Malaysia since some of them become criminals. Almost every week, the Malaysian media reports robbery and snatching cases involving Indonesians. Some are shot dead by the police.

Legal TKIs also face problems. The enticing offer of a high salary and other facilities promised by labour agents (PJTKI) would not turn out to be wholly true. “A big salary is unequal with the high cost of living in Malaysia,” said Mulustan, a 28-year old TKI who came from Palembang, South Sumatra.

He departed to Malaysia in 2000 by paying two million rupiahs to the PJTKI. He had to wait for 7 months before he was summoned. The first salary he got in Malaysia was RM350, and it was only just enough to pay for his living cost and hardly anything else. He had to pay the levy since he was an illegal labourer and it cut deeply into his salary. “If there is overtime due, I can save some of my money,”he said. Concerning accident on the job, he said that the company would not directly guarantee the insurance claim if anything happened. It will only be given if they report it to the KBRI.

The problem of low income was also faced by TKIs working in the plantations. Iwan, 33, a father of 2 children from Aceh, is a rubber tapper in Remban, state of Malaka, who was promised to work in a productive rubber plantation. In fact, when he arrived at Remban, he just saw old unproductive rubber trees. Housing, electricity, and running water facilities are terrible. “Our employer only provided us with an electricity generator after we held a strike”, Iwan said.

Mohammad Thahir, 36 years old, a rubber tapper from Sumbawa, said that rubber tappers did not have any insurance if there was an accident. A tapper who was blinded by rubber sap went home without any compensation. Medical expenses due to other working accidents are not guaranteed either by the employer. “Despite a salary of RM500 a month for a senior tapper, we cannot afford to pay if there is an accident,” Thahir said.

The life of a TKI in Malaysia is like living in a prison. They cannot go anywhere they want in Malaysia because the police will arrest them. The hard condition in the workfield that is not in accordance with the contract forces many of them to flee. It makes the employer lose out and report to the police. The workers who don’t run away are often arrested by the police and accused of attempting to flee.

According to Thahir, the ID Card that is given in place of a passport by the Malaysian Immigration is not valid at the police station. Malaysian police officers often catch TKIs who do not bring along their passports, as happened to Thahir and his friend. Up till now, the Malaysian government has enforced a rule that their passports are taken temporarily by their employer until their job contract is over, to prevent them from running away with their job contract still unfinished. “The negotiation between Indonesia and Malaysia about this problem has run for a year and we haven!

’t found a compromise,” said Supeno Sahid, the Counsellor for the Kuala Lumpur KBRI.

The story about the illegal Indonesian labour is much more miserable. The Malaysian industrialisation indeed absorbs this kind of work force. In manufacturing, construction, and plantation, their skills are much needed since they are up to 50% cheaper than the legal ones.

However, the risk of being caught and blackmailed by the police is much higher. Illegal labour is easily known as their boss usually picks them up by van and sent them back to the dorm after work. If there is a raid, they run into the jungle. Usually, the police will let them escape. They sleep in whatever conditions they find themselves in. They are also told not to go outside the work environment too much to avoid the police. They send money to their families in Indonesia through their legal labourer friends.

Police raids are usually held regularly and last for 6 months prior to the Malaysian Independence Day on 31st of August. Since there are many illegal labourers in the construction sector, the employer knows by heart the time of the police raid. They will be informed if there is any inspection of ID Cards and told to hide if the police come. “Only the unfortunate are caught and jailed,” said an Indonesian supervisor. He was caught in February 2000, and his life in Semenye jail, Kajang, at the district of Selangor, for a month, was very miserable. He was put in a 600m room with 3,600 other foreign labourers from many countries. It was overcrowded and there was not enough food. He was sent back to Indonesia when he was able to pay RM100.

Arriving at Belawan Port, he had to pay another RM250 to go to Dumai. Again, he had to pay a million rupiah (about RM400) given by his parents in order for him to go back to Java by bus that came three days later. The Vice President of Keadila!

n Party, Tian Chua, who had been in jail for breaking the ISA, also witnessed the misery of the illegal TKIs in Malaysia.

Who should be blamed for this? According to Revrisond Baswir, an economics expert at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University, the mistakes comes from the Indonesian government’s policy. The Indonesian economic policy is not aimed to create jobs for the people since the era of Suharto. Farmers, sailors, and labourers were abandoned since the arrival of the capitalist sector. Since there was hardly any job that existed, they turned to work abroad. “The Indonesian government only thinks about the investors’ interest. There is no political will to think about how to create jobs,” said Revrisond.

He added that this condition is unchanged under Megawati’s government. The Department of Labour and Transmigration led by Minister Jacob Nuwawea has never implemented any policy to address the problems. The latest example is the dismissal of the 9000 workers from the Dirgantara Inc, a state-owned enterprise, and a producer and assembler of aircraft components. Totally, there are 40 million people that had fallen victim to the open and disguised unemployment, based on Revrisond’s calculation. “It is ironic that Indonesia should think that the employment created by Malaysia is one of the solutions of this national problem,” he said

The Authoritarian Malaysia

The misery of the Indonesian labourers in Malaysia has become worse since they came to Malaysia without enough information. According to Tian Chua, TKIs had to face an authoritarian reign that put the salary law as its economic policy, which had been seen as the comparative advantage of Malaysian industrialisation. This had lured investors to come. That’s why the welfare of the labourers is not the aim of the economic development in Malaysia. Malaysian citizens get higher salaries than the foreign labourers in the same job.

Tian Chua added, “Critical people like us are considered as rebelling against the kingdom, and are easily put in jail”. Member of Parliament, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, said that the government of Mahathir Mohammad indeed used any mean to weaken the opposition. The arrest of Dato Anwar Ibrahim, the former Malaysian deputy prime minister – husband of Wan Azizah Wan Ismail – was aimed to stop the reform movement that wanted to protect the people at the lower level of ociety. “Sadly, the economic development had put Malaysians into a stupor they don’t think seriously of the welfare of those at the lower level of society, “ she said.

According to Fathi Anis Omar, the columnist of the web newspaper Malaysiakini.com, some Malaysians chose not to be critical since they are liable to many rules and regulations. One can be arrested for 60 days, and prolonged to 2 years for breaking the ISA (Internal Security Act) without any trial. They are also unable to get support from the mass media, since the media is not free and has to get publishing permits based on Acta Media.

Fathi Anis Omar also added that the freedom to unite and organise in Malaysia is forbidden since there is the Right to Assembly Act. According to this rule, five or more people who are grouped in the public room or building, can be arrested by the police if they are considered to be doing activities that are detrimental to the country. Besides, there is also the Official Secret Act that can arrest people who criticise the government. “It is not the corrupt apparatus who is put in jail, but those who report them,” said Fathi Anis Omar.

In the last 10 years Mahathir’s government has been extremely authoritarian with the power of Kings being reduced. In the past, a regulation could only be enforced after it was signed by the King. Now, even the most authoritarian regulation is valid after 60 days with or without the King’s approval. “The people of Malaysia will surely think about themselves,” said Fathi Anis Omar.

However, there are some legal aid institutions that provide defence for foreign labourers. One of them is Tenagagita. Adele Fernandes, the program coordinator of Tenaganita, stated that the number of TKIs who reported their cases has increased through the years. It made Tenagagita unable to handle so many problems. The main problem is the fact that the Indonesian government is not seriously protecting their citizens abroad. This is different to that of Bangladesh and India. They are similarly poor, but they have serious responsibility toward their people. “I’ve proposed this to Minister Yacob Nuwawea, but they have not responded seriously,” Adele Fernandes said.

Sahidul Amin, an Indonesian student in Malaysia who is very close to the TKI, said that there were so many cases that needed to be handled by a special legal aid institution (LBH), since the KBRI was already overwhelmed with its routine activities. TKIs are unable to defend themselves due to the expensive cost of a trial. They have to pay about RM500 for a case. “If there is an Indonesian that wants to create a special LBH, we will readily facilitate it,” said Sahidul Amin. But, up till now, it has never materialised

In relation with the TKI’s fate, an officer of the Kuala Lumpur KBRI said that the difficulty in managing this problem begins in Jakarta. The management of TKI is not managed by an autonomous institution governed directly by the President, unlike that in the Philippines. Today there are 11 departments responsible for managing the TKI, and still they are not effective enough. They do not seriously think about making a solution, since they never attend any meeting. “In every meeting about TKI in Jakarta, many ministers are absent. How can we finish?” said this officer who did not have the right to manage this TKI problem.

TKIs not only face bad experience in Malaysia, but also in their own country – they are blackmailed. Among the cruelest one is the terminal 3 of the Sukarno-Hatta Airport. TKIs returning from abroad are forced to change their foreign currencies at a very low rate and are obliged to use the public transportation at the cost that is double the normal price. The TKI organisations in Malaysia have often reported to the representatives and the higher officers of the Indonesian government about this blackmail – even to President Megawati. She promised to tackle this issue, but still there is no change. That’s why Selamet Masrur, the head of Ikatan Pekerja Muslim Indonesia (IPMI) in Malaysia, said that a TKI had to struggle hard for his or her own fate. His institution has trained its 5,000 members with a simple advice. At the time they return to their country, they should not bring too much money and that the money be transferred through a bank. They are also told to land in other cities such as Yogyakarta, Palembang, or Denpasar that are relatively free from such blackmails. IPMI also plans to contact students to welcome Malaysian TKIs as soon as they arrive at the Sukarno Hatta Airport to protect them.

Human Trafficking

Another problem that the KBRI has found difficult to cope with recently is the flesh trade that involves Indonesian female immigrants. Victims are deceived by high salaried jobs for a short time in Malaysia. In fact, after they arrive in Malaysia, they are forced to work as prostitutes.

The Malaysian entertainment world needs many sex workers and a lot of them come from Indonesia. Human trafficking – the flesh trade –has become one of the most serious problems in the ASEAN region. The mode of operation is very real. They come with tourist visas and are illegally forced to become commercial sex workers.

Their lives are worse than those of slaves. Some of them are locked up and forbidden to go out from their dorm and transaction areas. They also get a dead threats from their guardians. From the data at the division of Public Relation of the Polis di-Raja Malaysia (PDRM) headquarters, there are 17,534 foreign women working illegally as prostitutes. Most of them are Indonesian (10,584 women). Others are Thais (3,149), Filipinas (1,794), Chinese (1,189), Uzbeks (398), Cambodians (107), and Russians (73).

One of the prostitutes that successfully escaped from the sexual slavery is Orchid, 27, not her real name, a mother of four children from Cirebon, East Java. She came to Malaysia with the offer to work in a Brunei restaurant with a salary of 3-4 million rupiahs (about RM1200-1600). She departed by plane to Pontianak with 10 other women. Arriving in Pontianak, she found out that she would never work at Brunei since she was sold out for RM900 to an employer that would bring her to Malaysia. A man named Michael said that all costs of transportation, accommodation, passport, and visa had to be paid by sexually serving 150 men. The price of a Kong/man to be served is RM60.

While waiting for a week in Pontianak, she and her friends were tortured. The guardian raped three virgin girls first. This did not raise any concern even though it happened close to the Tebedu Immigration Office. There are also names known by Orchid such as Johan, Ahong, Ayang, and Ellen. Arriving at Kuching, they were selected into group A, B, and C based on their beauty, and immediately met by the next buyers.

This human trade happened so fast. Entering Malaysia, they underwent terrible nightlife in the area of Port Klang, Mentakab, Kajang, Kuala Lumpur, and Ipoh. Orchid successfully escaped by jumping from the 8th floor of a building and ran to get a taxi to the KBRI.

Until May 2003, there are 69 people asking protection from KBRI, who were then sent back to Indonesia. The number of women traded vastly increased this year from 65 cases in 2002. According to Supeno Sahid, the line for human trafficking is still the same i.e. from Pontianak across Kuching after they got their visas from the Tebedu immigration office.

Looking at the high number of cases in some sectors, the number of TKIa coming to Malaysia legally or illegally has not decreased. They consider Malaysia a promising prosperous place. In fact, the salary in Malaysia is getting lower since the TKIs are no longer needed as they used to be. Malaysia has also been hit by an economic crisis.

Sadono Sukirno, a senior economic expert from Malaya University, stated that the electronic industries of Malaysia have been hard hit lately. The construction of the highway infrastructure, train, and buildings in Malaysia has been completed. “That’s why, the request for TKIs in the future will decrease,” said Sadono Sukirno.

Revrisond Baswir, a former staff of the Human Right Minister in the era of Gus Dur, said that if the problem of laburers remained unsolved in Indonesia’s internal affairs, the misery of TKIs in Malaysia would become worse. “If the strategy of the Indonesian economic development does not create job opportunities for the people, the misery of the Indonesian people abroad – such as the TKIs in Malaysia – will continue forever,” he warned.