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Issue of the day: Halting the sending of domestic workers
Feb
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Feb. 14, Online
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo wants to stop the sending of domestic migrant workers to other countries, arguing that doing menial chores abroad undermines Indonesian pride and dignity.
Jokowi told Antara news agency on Friday in Surakarta, Central Java, that he felt 'ashamed when discussing the matter in [recent] bilateral talks with Malaysia. I have instructed the manpower minister to make a clear road map and [set a timeline] to stop the program. We must have pride and dignity.'
As part of the plan, the government would repatriate 1,800 migrant workers. 'We have repatriated 800 workers. More will follow,' Jokowi said.
There are 2.3 million Indonesian migrant workers worldwide, 1.2 million of whom are undocumented, according to the President.
Your comments:
In the West, there are street cleaners, toiler cleaners and sewer plant workers who take great pride in their jobs. They earn enough to make a living and raise their families with dignity.
The President, sadly, has missed the point again. It is about the lack of laws that govern working conditions in host countries, not about the jobs that these hardworking people do.
The President should ask the host countries to improve their own labor laws. It is easy to stop them from going abroad but how are you going to create jobs for millions of people overnight?
A remittance from one person can feed up to seven people. Can the state fill that gap?
Abu
So are they going to come home to secure government jobs?
P. Symon Peers
What is this President doing, halting an 'export' product that brings millions of dollars to this country because he is ashamed being accosted by a domestic worker or street worker when abroad?
Animi
Is Jokowi making arrangements to support these families? How about smoking, which is everywhere in Indonesia? Are there any plans to address the smoking issue or is he more interested in the taxes he gets from the cigarette companies? How about family planning, which might reduce poverty?
Shadaan
Guys, we are talking about the economic reality here. I'm not sure how the President could stop if the income per capita of the country was much lower than countries like Malaysia and Singapore. In reality, with a population in excess of 200 million, the present income gap between high-, medium- and lower-income segments is quite huge.
It's all about the economy, therefore it's pretty challenging for the President but it's not impossible. He has to look at every aspect of economic chains and systems to tackle those gaps.
Zak
With a reinvigorated plan to enforce regulations, which require expatriate workers to pass an Indonesian language exam, what amount of infrastructure development will be completed in the coming five years?
Gado
The problem is those countries that uphold human rights will not allow live-in maids to be employed below their countries' stipulated minimum wage. It is those two-faced countries that supposedly claim integrity on the one hand and exploit human labor on other, causing the depravity of your people.
Doing domestic chores is respectable work. Full-time living-in with restrictive personal freedom is not. Even if a reasonable minimum wage can be found, this form of employment should be seen as modern day slavery.
We certainly should not teach our children that this is a normal and acceptable set-up. No doubt, there are employers who treat their domestic workers fairly and give reasonable personal free time and off days. But just like casino gambling, it takes immense luck. The flip side is a bottomless pit of suffering.
President Jokowi is one of the few leaders in the world who knows what is right and what is wrong and is unafraid to take a stance. I take off my proverbial hat and give him my firm salute.
Tommy Tan
It is good idea but it won't work, however more control is required. He must insist on days off and minimum pay. It is rights of redress also. Then let the market work, some will come home, some will stay on.
In Malaysia especially Indonesian domestic workers are very badly treated. They should have protection, which would provide some dignity.
Bill Brad
It's obvious that the forum posters have a better understanding of what the situation is with the workers than what Jokowi has. If Jokowi's clear road map to stop them going overseas to work has any chance of working, it must have in that road map a clear program of creating sufficient work for all of those people in Indonesia and for similar wages as what they would get in those other countries.
Eddy Saf
Millions of Indonesians are doing menial jobs abroad for more wealth but they have the protection of no labor laws. Those abroad make more and send most back to Indonesia, a sort of foreign investment.
What are the millions of families going to do when that money sent home dries up and there is another mouth or two to feed? Is planning unheard of in Indonesia? There always seems to be more jumping off the pier before they even know where it's at.
X Simaging
Within 15-20 years, there will be far fewer Indonesian maids going abroad to work. Jokowi doesn't even have to really try to bring this about. It comes down to fertility rates.
In Thailand, they don't send many maids abroad now because of their low fertility rates. Most of the maids there are non-Thai, from Myanmar or Cambodia.
Our smug expats living in Jakarta won't be so smug in 10-20 years. What happens in cases like this is people start hiring people they never thought of hiring before. There are maid shortages in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
There are Indonesian maids going to those places, but whereas before they were looking at hiring maids from East and Central Java, now they are hiring people from East and West Nusa Tenggara. You are hiring poorer and less educated maids, meaning you are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
In the traditional maid recruiting areas of Java, supply is tight, because people have better opportunities but also because the fertility rate in these areas has been about 2.0 for almost a generation, meaning the labor supply is growing only very slowly.
Jokowi knows what he is talking about. If he can boost per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Java to 6 percent, within 10-15 years there will be maid shortages in Jakarta. People will have to end up hiring people from the outer islands. Trust me, you won't be laughing when you do.
Weilim
