Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Thus it seemed odd that Najib Razak tagged the initial postponement to a specific
request from the Indonesian government. He was acceding to that request to "show
that we sympathise with the calamity the Indonesian people and government face."
<p>Surely nobody would question Malaysia for that decision. Malaysia herself suffered
casualties and devastation in her northern states. It would have appeared more
gracious as the right thing to do without prompting from any quarter. Najib’s
approach implies that, if not for the request, Malaysia has no qualms whatsoever
to arrest, detain and punish the "illegals".</p>
<p>Najib’s sympathy for the people and government of Indonesia (and other tsunami-hit
countries in the region) however has run dry after barely a month. He postponed
the end of amnesty on Dec 30. On Jan 22, he announced the end of amnesty on
Feb 1.</p>
<p>In earlier reports, Malaysia would deploy more than half a million police,
immigration officers and ‘neighbourhood security groups’ to track and detain
the estimated 1.2 million undocumented migrants who are mainly from Indonesia
and the Philippines.</p>
<p>Volunteer groups would be armed with batons and handcuffs while officers would
carry a pistol. This is considered an "ominous" move by human rights
and humanitarian groups. Volunteers would receive minimal training by enforcement
officers, which included the national registration department officials, and
receive cash rewards for each migrant arrested.</p>
<p>Fear of vigilantism is not unfounded. There are other legitimate public concerns.
We had a tragic incident recently where an unlicensed video-seller was critically
injured by a trigger-happy enforcement officer. A near tsunami-like wave of
disaster might just await us come Feb 1.</p>
<p><b>Protection letters torn</b></p>
<p>We have no information of the nature of training given to the half a million
enforcers unleashed on Feb 1. Groups working on forced migration and refugee
concerns have documented the inability of enforcement officers including police
to comprehend and respect the papers of migrant workers and protection letters
for refugees issued by the UNHCR.</p>
<p>There are documented incidents where UNHCR protection letters were torn by
police, refugees arrested and charged under immigration laws. "Illegals"
face jail sentences of up to five years and whipping under Malaysia’s immigration
law.</p>
<p>Abdullah Badawi appears to have a more humanitarian sense of what’s to be done.
On Jan 7, he told BBC in Jakarta that he spoke to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
"that if it became necessary for us to delay some more, then we will do
that."</p>
<p>In that interview, Pak Lah also said that, "Our priority is that we would
like President Susilo and his government to concentrate on rehabilitating Aceh
and the Acehnese. There has to be a lot of things done." A day earlier,
Pak Lah at the Asean Leaders’ meeting on Jan 6 assured Susilo that Malaysia
is ready to play a major role in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the
tsunami-hit countries.</p>
<p>The dead in Aceh is currently estimated between 140,000 to 170,000 and relief
efforts alone, not including rehabilitation and reconstruction may stretch until
March.</p>
<p>Malaysia has official problems in recognizing Acehnese as refugees. In her
last official visit to Kuala Lumpur before she lost the presidency, Megawati
Sukarno Puteri claimed that Acehnese are not refugees but economic migrants.</p>
<p>For the record, Aceh has seen some 30 years of military operations. The Indonesian
military (TNI) which terrorized Timor Leste before its independence was sent
off to Aceh. Martial law which was imposed in 2003 morphed into "civil
emergency" rule in 2004. The TNI continues to gun down "separatists"
of the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka. We have no reliable reports of civilian casualties
of this continuing military operation in post-tsunami Aceh.</p>
<p><b>End militarization</b></p>
<p>In the aftermath of the tsunami, President Susilo has been hard-pressed by
aid workers, human rights and humanitarian groups both locally and abroad to
stop the military operations and end militarization of Aceh.</p>
<p>Thus on the one hand, we put a humanitarian face to tsunami-hit Aceh and on
the other, we are sending Indonesian migrants, a good proportion of whom are
Acehnese asylum seekers and refugees, packing or face our incarceration and
whipping laws as "illegals".</p>
<p>One speculates if the UN decision to choose Singapore over Malaysia as the
regional coordination centre for UN efforts of post-tsunami reconstruction,
has anything to do with our state of affairs, including our policy on forced
migration and refugee concerns.</p>
<p>But the question is, do we have a policy on forced migration/displacement and
refugee concerns? Criminalising "illegals" is not a policy. Refugee
concerns and asylum are not mere immigration issues.</p>
<p>Malaysia has always been at the crossroads of migration. More than 800 years
ago, migrants from China and as far as the Moghul-Turkish (Pax-Turcica) empire
as well as the archipelago have come to our shores as emissaries of their great
empires, as merchants, seafarers, mercenaries, refugees and settlers.</p>
<p>The most famous refugee was Parameswara. He found a safe haven in Singa-pura
(he renamed it from Temasek) of Johor-Riau Lingga before settling in Melaka
in 1403. He married a princess from Pasai, Sumatra and took on the name Megat
Iskandar Shah.</p>
<p>The journal of the Royal Malaysian Asiatic Society for example, has myriad
accounts of migration and political intrigues of the ‘nations’ of Bugis, Aceh,
Siak and several others on our shores since time immemorial.If the truth and
history be acknowledged, we are in fact, a nation of migrants with perhaps the
exception of the orang asli and orang asal.</p>
<p><b>Informed policy needed</b></p>
<p>The more honest and humanitarian thing to do – the right thing, is perhaps
not the end of amnesty or an extension thereof and ding-donging between an end
and an extension.</p>
<p>We need an informed policy on forced migration and displacement. Migration
in our past history is of course different from migration today. Third world
countries have hosted 80 per cent of the world’s refugee population.</p>
<p>The absence of comprehensive international, regional and sub-regional arrangements
to ensure that states and the local population do not become overburdened by
migration and refugee emergencies, has exacerbated the problem.</p>
<p>Whether we like it or not, the dilemma is addressed only by the elaboration
of effective policies that promote effective migration management, while ensuring
respect for the basic human rights of non- citizens.</p>
<p>Malaysia has taken an important first step in the case of Burmese Rohingyas.
We can develop the principles from this experience to build a comprehensive
national non-differential treatment of all those who are forcibly displaced.</p>
<p>I see no reason why Malaysia should not score a first in initiating a regional
response to these concerns.</p>
<p><i>SALBIAH AHMAD is a lawyer and an independent researcher. MALAYA! as the
name for this column was inspired by the meaning of ‘Malaya’ in Tagalog which
means freedom. The events at the end of 1998 in KL offer a new inspiration.
MALAYA! takes o­n the process of reclaiming the many facets of independence.
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com