GOVT MUST ADOPT FIRM ATTITUDE TOWARDS INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS

Jakarta, June 13 (ANTARA) - House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Agung Laksono said the government must adopt a firm attitude with regard to violence often suffered by Indonesian workers (TKI) or female workers (TKW) abroad.

"I think the government must take a firmer stand particularly with regard to rough treatment which exceeds the limit of humanity, including whipping and other forms of torture," the House Speaker said at the parliamentary building here over the weekend.

He pointed to the latest case in Malaysia suffered recently by Siti Hajar, an Indonesian domestic helper from Lio hamlet, Limbangan village, Garut district, West Java.

Laksono said that the government should not give too much tolerance to the Malaysian government because it seemed that its attitude did not reflect solidarity as a country of the same stock. It even tarnished the friendly relations. "This case should be taken up at bilateral talks between the two countries," the House Speaker said.

For this purpose, the government, he said, must make an inventory of matters which so far have become problems between the two countries, including the problems of TKIs and TKWs.

"Not to mention problems about our cultural products. All these need to be discussed," he said.

Siti Hajar, who is a widower and a domestic helper with one child, has to be rushed to a hospital in Malaysia after bing roughly treated and allegedly sprayed with boiling water by her female employer.

In response to the latest incident, Jumhur Hidayat, chief of the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), has proposed to the government to stop the dispatch of Indonesian domestic helpers to Malaysia for one month pending the revision of the Indonesia-Malaysia Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Indonesian migrant workers signed earlier in 2009.

"As soon as I return to Jakarta, I will recommend the manpower and transmigration minister to stop the dispatch of workers to Malaysia for one month," he said in a press conference together with Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Da'i Bachtiar in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.