JK-WIN DUO PROMISES TO PROTECT INDONESIAN WORKERS ABROAD

Jambi, June 15 (ANTARA) - The JK-WIN presidential ticket, if elected, will provide better protection for Indonesian workers abroad, Wiranto, who is the running mate of presidential aspirant Jusuf Kalla (JK-WIN), said.

"We have prepared a short and long term program for the protection of Indonesian workers abroad," Wiranto said during a dialogial campaign here on Sunday.

He said that the shortage of job opportunities in the country had caused many Indonesians to seek work overseas with all of its consequences, including maltreatment.

"Therefore, in the short and medium term, we, if elected in the upcoming presidential polls, will reactivate Indonesian workers' representatives abroad," he said.

In the long run, he said, Indonesia is expected to stop sending laborers or domestic helpers but professional ones.

"Thus, we hope that we would no longer be insulted and belittled as a nation. We can become a respectable nation in the world through our professional workers abroad," he said.

The issue on the fate of Indonesian workers in foreign countries was being raised after an Indonesian house-helper was maltreated by her employer in Malaysia.

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 last Thursday.