16 May 2007
I read with interest the article Our migrant workers, heroes or villains.
Slavery is alive and well and thinly veiled by the agreement to give shelter and food, and to pay low wages. The article sounds all too familiar and change the "Indonesians" to "Africans" and really the article could have been pulled from the history books.
The West goes on about the abolition of slavery, marks the anniversaries, makes movies about it all, and feels guilty, but in fact it has always thrived all round the world.
Who sold the African tribesmen to the "white masters" in the first place? Fellow Africans made themselves very wealthy with the trade of these bodies. It is all relative. Indonesians become servants and laborers in Malaysia and Singapore, but are "not good enough" for Hong Kong and Taiwan. In these countries Filipinos are the norm.
Here in Indonesia too, rich Indonesians employ poor Indonesians and one will find that there are employers of servants at every level. Drivers have maids too. It is all about what one can afford to pay and how much one wants out of their own version of misery.
The problem is, Asians don't see this whole situation as slavery. Servants are historically an acceptable part of their culture, playing a big part in the household and for the most part, well cared for.
Egos are also part of the problem. Certain countries do think they are better, more intelligent, more advanced and these people feel that certain jobs are above them.
In Malaysia, Indian laborers were brought in early on to build all the roads and plantations -- without them Malaysia's roads and plantation industry would never have been developed. Now, these highways and roads and plantations are being maintained by Bangladeshi and Indonesian workers. The Indians in Malaysia have turned the tables and are now all lawyers and doctors.
Migrant workers across the board are assumed unintelligent, ignorant and uneducated. I do realize I am making generalizations here -- talk to a Filipino maid and you may find she is an economics graduate or a qualified nurse.
The problem with migrant workers from Indonesia, Myanmar and Bangladesh, is that they are recruited straight from the countryside, from poverty, and allow themselves to trust indiscriminate recruitment agencies.
REBECCA DUCKETT-WILKINSON
Jakarta
