I must say Indonesian workers are among the toughest people capable of working under very harsh environments such as those at remote oil palm estates lacking basic facilities i.e water and electricity. They can survive without proper water supply and bathe themselves and doing washing at the river. I must say our oil palm industry as a whole owe a big thank you to the Indonesian workers working here. Without them, we would not be able to harvest the fruit bunches to churn out the much precious palm oil which is the third largest economy contributor of our country.
Labour shortage problem has become more critical of late as the labour requirement has grown exponentially in tandem with huge expansion of oil palm plantation both locally and in Indonesia. There are information saying that Indonesian oil palm companies are recalling their experienced workers in Malaysia to go back to serve their own turf. These Indonesian companies are willing to pay the experienced workers handsomely equivalent to what they are getting here.
It is disgusting to read about a 26-year old Indonesian maid was physically and sexually abused by her employers in Penang a couple of days ago. The errant employers are treating their maid as though she is a slave. Such irresponsible employers must be penalized by the authority as no one should treat another person as a slave, remember all men and women are created equal. The maids work for their employers in exchange of their wages and the relationship should be a cordial one, it is not slavery. If these maids are not up to expectation, go back to the agent for an exchange or whatever, but why torture them?
The strained relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia is not doing any good to both of the country. Indonesia is a big labour market and Malaysia requires a huge supply of labour, so why fighting while we should actually complement each other?
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