Thursday, January 14, 2010
JAKARTA, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- Indonesia is giving importance to a management mechanism in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it is working out with Malaysia on the matter of its migrant workers, Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Marty Natalegawa said here on Friday.
"We are now working with the Malaysian government towards an MoU that relates to the responsibilities and rights of Indonesian workers," he said, adding that the mindset from the Indonesian perspective was very much in terms of a mutually beneficial type of engagement.
"We need to have a paradigm shift, that is more win-win and less confrontational, and I think we are working on that. Hopefully, we will have this MoU agreed on sooner rather than later.
"It is of mutual interest to have a proper mechanism so that whatever moratorium that we have been having can be lifted as soon as we have the mechanism in place," he told reporters after delivering his annual press briefing at his ministry, here.
Indonesia stopped sending its workers to Malaysia , particularly those to be employed in the informal sector, in June last year, following several incidents of maltreatment of Indonesian domestic maids in Malaysia .
Marty said officials from both countries were discussing matters related to workers' minimum pay and leave, their right to carry identification papers and the responsibility of the host country to inform the Indonesian embassy should an Indonesian national face any difficulty.
The minister said Indonesian workers made a significant contribution to Malaysia 's economy and development and, at the same time, Malaysia had become a source of income for them.
Earlier, in his briefing, Marty said that in 2010, Indonesia would continue to invest heavily in its multilateral diplomacy and would be at the forefront in promoting the role of the United Nations in tackling global crises and at the same time in calling for its reform.
"Our foreign policy will consistently project Indonesia as part of the solution to various global challenges, of a country keen to accentuate the overlapping of interests and concerns rather than competing interests and concerns," he said.
It would also, among other things, continue to consistently support the Palestinian cause and the peace process aimed at realising an independent Palestinian state.
By Ahmad Fuad Yahya
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=467012
On the evolution towards an Asean Community, Marty said Indonesia believed that there could not be an East Asian or an Asia Pacific community without an Asean Community as its core constituent.
"Thus the Asean Community, the various Asean plus processes, the ARF (Asean Regional Forum), Apec (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and East Asia Summit community, with Asean playing the central role. This is a vision that will continue to guide us in 2010," he said.
He also said that in keeping with the tagline "One Thousand Friends, Zero Enemies", Indonesia 's foreign policy would actively seek to raise to a higher level existing ties with countries in all corners of the globe, promote positive political and people-to-people relations as well as renew and focus on efforts to promote economic diplomacy.
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