I believe that
Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that most
Indonesian Muslims are familiarize with.
This is obvious because
Saudi Arabia is the birth place of
Islam which is the religion of the majority people in
Indonesia.
Beside that, the
Saudi Arabian city of
Mecca with its
Ka'bah Stone is a direction where
Muslims around the world should face every time they pray.
Further, the
Al-Qur'an which regulates the principles of
Islam is written and must be read in
Arabic.
Furthermore, every year more than 200 thousand
Indonesian Muslims carried out their
Hajj pilgrimage at the holy city of
Mecca and vicinity.
Moreover, in the last few decades,
Saudi Arabia has become the working place for around one million
Indonesians who therefore sent
Billions of U.S Dollars back home every year.
In spite of the above mentioned fact, relationship between
Indonesia and
Saudi Arabia is not always smooth.
Whereby, thousands of our citizens working in that country have been treated very badly, brutally tortured, raped and even murdered by their employers.
The latest victims were
Kikim Komariah who was murdered by her employer who dumped her body in a garbage bin, and
Sumiati who was brutally beaten and cut by her employer.
The worst thing was that the absolute monarchy that ruled
Saudi Arabia has seemingly been insensitive to the sufferings caused by their citizens'
brutal behaviors. Its Ambassador to
Jakarta has asked our government not to over-react, and
seemingly refuse to grant visa for our cabinet minister who was assigned to head a fact finding mission on the brutality and murder.
Considering the above, I hope that our government would do whatever it can to convince the
Saudi Arabian government that the brutal torture and murder of our workers in their country are against universal human rights, and Islam of course, therefore should be investigated thoroughly and those responsible should be legally punished.
I also hope that our government would improve the quality of workers who will be send to
Saudi Arabia and other countries, i.e. by making sure that they are given proper training i.e. foreign language and particular skills.
At present the
Manpower Ministry only required a minimum training of 200 hours or 20 days, this is surely not enough, therefore they should be trained for at least 600 hours or 60 days.
Photo : Courtesy of
Google Map
Many Indonesian women have been working in countries like Saudi Arabia where women are discriminated by men, therefore legal protection is limited.
Somebody posted intriguing threads on twitter on the other day. I wasn’t sure what subject that triggered her posting, but she was ranting about Indonesians living overseas who pretend to know more about Indonesia [compares to those who are inside the country], who only like to criticize but do not help. She surprised me when she then said these people should stop being self-righteous, and should do something real to help Indonesia. If they think that the country is beyond help, these people should just stop being Indonesians.
Her threads about being Indonesian – or stop being one, for that matter – got me thinking: what actually does make you an Indonesian?
