From Migrant Worker to Lecturer

For many decades, we have read and heard so many tragic stories about the faith of Indonesian Migrant Workers in foreign countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

All that has been caused by very poor protection provided by the Indonesian government and its representatives a.k.a embassies and consulates in countries where the Migrant Workers lived.

For example, when a Migrant Worker come to work in Saudi Arabia, they should give their passports to their bosses, and not allowed to keep phone numbers and addresses of our embassy and consulate, therefore they cannot do anything if something went wrong to them.

For that reasons, many of our Migrant Workers were victimized i.e. humiliated, raped, tortured, or even killed by their bosses. Some of them were sentenced to death on allegations of murdering their bosses.

Due to above, I was surprised when I saw on Trans-7 TV this morning, story about Nuryati Solapari (click here), a 32 years old Migrant Worker from Serang, Banten, who worked in Saudi Arabia after finishing High School, in order to be able to save to study at a university.

Before she left for the town of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia in 1998, the migrant worker recruitment agency did not provide her with any training, but they gave her a training certificate so as to obey regulations.
She therefore has to learn about her work and about local culture and tradition from fellow Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

And for her personal security, she wrote important things like passport number, phone and address of the Indonesian embassy/consulate in Saudi Arabia, not in an ordinary way but by knitting them on her pasmina/ scarf so that her boss would not find out about them.

After two years and eight months, she came home and studied at the Faculty of Law of the University Sultan Agung Tirtayasa in Serang, where she graduated in only three and a half years (click here). Afterwards, she got her Master in law degree.

Currently Nuryati is working as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the above mentioned university. Beside that, she also has a license to practice as an Advocate/lawyer.

Nuryati frequently gave motivations and shared her experiences with candidate Migrant Workers, and because of that she has received the Indonesian Migrant Workers Award in 2010, and award from the government of Saudi Arabia.

I hope that other Indonesian Migrant Workers would follow Nuryati's above mentioned steps, and the Indonesian government would strictly control the training and dispatch of Migrant Workers abroad, and request the government of said foreign countries to provide much better protection for them

Photo :  Courtesy of Era Muslim.

U.I and the Saudi King

On 21 August, the University of Indonesia (UI), Jakarta, granted an honorary degree (Doctor Honoris Causa) to the King Abdulah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

Antara news agency reported that the degree was presented to the King by UI's Rector Professor Gumilar Rusliwa Somatri at the King's palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During which the rector said that the King was presented the honorary degree because of his role in establishing Peace and upholding Humanity.

I am very disappointed with the granting of honorary degree to the King of Saudi Arabia, a country ruled by authoritarian regime that recently beheaded an Indonesian migrant worker, that treats women as second class citizen. Especially that the ceremony was not carried out at UI's campus but in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia Bans Indonesian Maids

Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday that it would stop granting work permits to domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, following the restricted hiring conditions imposed by both Asean countries.   

This is a reaction to the strong protests made by the people and the government of Indonesia against the beheading of an Indonesian citizen Ruyati binti Satubi (54) who was sentenced to death by a Saudi Court for murdering of her employer.
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Kompas reported that last week President SBY denounced the beheading of Ruyati and accused Riyadh of breaking the “norms and manners“ of international relations.

Moreover, the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar announced that the government shall  impose a moratorium on the sending of maids to Saudi Arabia.

I hope that from now on our government would pay much more serious attention on our workers who are working abroad, i.e. conclude agreements with foreign governments that provide strong protection for our workers working in their countries, make sure that they are well trained and skilled before they are send abroad. All of which is necessary because our workers abroad contributed big amount of foreign currency to our country.

Darsem spared from Death Execution

A Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has spared an Indonesian worker i.e Darsem, from death execution after the Indonesian government paid a compensation of Rp 4.6 Billion (US$ 534,000.00).

According to The Jakarta Globe, Darsem from Subang-West Java, was convicted on May 2009 and sentenced to death despite her plea that she had killed her boss in self-defense because he had attempted to rape her.

Last January, the victim’s family forgave Darsem and agreed to spare her, but only if she could afford to pay the above mentioned compensation.

I am very happy with this news because I thought that a court's death sentence can only be cancelled by a superior court or by pardon given by the head of state, not by the victim's family pardon and compensation to them.

I wonder whether the bloodshed that has been going on for many years in the Arab world could be settled this way (by pardon and paying compensation).

Saudi Arabia Beheads an Indonesian Worker

The authoritarian regime of Saudi Arabia has carried out a death execution on an Indonesian female worker namely Ruyati on Saturday in the country's western Province of Mecca.

The execution was carried out by using a barbaric middle-age-method i.e cutting-off the head of Ruyati with a sword.

The SPA news agency quoted an official of the Saudi Interior Ministry as saying that Ruyati was found guilty of murdering Khairiya binti Hamid Mijid by hitting her in the head with a meat chopper and stabbing her in the neck.

A spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry i.e. Michael Tene criticized that the execution was done  without observing international practices related to consular protection. He said that the Ministry was aware of the case and Ruyati has confessed to the murder, but was not informed of the timing of the execution.

Meanwhile, according to his spokesman, President SBY expressed his condolence over the death of Ruyati.

I would like to expressed my deepest sympathy and condolence on the death of Ruyati. I hope that her family would be given the strength to live without her.

I also hope that our government would show much stronger reaction toward the Saudi government and try its very best to stop more beheading of our workers in the future.

Sources :
-  Saudi Beheads Indonesian Woman Convicted of Murder (Kompas)
-  Indonesia Criticized Beheading of Maid (The Jakarta Globe)
-  President saddened by Ruyati execution: spokesman (The Jakarta Post)

Brutality in Saudi Arabia

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