It is difficult to see which way the students will develop politically. But the prevailing ideological climate, and the generational absence of left wing politics and movements, suggest that though people are radicalised against the regime, the evolution of an anti-capitalist consciousness is still ahead. Those like the
PRD who are trying to build a left alternative face a massive, uphill struggle. *
The Undesirables
During the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s millions of migrant workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and India were recruited to the growth centres of the regional economy especially Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Now that these economies are in slump, migrant workers are being sent back to their countries of origin exacerbating the economic crisis as the billions of dollars in remittances that they have sent back no longer arrive
Many of these workers are undocumented. A fact which is known by their employers, who evade payment of wages secure in the knowledge that the workers dare not complain for fear of attracting attention to themselves; and known to the authorities who tolerated them when it suited them but who now expel these workers, using repressive measures and with no concern for their dignity and weltare.
However even as their compatriots were being repatriated, the worsening economic crisis in Indonesia was pushing tens of thousands to journey to Malaysia in search of work as a matter of
Indonesian labourers have been the main-stay of the construction industry, working on oil palm plantations as well as in the restaurant and service sector and in domestic service.
It is estimated there are between one and two million Indonesians in a country of 21 million and the majority are undocumented. Money is borrowed from labour agents who loan the money to repay family debts and to advance the
These debts are the first charge on the earnings they will make. If they are lucky enough to get across, either by boat to
Indonesia East Malaysia undetected by the coastguard and police patrols. The boatowners who ferry the workers over charge a small fortune for a risky journey which has claimed hundreds of lives in the Straits of Malacca.
The downturn in the Malaysian economy, as mega-development projects either reach completion or are suspended for lack of credit has fed into the media hysteria about rising rates of violent crime blamed on "illegal immigrants"
The Malaysian government has been rounding up migrant workers and their families who live on construction sites and in slums and squatter villages and detaining an estimated 17 000 of them in fortified camps. It is alleged that the few possessions the workers are able to accumulate are thieved from them by the Malaysian police before they board the ships transporting them to Indonesia leaving them destitute on arrival. The detention centres have reached bursting point and exploded in violence at the end of March when the authorities sought to forcibly deport Acehnese asylum seekers who face a genuine threat to their lives from the Indonesian security forces
Detalnees at several camps had a sedative mixed in with their food and drink in the evening meal of March 26th. While the motive appears to have been to drug them making it easier to deport them the following day, an overdose had the effect of inducing the vomiting of blood. In reaction riots broke out at a number of camps on that same night.
The authorities have only confirmed nine deaths including one policeman. However the Aceh/Northern Sumatra National Liberation Front claim that 25 Acehnese were killed and 14 more who had been injured or wounded died during the deportation or back in Sumatra,
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