Filipinos inspire Indon activist

MANILA, Philippines—In between cleaning house and doing the laundry, Indonesian Eni Lestari dreams of big things.

She dreams of better working conditions for millions of Indonesian migrant workers, getting more support from their government, and returning to their homeland.

Lestari, 33, has been a domestic worker for almost a decade. Housekeeping, however, has not prevented her from organizing fellow Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong. She has been inspired by the efforts of the Filipino migrant community there.

Lestari, a slight, soft-spoken woman who looks younger than her age, left her family in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia, to work abroad when she was only 23.

"I wanted to help my mother earn good money especially since I have two younger siblings," she told the Inquirer on Friday.

Lestari said her mother worked as a fruit seller in the market. The money she earned was not enough for the family's expenses.

Twin sufferings

In 1999, Lestari arrived in Hong Kong and experienced twin sufferings: The recruitment agency reneged on their contract and her employer mistreated her.

"The agency only gave me half of the minimum wage because they said I owed them money for training. I was not given any holiday and my passport was taken by the agency," she said.

Her employer, on the other hand, refused to respect her Muslim faith, forced her to eat pork, and did not give her enough food to eat.

Lestari was also forced to sleep in the bedroom of her employer's teenage son where she did not have privacy.

"I was afraid. It was really a hard time for me," she said.

After six months, Lestari decided to run away. With the help of a friend, she sought shelter at a center managed by the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers.

The center was a life saver. She met other domestic workers in similar situations—they were all reluctant to leave their abusive employers because they were afraid to end up homeless and penniless.

While waiting for the reinstatement of her deducted pay, Lestari realized there was a need for Indonesian workers to get organized. There are over 100,000 Indonesian workers in Hong Kong.

She also saw how Filipino workers banded together and presented their demands for better working conditions to the Hong Kong and Philippine governments.

Transformation

"During my stay at the center, I was unemployed. I was doing nothing for five months except guide and assist my friends. That was when the transformation happened. I became knowledgeable on [labor] policies in Hong Kong because of my case," Lestari said.

"I also saw how Filipino migrant workers were organized in Hong Kong, how they used their holidays to gather, how their voices were united," she added.

After she settled her case, Lestari said she and other Indonesian workers, the fastest-growing expatriate community in the former British colony, decided to form their own group. It became the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers or Atki in Indonesian initials.

She started reading books on Hong Kong labor policies and attended workshops and lectures on labor rights arranged by the Mission. She also networked with Filipino groups and other NGOs to learn the practical side of organizing.

Lestari said she was surprised by her audacity to form a grass-roots organization. Indonesian domestic workers, she said, were trained by their governments and recruitment agencies to be "docile and passive."

At present, Indonesia has around 6 million migrant workers, mostly working in the domestic service in Asia and the Middle East.

The workers, she said, are mostly left on their own as the Indonesian government does not have well-entrenched agencies in the major markets to help their nationals unlike the Philippines.

Another forum

Lestari, who is still working as a domestic worker in Hong Kong, is currently in Manila for the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) on Oct. 28-29.

Aside from representing

Atki, Lestari also serves as spokesperson of the Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body and chair of the International Migrants' Alliance.

Her employer, who supports her activities, had given her leave for the conference. But she won't be attending the conference as she and other grass-roots organizations were not invited.

Instead, Lestari and some 120 delegates from other groups will present their plight in an alternative forum tomorrow at the Bayview Hotel in Manila.

Quick fix

The Indonesian government and other countries participating in the GFMD allegedly do not care for migrant workers, according to Lestari.

They will only institutionalize the labor export policy of various governments and prolong the suffering of migrant workers, she added.

"I am against the labor export policy because it does not answer the problem of poverty. Until how long do we have to suffer this way? Until what generation do we need to become overseas workers?" Lestari said.

"This is an instant answer for governments faced with unemployment. It is available money for them. They will just sit there and the money will come," she said. "There is no expiration date on our bodies. We can work until we die or until we have no capacity to work anymore."

Since she left East Java almost 10 years ago, Lestari said her family has remained the same. "They are not better off," she said while shrugging her shoulders.

The cost of living in Indonesia had risen and university fees had also gone up. Her salary, she said, could not keep up.

Meanwhile, her siblings have voiced their desire to follow her abroad.

"I didn't say yes, I didn't say no. I told them it is up to you. But you have to know the risks … But if [economic conditions] become worse, I cannot stop them," she said.