Early two weeks ago a modest meeting was held in a room at the Ministry of Manpower & Transmigration on Jalan Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta. The topic on the agenda was who is more entitled to conduct the final supervision of prospective overseas contract workers (OCWs): the migrant worker agents or the ministry. After debating for hours, the meeting ended in deadlock. Both parties were unbending.

The main protagonists were the Director