Slipping Away

Thousands of illegal Indonesian workers are to be expelled from Malaysia. Is it a matter of the law or one of Dr. Mahathir's political machinations?

August 6, 2002

RUDIANYAH, 35, leaves in the afternoon and at night takes a path through the palm oil "jungle". This man from South Sulawesi, along with his four friends, is determined to take this short cut on the way to Tawau. The five, like about 450,000 other Indonesian workers abroad (TKI) without proper work permits, are trying to get out of Malaysia as fast as possible. They are fleeing the new labor law in the neighboring country, which went into effe

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