Tekongs and Migrant Workers
Every year, about 50,000 male and female migrant workers from West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province head overseas in search of employment. This area is the second largest supplier of laborers after East Java, many of them ending up in neighboring Malaysia: the women as domestic maids and the men working in rubber or palm oil plantations. Despite the presence of government recruiting offices, almost all of the workers in NTB turn to local middlemen, from processing their paperwork to getting them their jobs. These groups of brokers, locally known as tekongs, have grown immensely wealthy from this business of exporting workers, consequently wielding considerable influence and power over the villagers. Gita Lal and stringer Pikong Rachmawati reports on the tekong syndicates of NTB.
April 11, 2012
The Middlemen's Monopoly
Walking with a swagger, Junaidi seemed happy to be home, after a work stint in Malaysia. He was fresh out of cash, but he was not indebted to anyone. "Not until I meet my tekong," he laughed, referring to his agent. Junaidi's friends milled around him at his village in the Tangkeban hamlet of Merembu, West Lombok, to hear his stories of working overseas.
Yet, looking around his village, at the unpaved road and at jobless men
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