Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad gained international fame among the developing nations for his famous 'prosper thy neighbours' policy. However, his foreign policy reveal a double standard in sinful approach and severe punishment meted out to Indonesian citizens - all of whom played a hand in Malaysia's economic boom of the late eighties.

While dealing with illegal workers, Malaysia had successfully created another milestone in its human rights record and directed the episode of the second biggest exodus of mankind in the history: 322,180 illegal foreign workers were deported within a month.

Malaysia is the world's number one palm oil producer, having a fully planted area of about 1.36 million hectares of oil palm. The sector employs about 300,000 legal Indonesia plantation workers, plus another 200,000 without proper working documents. The oil palm sector is among the more strategic sectors that powers the Malaysian economy.

Malaysia also invested RM 7.859 billion in Indonesia, majority of the investment are in oil palm plantation, oil and gas, and timber industries.

From 1988 until 2002 the Malaysian government had consistently invested the money of its taxpayers in development expenditures. RM 243,455 billion was spent on infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, school, airports and buildings. Such massive development could not be done without the participation of the foreign labour.

At the time of mass exodus in 2001, there are 265,000 Indonesia construction workers involved in the construction industry. Foreign construction workers are estimated to have contributed about RM14 billion annually to the GDP.

The significance of the expulsion was immediately felt by the real estate development companies in the Klang Valley - they claimed an a loss of about RM4 million per day without the presence of, primarily Indonesian, foreign labour.

In manufacturing, foreign workers make up 20 per cent of the work force who are mostly from Indonesia and Vietnam. Malaysia tourism is also significantly dependent on the foreign labour. About 60,000 foreign workers are employed in this sector. Tourism contributes 18 per cent of Malaysia's GDP.

120,000 Indonesian women work as maids in Malaysian families, which has a minimum income of RM3,000. Without the presence of the Indonesian maids, 75 to 80 per cent of working women may have to quit their jobs - this could easily cause the retirement of 80,000 qualified and capable women from the Malaysian workforce. It corresponds to a loss of about RM3-5 billion of GDP.

In many ways, Malaysia's Immigration Department have failed to recognise the importance of the human capital. The Immigration Act, amended in 1963, is already out of date. It was designed during the Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation - created at a time when the country was trying to prevent itself from being flooded with "Indonesian invaders".

Section 55E (1) of the act, which makes it illegal for Malaysian employers to harbour illegal workers, is not imposed onto the corporate sector, namely Felda (and its subcontractors), Pahang LKPPN, Johor Tenggara Oil Palm and others who enjoy the services of about 30 per cent of 300,000 illegal plantation workers.

Clearly, the Malaysian government had supported an exploitative policy against foreign labour. Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Thai workers are among the biggest victims of Dr Mahathir's policies. Because of the policy to deport, employers can choose not to pay the salaries of deported workers. While Malaysian employers did not break any laws, foreign workers were nevertheless denied of their rightful salaries and forced to return home during the mass expulsion.

In addition, those who entered Malaysia legally are largely unprotected. Many who were duped by their employers - for example those led to believe that their employers were making deductions from their salaries in order to contribute to the Employees' Provident Fund - are unable to find proper recourse.

This has led us to ponder about the meaning of 'prosper thy neighbour' in the context of the double standards practiced by a 'progressive' Islamic nation called Malaysia. One reason why Malaysia refused to ratify International Labour Organisation's convention on migrant workers.