institutional strategic management of manpower planning in nusantara malayarchipelago: (case study on indonesia’s public policy of indonesian migrantworkers (pmis) working in malaysia)

The issue of indonesian migrant workers (pmis) working in malaysia has been an ongoingsticking point in the indonesian-malaysian relations. malaysia is reportedly the country with the highestnumber of complaints with regards to pmis. this study aims to examine indonesian migrant workers(pmi) working in malaysia from an institutional perspective, especially vis-à-vis the planning processes,strategic management and conceptualizing the problem. this article is based on a research that posits apossible explanation to this problem from the perspective of human resource management process,especially in manpower or human resource planning. in pursuing this line of inquiry, the researchanalyzes the institutional players involved in administrating and managing the pmis. it adopts aqualitative case study approach in policy analysis, albeit supported and complemented by quantitativedata. among the key findings of this study is the high degree of the bureaucratic and proceduralcomplexities related to processing of migrant workers. this is largely contributed by the inefficiencies,lack of transparency and even more so the redundancies existing in the eco-system of various agenciesinvolved in the planning and placement process of pmi, including those at the central, regional/provincialand local levels of governmental as well as private entities. yet another key finding points to the lack ofintegrated coordination which is strategic and comprehensive between the governments of indonesia andmalaysia in the form of government to government joint-machinery as well as intra-governmentaloperations in indonesia. consequently, the ones who often play a pivotal role in handling pmi are privateagencies and individuals, while governments only act as facilitators. evaluating from an institutionalstrategic management approach, improvements are needed in the manpower planning agencies in crucialareas, including human resource (manpower) development strategies, availability of human resource data,institutional personnel competencies in manpower development and career path planning capacity of theworkers. ultimately, with the third key finding of the research, this article questions the premise of theproblem, which is the underlying presumption that pmis are causing problems in malaysia or thatmalaysia is the worst destination country for pmis. the research has discovered among the top countrieswith the largest number of complaints, malaysia actually has among the lowest, if not the lowestpercentages of complaints.