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India's software pros face global
ire
By Indrajit Basu
KOLKATA
- There were around 270 of them, men and women. They
were roused from bed between 6 am and 8 am last Sunday,
hustled by armed Malaysian policemen out of their posh
apartment block in Kuala Lumpur's upmarket Brickfield to
a neighboring police station, handcuffed and made to
squat in a motor shed for almost 12 hours. They could
not make phone calls, nor were they given any reason why
they had been arrested.
No, the arrested were
not illegal immigrants. Nor were they criminals. They
were well-educated Indian software professionals working
for companies registered in Malaysia's Multimedia Super
Corridor, the information technology project zone
running from Kuala Lumpur to the new development of
Cyberjaya, a 45-minute drive from the capital. They were
in the country at the invitation of the Malaysian
government, which, like many IT-human resource scarce
governments of the world, sought help from India's
now-famed IT pool of talent.
"There were around
270 of us, and we have already got the signatures of
178, and we'll get the rest by tomorrow," said Dilip, an
IT professional who presented a petition to the Indian
High Commission on behalf of all those detained, after
being released later that night.
Later, the
detainees recounted how the police had burst into their
homes and herded them to a nearby police station, from
where some were taken to jail. "We were handcuffed and
made to kneel or sit in the police station car park and
our passports and visas were seized," said Nagaraju
Cheekoti, an IT professional working for WWI Malaysia.
"Some of us were slapped and kicked."
Some said
that they were stripped to their underwear and heckled
inside the station. Some also complained that when their
passports were returned many (about 70 of them) showed
signs of being tampered with, photographs on them
scratched, and data on the visa page rubbed out. The
police also sent 14 of the men to jail, photographed
them with assigned numbers, and treated them like
criminals.
Police officials at the Brickfield
station refused to speak. But according to the Press
Trust of India - the Indian news agency - a Malaysian
police officer said later that some 164 Indians had been
picked up after the raid on a building and close to 100
were immediately released on the intervention of the
high commission and proof that they had valid visas.
Although most had been rescued from detention by
the Indian high commissioner at the end of the day, the
incident has shaken India's IT community to the core.
"We don't want to stay in this country if we are treated
like this," said Nagaraju Cheekoti. "We have come here
at the invitation of Malaysian companies, but we don't
feel safe anymore."
But a likely exodus of
Indian IT professionals appears to be the least of the
problems that this incident has created for Malaysia.
The Indian government is fuming, and the country's
relationship with Malaysia has turned decidedly frosty.
"Such unacceptable action by Malaysian authorities
cannot but adversely affect our bilateral relations and
also badly dent Malaysia's image as a destination for IT
professionals and as a country which is keen to
encourage foreign participation in this and other
sectors," said Navtej Sarna, foreign ministry spokesman.
The possibility of expelling the Malaysian envoy from
Delhi is also not being ruled out. Sarna said,
"Depending on the clarification we receive, we will
decide on further action appropriately."
In
Kuala Lumpur, Indian high commissioner Veena Sikri, too,
expressed outrage. "Computer specialists are the most
sought after Indian professional community, wanted in
the US, the UK and Germany, and they've been asked by
Malaysian companies to work here, and now Malaysia
treats them like this," she said. "There is no
justification of the way our citizens were treated and
there is a need to investigate the matter."
Apart from the foreign office, the Indian IT
industry, led by the software industry lobby NASSCOM,
reacted sharply to the incident, describing it as
unwarranted "mental harassment" of Indian IT
professionals. "This is an unfortunate act which maligns
the dignity of the individuals and the industry, and we
are in touch with key authorities to ensure the safety
of Indian IT professionals," said NASSCOM president
Kiran Karnik.
Meanwhile, the message appears to
have got home. Malaysia in its first official reaction
conveyed to India on Tuesday that it had taken India's
complaint "very seriously" and was "investigating"
allegations of high-handedness by the Malaysian police.
"If it is true, it is certainly very unfortunate; we
will take actions and go to the bottom of the issue," he
said, adding, "The drive is not directed against
Indians. There is an ongoing campaign against illegal
immigrants and this could be a result of a few over
enthusiastic officials," said Malaysian entrepreneur
development minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The
Malaysian IT community seemed embarrassed by the
incidents. The Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor has
written to NASSCOM saying that such incidents are a
one-off and that Indian-Malaysian IT relations are on
course.
The Malaysian opposition has taken the
incidents seriously, too. A Malaysian opposition leader
and rights group urged acting Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi to apologize to those Indian IT
professionals rounded up. "I would urge the acting prime
minister to make a formal apology in parliament," said
Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Democratic Action Party.
Nevertheless, even if the huge population of
Indian IT professionals spread around the globe has
taken this incident in their stride, for them it isn't
just "a simple case of mistaken identity". "Behind its
facade, this could be yet another example of the
backlash Indian high-tech workers have started facing in
recent months," said Vinay Kamath, a human resource
consultants operating out of India as well as the United
States.
"Resentment from those [people] Indian
software pros are replacing globally with their lower
salaries and superior talents has been rather alarming
lately," said Kamath. India, which has emerged as
perhaps the only destination for sourcing high-tech
human resources, is known not just for its cost
effectiveness (30 percent of the global average) but
also for its high quality talent.
A few months
back, the state of New Jersey in the United States, a
country that employs the largest number of Indian
high-tech professionals, moved a bill in its senate to
block the state government from moving IT outsourcing to
India. Shortly afterwards, four more US states,
Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Connecticut - also
announced that they are considering similar legislation.
Reportedly, The Washington Alliance of Technology
Workers, an organization of high-tech workers formed to
advocate improved benefits and workplace rights,
spearheaded these campaigns. American unions are also
pushing politicians to crack down on people entering the
country on L-1 visas. Such visas allow US-based
companies to transfer key employees, generally
executives or managers, from a foreign corporation to a
US branch, parent, subsidiary or affiliated entity.
And about a fortnight back, a kind of backlash
erupted in Britain as well, when a section of British
Telecom staff protested furiously against the company's
decision to move its call center operations to India.
Last week, the German government, too, decided to stop
issuing green cards to information technology
professionals from July 31. The decision is widely
believed to be targeted at the influx of Indian IT
professionals there, and a move triggered by the
downturn in Germany's IT sector, which in turn is
because of the slump in Europe's largest economy that
has caused many German software engineers to lose their
jobs. Green cardholders in Germany are entitled to
social security benefits for six months if they are
unemployed, and are therefore a cost to the government.
But in December, India's IT sector faced its
worst embarrassment until now when Arun Jain, chief of
Polaris, one of the country's top software services
companies, was detained in Jakarta for several days in a
move initiated by an Indonesian bank, Bank Artha Graha.
The bank said that "Polaris had repeatedly and
continuously failed to meet conditions of a contract"
between the two parties, but Polaris said, "the bank's
demands were unrealistic which resulted in bad blood".
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
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