Ismira Lutfia & Putri Prameshwari – Despite the optimism aired by Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar that the president would sign a long-awaited agreement on Indonesian migrant workers during a visit to Malaysia, officials on Tuesday said more time was needed.

Malaysia needed to determine its position on a standard minimum wage for Indonesian migrant workers, delaying the signing of the memorandum of understanding, an Indonesian official said.

"The joint working group agreed on Friday that Malaysia was not ready to sign a new memorandum of understanding on the treatment of Indonesian migrant workers during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit there," Damos Dumoli Agusman, the director for economic and sociocultural treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Jakarta Globe. "So we agreed instead to seal the deal temporarily in the form of a letter of intent."

Yudhoyono arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, the second leg of a trip that has already taken him to Singapore.

The temporary agreement was signed on Tuesday by Muhaimin and Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in the presence of Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the latter's office in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, the Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Ministry said in a statement.

"This marks our initial effort to improve protection of our migrant workers, especially those working in the domestic sector," Muhaimin said in the statement.

The agreement secures migrant workers' rights to have a day off in a week and to retain their passports. However, it stipulates that both countries will seek to set a minimum wage based on market price.

Damos said the wage issue had been put on ice because Malaysia did not acknowledge there should be a minimum wage. "We insist that there should be such standard, whereas Malaysia wants to base it on market mechanisms," he said.

Malaysia has requested more time for its cabinet to establish its position on the wage issue. Jakarta had negotiated for its migrant workers to get a minimum wage of 800 ringgit ($249) per month.

Wahyu Susilo, a policy expert with Migrant Care, told the Globe that Malaysia had a standard monthly minimum wage of 1,200 ringgit, calculated on inflation and price fluctuations. Meanwhile, Indonesian workers receive monthly salaries of about 500 to 600 ringgit on average, while workers from other countries get about 1,000 ringgit.

Wahyu said the stalled negotiations on determining the minimum wage was because of "heavy lobbying" of Malaysian officials by employment agencies and employers.

Wahyu said: "They are sending warning signs that if Indonesia insists on having a minimum wage, they will start to look for other markets to recruit migrant workers" such as from the Mekong River countries, where labor is still relatively cheap.

Damos said Indonesia's target to finalize the new memorandum of understanding was "as soon as possible," while Malaysian news agency Bernama reported that the agreement would be signed in two months.

The new memorandum of understanding would lead to the lifting of a moratorium on the flow of Indonesian migrant workers to Malaysia imposed last June after a string of high-profile cases of alleged abuse.

Widyarka Ryananta, counselor for social and cultural information at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, said the signing of the letter of intent had sparked hopes that an agreement would be signed soon between the two countries. "This is one step closer to the memorandum of understanding," he said.

The Associated Press quoted Najib as saying that he expected Indonesia to end soon the moratorium on sending migrant workers to the country. "I assume [the freeze] would be lifted soon... if all the issues have been settled," he said.