KL and Jakarta still deadlocked over maid issue
KUALA SELANGOR: Malaysia and Indonesia are still negotiating to resolve outstanding issues related to the recruitment of domestic maids from the republic, said Human Resources Minister Datuk S. Subramaniam.
“We have been discussing the issue for some time, but there are a few conditions which Indonesia wants us to meet, namely granting a weekly day off for the maids and permission to keep their passports.
“From the survey which we have done, Malaysian employers are not keen on these two conditions. As such, both countries would continue to discuss the matter and I hope some kind of flexibility would be given to us to resolve the issue. – Jan 17, 2010, The Star
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Apparently, the shortage of domestic helpers from Indonesia is going to be so overwhelming that the President of the Malaysian Maid Agents have estimated about 50,000 households will be facing problems with domestic help. And from the looks of it, I just don’t see any solution in the near future. Why?
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For one, when diplomats from two governments famous for placing more importance on self-enrichment projects rather than the welfare of their people are placed on the negotiating table, how would you expect a reasonable solution to be worked out? It will always be a tussle of “who gets the most out of it” between the two sides, no?
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And secondly, Indonesian nationals desperate to make a better living for themselves always have had the option of going “illegal”. After all, we’ve heard from the Indonesians themselves about how easy it is to obtain a passport under a different name. So, what’s the urgency, right?
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Well, while negotiation is going on, no one seems to give a damn about the welfare of the employers. Yes, we’ve read about the maids who were abused and their employers who have been found guilty should quite rightly be thrown into the slammer. But you know what? Just as there are that many bad employers in this country, there are just as many bad maids who have caused a lot of anguish to the families who hired them. It really irks me to see the other many good and caring employers being victimised by the greedy and ruthless maid agencies and the equally greedy and useless government agencies, no thanks to the “ever-ready-to-go-on-a-witch-hunt” main stream media.
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I was fortunate to have had a very good domestic help as part of my family. Although she was not perfect, (but then again, who is, right?) she loved my children and was an efficient and hard worker. And for that, she was given many treats such as day offs, shopping trips with pocket money, mobile phones with enough credit to call home, as much food as she can eat, etc and was very much part of the family. After her two years with us was up and she wanted to continue working for us, I called the agent to renew her visa before sending her home for a month-long vacation. So, one would have thought everything was aye-ok, right? Well, when we went to the airport to pick my maid up after her vacation, imagine our shock when we found out that the agent didn’t only NOT renew her visa but had called her earlier to tell her that she is no longer under our employment and will have to go through them again to find a new employer!! That’s what happens when you trust a maid agent!!!!!!!
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Anyway, to cut the long story short, we bought a ticket back to Indonesia for my maid with some cash for her to try and apply a new visa from her side but we found out later that she too got cheated by an agent over there. While I am able to survive temporarily without any domestic help as I was already planning to migrate, I worry, and still do, about the fate of that poor lady.
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I’ve also heard so many horror stories from friends who, after having their domestic help with them for a couple of months, they would come home one day to find that the maid has ran off leaving behind their passports. Or how their maids would suddenly go crazy and demanded to be sent back. How many of you have heard rumours about the Maid Agencies advising the newly arrived maids to run away after the 3-month guarantee period? Just so that they can recycle those maids, knowing full well that they will be instantly snapped up by desperate households due to the shortage of maids?
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Know what I think? That the dilemma faced by both desperate Malaysian households and desperate Indonesians looking for better paying jobs is mainly due to the unscrupulous ways of the licensed crooks disguised under the title of “Government Authorised Agents“!!!! Of course, needless to say, it’s also all thanks to our governments for approving these sort of practices. They obviously don’t give a fart about us little people, because if they do, they would have and should have:-
- stamped out the middle-men and agents,
- created and regulated working visas for domestic helpers like they would for other professions and
- allowed mutually agreed employment contracts to be signed where both the employers and employees are protected, rather than the current ones where the agents and middle-men benefit most.
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So……………shall we hold our breaths?



