Sin Chew Daily

Human resources minister Saravanan Murugan said he had met Indonesia’s manpower minister Ida Fauziyah, and the two countries would sign a memorandum of understanding early next month on recruitment and protection of Indonesian migrant workers that will include among others the “one maid one house” to replace the existing “one maid one task” mechanism, a maid for a household not more than six members, a single channel to bring in maids from Indonesia, and review of maid hiring cost structure every half a year.

In the past, due to inhuman treatment of some Indonesian maids by their Malaysian employers, the Indonesian government decided to stop sending maids to Malaysia under mounting domestic pressure.

Maltreatment of maids is common around the world. There are more than three million Indonesians working as maids outside the country, but Malaysia has become the first to be banned from importing Indonesian maids. This shows how bad our reputation is!

We have never improved our problems. In the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report for July 2021, Malaysia was classified as a serious violator in human trafficking, forced crime and forced labor, and was put in the lowest category 3.

For so many years, the way some Malaysian companies treat their foreign employees has drawn the attention of international human rights groups. As a result, our products have come under various forms of restrictions overseas. The bans on cotton products from Xinjiang, China, by the US and EU have also involved the issue of human rights.

Let’s take a look at the MoU to be signed between Malaysia and Indonesia.

1. The “one maid one house” system can prevent a maid from serving more than one household. Meanwhile, the six-people limitation of a household can prevent the issue of overwork for the maid.

2. A single channel to bring in maids can prevent the issue of “human trafficking” by means of standardized management. Although some of the Indonesian women are brought into Malaysia supposedly to work as maids, many end up being forced to work in brothels. As such, the government should set up the Maid Online system as soon as possible for tracking purposes. Additionally, the government should also consider solving a string of problems that may arise from hiring of undocumented maids or the absence of a formal agreement between the maid and her employer.

3. Review of maid hiring cost structure every six months: it is hoped that this policy could be implemented as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, hiring a foreign worker or maid is not something that difficult after all, but due to the presence of irresponsible maid agencies and corrupt government officials in the past, the employer had to pay a hefty cost to hire a maid who actually drew a salary not much better than back home.

By right, due to similarities in the languages used in both countries, miscommunication, poor treatment and underperformance of maids should not have happened in the first place.

The job duties of maids in Malaysia are mainly to take care of old people or very young children at home. We cannot expect these maids to do their jobs well if they have not been professionally trained prior to their departure from Indonesia.

If a maid is not skilled enough to handle the job, the employer may have to spend months training her, and this is where friction may set in.

As such, when signing the MoU with Indonesia, perhaps our government should demand that Indonesia provide only professionally trained maids who will meet their Malaysian employers’ requirements.

Meanwhile, the employer should also treat the maid as a part of the family and care about her feelings and emotions. You may not dare to eat something cooked by your maid if there is no mutual trust and the relationship is sour.

These maids have traveled so far from home to work in this country with the hope of making a little more money so that they can improve the livelihood of their own families. They are not slaves by all means!

We hire them to help settle our house chores and take care of the old and very young at home. By right everything should be fine and well.

Unfortunately, there is this invisible hand—profiteering agencies and greedy government officials—which must be severed at once so that employer-maid relationship can be normalized.