Saturday, June 20, 2009

Indonesia threat to cut maid supply

KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia has threatened to temporarily stop providing domestic help to Malaysia.
Indonesian ministers, its national police chief, and the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia are expected to hold a meeting with Malaysian representatives on Monday for a preliminary evaluation.
The threat comes after the report two weeks ago of Siti Hajar, the Indonesian maid who was allegedly scalded with hot water by her employer, for whom she had been working since 2006.
“There are proposals to consider to stop sending maids to Malaysia for a few months, to review and improve the system and discuss problems faced by maids such as abuse and unpaid salary,” said Indonesian Embassy labour attache Teguh Hendro Cahyono.
“We understand that Malaysia is not the only country (with maid abuse cases). There are also a lot of cases in Saudi Arabia. In Singapore, there have been instances of maids jumping off buildings.”
Teguh said Malaysia was considered the last option for Indonesian domestic helpers due to the low pay and abuse cases.
While Hong Kong and Taiwan pay a maid between RM1,300 and RM1,600 per month, and Saudi Arabia and Singapore offer between RM800 and RM900, Indonesian maids who work here are paid a minimum monthly wage of RM600, he said.
Asked about the general view that Indonesian maids were the most problematic — with a high number of runaway cases — compared to maids from other countries, Teguh said that was a stigma on their domestic help.
“This is a prejudice towards them, which jeopardises the relationship between employers and maids. The employers generally perceive the maids as untrustworthy — that they would run away whenever they have the chance to.
“Hence, they would try to restrict their freedom such as by keeping their passport.”
Likewise, he said the maids felt that the employers were mean.
“Most of the maids who run away do so because they are not paid or because they suffer abuse at the hands of their employer, or that they don’t get any rest at all,” he said.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan estimated that 7,000 employers would be affected if Indonesia stops sending maids to Malaysia.
In Malacca, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam said the opposition towards the Government’s proposal to make it compulsory for employers to give their foreign maids a day-off from work each week was not surprising.
“Although they know that they should give the day-off, they have their own view that there would be negative effects following the decision,” he told reporters after attending a meet-the-client session at Wisma Perkeso in Ayer Keroh yesterday.
He was asked to comment on the result of a SMS poll carried out by The Star on the proposal where 76.1% of the 769 respondents indicated their disapproval with only 23.9% agreeing to the idea.

tunku : the government should allow maids to come from other poor countries.we should not rely on indonesia.if indonesia threat us to stop sending the maid, we too should stop taking indonesian labour.see who suffers more.indonesia should behave, they can't threat us all the time, we need to threat them back.by right this thing should be discuss in proper manner not by threating.there are more bad maids than good maids from indonesia but we are not complaining.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maids from other countries cannot lah you know the reason. You see in Malaysia all policies are correct but the reason is wrong. Icannot go further lah because then I will let the cat out of the bag. Ramalx

Anonymous said...

I am not sure whether is it really true that Malaysians are abusive to the Indonesians maids in particular. What I know is that most of those who are hired in Malaysia are normally those rejects. I have personally enquire some of the maids in one of the recruitment agency in Jakarta. For those who I see as worthy for employment, are generally not interested to work in Malaysia due to the salary disparities with other countries. So this could be possibility one of the reasons why employers tend to be agitated when maids just couldn't understand their roles properly.

REZA said...

WELL THAT'S GOOD THEN, WE DONT NEED THEM EITHER. BE MAID AT THEIR OWN COUNTRY. NO BIG DEAL..

Anonymous said...

We can always get maids from CIna since we have in satiable demand for maid cum shop helpers and stall helpers.
The indonesian govt must be thanked.
We have about 3.1 millioners foreigners.
This includes a floating and fixed population of at least 2.1 million indonesians,since all the TV3 7 8 9 channels broadcast Indon movies and soaps and we are inviting rockers to sing at Bukit jalail and dont forget INUL.
Now we have a chance to practice PRC mainland accent with the new force maids.
The open sky policy,cheap airfare online booking and 23 million target tourists (by all the ministers of touring from Kadir azlina and NYY) have been blinding everyone with bright glittery to the obvious risks.
We are the most naive people when dealing with foreigners...
We get weak knees and dizzy when a senior member of a foreign government insults us while on malaysian soil and goodwill.
Everone in the national security council donot want to take a critic at d 3.1 million foreigners in the country.
700 iranians students insulted us by doing a demo against their country elections result.
Home minster jest give warning.
Wag lau, we do sumeting like in IRAN,we are going to get real sheet!You see , we are so good to foreigners that they dare to demo !
Time and time again we read abt african with black money scams.
Time and again we read about GROs from China getting caught doing selling business at night.
See Petaling street KL, Pudu KL,Selayang KL,Chow Kit KL,big problem of Indon Vietnam Nepal Myanmar African.
Senator Minister of Wilayah Perseketuan Nong CHik said we need foreigners who will work becus no Malaysian want certain jobs.
He is naive becuz foreigners, are carpet sellers, shop assistants, black money, "permanent students",con men and con women.
Some folks from Madras jest come to ampang point to look for job in curry house etc..Sumore cant spik English.
From Ampang Point to Bukit belacan and its surroundings there so so many foreigners, many of whom are jobless but shop at hypermarkets.
And the KL buses are full of loud foreigners who dont respect locals.
I call on The PM to sit up and walk those areas,
Forget the bridge..
Tuanku said no.
The new economic model will send the foreigners home.
Maids are bad news especially to housewives on the Klang district and Pulau ketam.

Mah ngah tong.

Anonymous said...

Our policies had gone out of hand. Likewise many developing countries are driving by fast pace infra structure growth, most parent are working class, the need for helpers, workers and service industries workers are in demand.

We also a heavily promote tourism country, thus allowing many temporary visitors into the countries.

As many agencies, govt organisations see the tremendous income on levies, $ generations for economic, and ever side incomes for many high ranking dealing and approvals, the situation will not be soolved and will be spiralling; as many foreign migrant, traders and transit CRIMINALs and workers compete among themselves to survive, I see trouble ahead, crimes, robbery and Vice , this is already happening in the society across our nation land.

Besides maids issue, i know even SECURITY Guards also hired many foreigners from NEPAL, PAKISTAN, and china. As to counter crimes and assume the safety of our homes. But mind you many of these foreign ' GUARD ' are not properly trained, no understanding and local languages. For a security boss he is making huge profit. CHarging 18000 pm for condo security, he pays bride to secure contract 1000, salary 8000 and others, he still make handsome profit. But some of these Pakis or foreigned trained 'Guards', some are murderer in their villages, escaping wanted person in their homeland and hiding here, as i had heard a story of a young man working in this security guard business...

We need to revise our national policies, There are many retired pensioners, retired army officers, retired police officers, it is a matter of organising and get people to work. But the power behind the lesen issuing, middle man securing lesen is such a lucrutive business, the problems will continue and can never be solved...
The call ' Taking care of people in power' and create many many unsloved problems for many citizen to bear.
They are talks among common people, but how can they put in a simple writing and make he top gun of our political world understand?

The situation has been too long , too deep and like a durian tree, many migrants had children here, stay and educate here, some even got RED IC....it isok as long as they behave themselves, but they ar competing with local for jobs, small contracts and business, so many tax payers are just out of the context.

We need to have a system of control, a system to monitor every single migrants and a way to TAX those transactions.

as far as maid/workers issues, The industries recruitment fees, levies are billions ringgit turnover, it can never be solved as long as there is a demand .

I had survived 20 years with 4 kids without a single maid....so why can others tries? They are many ways...for eg investing in a dish washing machines...and teach your kids to do some basis housework...your neighbours are also a good source of helpers, a few hundred pm could means a lot to non-working housewives... surely for working class and young family, with reasonable income, having a maid is like having BMW, a symbol for class. But a BMW needs high cost to mantain...and look after .

the stories goes on..and on... The human race like to dominate others....