SIX years ago, I hired an Indonesian maid from an agency. She had worked in Singapore and Taiwan and she was a good house manager and cook. She was given her own room and a day off at the weekend. Her salary was always paid on time and it was in fact higher than the amount recommended by the agency.

I even helped her settle her debts back home. She was also allowed to call home every month and given a ticket for a yearly holiday in Indonesia.

Later, she began demanding longer holidays, salary advances, a handphone, etc. Last year, she wanted to go home for Hari Raya, so I made an online ticket booking for her.

Well before the departure date, she said she needed to leave immediately as her mother was ill. I got her another (more expensive) plane ticket and she flew home. That was the last time we saw her.

We later heard that her mother was well and her family debt had been settled.

We adjusted to new arrangements by sending the children to a neighbourhood babysitter and the family also helps in cleaning the house. The kids are now more independent and speak less of the Indonesian language.

So, now that Indonesia does not want its maids to work in Malaysia, do not panic. Indonesia cannot use its maids to punish us just because of a few bad employers here.

In fact their maids have been ill-treated in many other places like New York, Paris, the Arab countries and Singapore but that didn’t make Jakarta stop its maids from going to these places.

So why is it reacting only in the case of Malaysia? I think at the end of the day, only money matters to them.

If we do need maids, let us seek them from alternative sources like Cambodia, southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Vietnam and China.

In respect of maids from China, I think we should not accept the argument offered by some quarters that China’s maids are potential home-wreckers and seducers of their male employers and, therefore, best kept out of Malaysian homes.

FADZLE, Batang Kali, Selangor

Source: NST – July 6, 2009