Training Course

Most of us who live in the cities require the service of a maid, especially when both husbands and wives are working. I have an Indonesian maid to help with the house chores. Mia and I go off to work first thing in the mornings and come home in the evenings. JJ goes to school in the mornings and then spends her afternoons at her grandparents. She comes home with us in the evenings.

I have never really fixed the duties for my maid. I merely told her to take care of the house the way she would take care of her own house. Sometimes, I'd tell her to do something specific like to wash the windows. Once we leave the house in the mornings, she has the whole house to herself for the whole day. I do not restrict what she eats—in fact she is free to eat the same food that we eat. I was given to understand that not all employers adopt this policy. During lunch, she has the freedom to cook whatever's in the fridge. Whenever we're running low on food, she'd give me a call, and I'd do the grocery shopping before coming home from the office. In the afternoons, she gets her afternoon naps which usually last for about an hour.

Every fortnight she gets her offday. I have offered to let her go each weekend, but she said she prefers to stay in. She said she tends to spend more if she leaves the house. Besides, she prefers the conforts of my home. During the Chinese New Year Celebration, I'd give a bit of Ang-Pow; and each time she completes a year's cycle, I'd give her a small bonus just to show her my appreciation for her loyalty.

According to the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan, about 7,000 households in Malaysia are depending on the service of Indonesian maids. [The Star] I think the actual figure is much larger than that as there must be many, many Indonesian maids who have not been legally employed, hence they do not appear in the official records.

Many other countries in this region are also employing maids from Indonesia, and they have been reported cases of abuses in all these countries—including Malaysia. I'm not aware of the exact number of abuse cases in Malaysia. Evidently, we have had some very high profile cases where maids have been subjected to hot irons on the skin, beaten, deprived of food etc. I can only make a wild guess that we probably have very small number—in terms of percentage—of such very serious abuses. Maybe several more milder kinds of abuses; but still when taken as a whole, perhaps still a matter of below 3%. I stand corrected on this estimate, of course.

Yet, now it has been proposed that the over 97% (assuming that this is indeed the correct figure) should attend a training course to qualify to be employers. [The Star]

It is strange how the authority always comes up with new ideas on how to make us spend more money before we become eligible to employ maids. Most of us do not have the time to handle the numerous procedures in applying for the work permits etc. So we usually have to use the service of the employment agents for a fee. The maids are made to undergo a prescribed medical examination, again for a fee. If they are found to be fit for work, we are then required to pay a levy before the work permits could be processed. And now, by this latest proposal, we're supposed to go for a training course, for a "minimal fee". And beyond that, I'm sure they will think of something else for us to pay.

I am not in favour of the proposed training course. Maybe it is designed to make some people rich at the expense of the 7,000 employers, although admittedly, I may be wrong. Just because there are some people—in fact, relatively few of us, who mistreated our maids, the vast majority has to pay the price. But never mind if it's effective. Did the authority really believe that a day's training course can solve the problem of abuse? These are people who're not quite right up there, and no amount of one-day training course can help.

If the proposal for a training course becomes a reality, I suppose I will have no choice but to oblige. I doubt that I will employ local Sabahans as they are known to approve their own leave. I doubt that I will employ Thai women because of the language problem. I doubt that I will ever employ a Filipina because my own experience tells me that they're the most "creative" people—lots of ideas in their heads. So by hook or by crook, my choices are restricted to the Indonesians.

So, yes, I will attend that forsaken one-day training course. And then when that is found to be not so effective against abuse cases, I'm sure the authority will extend it to, say, one week training course so that they can charge a little bit more "minimal fee".