depenDenCe Of ForeiGn mAidS

Indonesians living in Malaysia clashed with Malaysians in February 2000, prompting calls for tougher rules on foreign workers, many of whom live on rubber estates near Kampung Limau Manis (near Kuala Lumpur); about 300 were arrested. Many of the Indonesians were employed in the construction of Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but did not go home when their contracts expired. Malaysia requires Indonesians arriving on tourist visas to have at least M$1000 when they arrive.

There were 697,219 registered foreign workers in Malaysia in February 2000, including 517,766 from Indonesia; 129,000 from Bangladesh; 30,500 from the Philippines; 3,280 from Pakistan; 2,888 from Thailand.

There are 150,000 foreign maids working in Malaysia, mostly Indonesians, and the Malaysian government has promised to do more to curb abuses. Incidents of Malaysians abusing maids have become front-page news in one case, a man reported his wife to police after she allegedly battered their Indonesian maid, who was paid $97 a month. The woman, who has pleaded innocent, could face up to seven years in jail if she is convicted.

A study of Indonesian maids in Malaysia concluded that many are trying to escape social problems in their villages; many of the maids interviewed were abandoned or divorced by their husbands or their husbands had taken on another wife. Once in Malaysia, the maids find that the work is harder than they expected, and many have problems with language, employer behavior and unfamiliarity with modern household appliances.

The recruitment of foreign maids may help alleviate the burden of short-handed families and restaurants, especially when many urban couples have to go out to earn a living. Nevertheless, a maid can be as detrimental as she is helpful to a family. Maltreatment and sexual abuses of maids, as well as the abuses of employers' toddlers and thefts by maids have all gone rampant in recent years. All these point to the fact that having a stranger walking around freely at home unsupervised is just as dangerous as planting a time bomb at home. It is just a matter of time that it goes off. In the rare incidents where it doesn't, the employer should count his luck and sing praises to the Almighty.