After the shocking death of a 26-year-old Indonesian woman allegedly from abuse inflicted by her employers in Penang, the Indonesian government might ban the deployment of maids to Malaysia.
A meeting between Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Zahrain Mohamed Hashim and Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri to discuss a possible maid ban had been scheduled for Tuesday, but it was postponed, with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid unwilling to explain why, The Straits Times reported, citing the Malay Mail.
The Malaysian government stressed that the recent death of the Indonesian maid was an isolated case, and law-enforcement authorities would not cover up any cases of abuse against foreign workers.
Adelina Lisao, who was a domestic worker for a family of Indian origin at a semi-detached house in Penang, died in hospital in the afternoon of February 11. Neighbors had reported that she had been sleeping on a mat on the porch beside a Rottweiler for more than a month.
The Jakarta Post Online reported on February 13 that the Indonesian government was demanding justice for Lisao, citing Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.
The Jakarta Post on Monday quoted Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana as saying that President Joko Widodo was considering the suspension of the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers by Malaysia.
There are hundreds of thousands of Indonesian maids in Malaysia. Malaysia hopes these maids are treated humanly but there is no guarantee that some Malaysian employers would not abuse, hurt and kill their Indonesian maids. Malaysians abuse and kill Malaysians too. Indonesians too abuse and even kill Malaysians in Malaysia. Indonesians abuse and kill Indonesians in Indonesia too. And Indonesian maids are also abused in Singapore, HK and Saudi Arabia. We call these crimes, prevalent in all countries and in all societies. We like our countries and societies to be 100% perfect and crime-free. But life isn’t perfect, otherwise we wouldn’t be needing cops, would we? If Indonesia keeps threatening to ban maids to Malaysia each time something like this happens in Malaysia, Malaysia might as well make the first move of banning Indonesian maids itself. Let Indonesia send its maids to other countries where it think life is 100% perfectly happy for its maid.What if Malaysia threatens to expel all Indonesians workers from Malaysia if for example an Indonesian kills a Malaysia. Does this make sense?