by Su Hui Hsing in MALAYSIAKINI 16, June
It is true that Malaysians in general have become very dependent on maids. Why is this so?
“Because we do not have proper childcare centres where parents can drop their kids to be well taken care of when they go to work,” opined Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.
“This is one solution which should be seriously considered by the government as well as those in the private sector if we wish to lessen our over-dependence on domestic helpers,” she told malaysiakini in an interview.
Queried for her comments on Wanita MCA chief Dr Ng Yen Yen’s remarks against allowing maids from China to work in Malaysia because “Chinese maids have a tendency to snatch our husbands”, Kok said that the root cause why we are so dependent on maids should be tackled first.
The MP said to put our woes of Chinese maids (whom Ng refers to as ‘dragon ladies’) snatching our husbands to rest, we might as well not employ maids at all but consider other solutions to our need for help with housework and childcare.
“To say that Chinese maids will snatch our husbands is superficial. Maids from other countries can snatch our husbands too,” said Kok, ading that “what we need are quality childcare centres.”
Low wages
“We have to ask ourselves the question: Will China girls come in to work for us for RM500? The low pay will open up channels for employment visas to be abused by employment agencies, the maids themselves, or human trafficking offenders,” said Kok.
Low pay has been given to be one of the reasons why Indonesian and Filipina maids no longer want to work in Malaysia.
Often, reasons given by Malaysians for their dependence on domestic help are the lack of time or their refusal to do menial jobs. Foreign maids come in handy because they would help us do the tasks that we do not have time to do or do not want to do ourselves. And the amount we have to pay them, which is relatively low, makes it all the more attractive to hire a maid.
Kok also expressed concern on cases of employers violating the dignity of their maids which are not rare in the country.
“Under the system, maids are sometimes forced into a corner when they receive inhuman treatment by their employers but are unable to return to their home countries due the debts they owe to middlemen in getting a job,” she said.
“It should be good news that Indonesians and Filipinas no longer need us as their source of income. Perhaps they have experienced a sense of awakening that they no longer want to be exploited to work for so little pay while having to subject their lives to the whim and fancy of their employers.
“At the same time, employers should examine their treatment towards their maids – whether they have treated them like human beings and rewarded their maids’ time, effort and commitment with the fairest possible remuneration and benefits,” Kok said.
Increase employment
The DAP parliamentarian said that not only does setting up more childcare centres alleviate the problem of dependence on maids, it also alleviates the problem of unemployment and low participation of women in the labour force.
“At the moment, only 47% of women are in the workforce but in the universities, there are more women than men. Where are these women? They are staying at home because of their children. If we can set up childcare centres, we can train women for the job and allow other women to go out to work. It is a win-win situation,” she explained.
Instead of paying foreign workers, Kok said, we can help our own economy by providing more employment to local women.
“Setting up more quality childcare centres and training local women for the jobs in these centres is certainly a viable solution – until, of course, employers think that they can make more profits by hiring cheap foreign labour from sluggish economies to work in their childcare centres,” she added.
A really good Amen may be given to the Sassy MP about good childcare centres manned by trained Malaysian ladies to replace the employment of maids and its related problems…..
In Indonesia maid business, local indonesia sponsors go into villages to find and convince women to become a maid, then the sponsor take the maid-to-be to a maid agency and collect his / her fee. The maid agency then house the maid, feed them, some sort of training, make their passport and do medical check-up. The Malaysia maid agency pay more than RM two thousand for 1 maid. Then, they apply for maid permit and pay levy to the government. So, the final cost now range from RM4000+ to RM5000+. It is a good business if the monthly volume is high enough. The government attempt to fix the rate to be slightly more than RM 2000 is a total failure. This showed its stupidity by implement policy before in-depth analysis. This attitude is what killing Malaysia. The government may have good intention but they do not know the know-how, it always use simple method to solve complicated problem. We need someone who have the intelligence to come out with ready and good solution and present them nicely to the government and convince them with solid evidence and figures so the government can do thing right. Basically, DAP to treat the government as children and do the homework for the government, so at least, they can pass the test and Malaysians need not continue to suffer from bad policy and poor planning. The honorable Teresa not only have to present a good idea, but also have to come out with the detailed implementation step so the BN can follow. So, in fact, DAP’s role is to be the leader to lead the government. We need a much improved DAP to give MCA a healthy competition. Then we also need a better PAS to continue divide Malay votes. Then hopefully, someone else other than greedy UMNO can lead the country.
sigh, nice idea, mate but BN gomen would rather pay high price than listen to anything reasonable from DAP.
I agree with the idea of reducing the dependency of foreign maids. Quality day care centre could help us achieve part of that but I am afraid Malaysians need to change their mindset towards having a livi in maid. I have been studying in Japan for a couple of years and it is true that even though they are the richest socisty in Asia they do not depend on foreign maid to help them with child care or house work. Japanese are trained from very young to do their own house chore. Children going to primary school are thought how to clean up toilets and they do clean school toilets themsleves. (I suspect this is the reason why their public toilets tend to be much better than the rest of Asia) Japanese day care centre is also among the best in the world. All personnel working in the day care centre are qualified child care giver. The meals in these centres are also prepared by qualified nutritionists. These day care centres are so good that a long waiting list is always there for those who want to send their child. Those mothers who wnated to go back to work could trust their children in these centres. I do sincerely hope that one day this type of facility will also make its way to our country.
We have 60,000 unemployed university graduates. Why don’t they work as maids? They’re well educated, surely they know how to operate electrical appliances.
We also have poor people at kampungs who rely on donation from JKM. Stop giving free money to them and kick their asses to get some job. Working as maid has more dignity than wasting taxpayers’ money through JKM!
I’m waiting for locals to work as maids. No levy, easy to contact if something happen, etc. What the government should do is setting a minimum wage (i.e. RM 900/month) to attract local “talents”. Then we won’t have problems with foreign maids anymore.
The era of cheap labour has ended. Indonesian workers are getting smarter now. They prefer to go to Hongkong that gives better salary and has less maid abuse cases. Nobody wants to take RM 500/month anymore.
Agree…Need to change the mind set.
More professional childminders needed.
More Nuesery.
More professional house cleaners
More reliable transport providers.
More…more..more
So that working mothers could concentrate on their jobs, lest they keep on thinking when is the best time to resign, or leave office early to run to their kids.
Please…please please, lets put our mind together to overcome the graduate unemployments and soscial problems arising from the gaps.