Take the effort to understand your maid

WE have imported thousands of “workers” and “maids” to Malaysia. And like us, they have families and friends. They have families who love them.
Indonesian parents living in the villages are no different from any parents who love their children. Furthermore, Indonesians living in the villages are very community based compared with Malaysians.
Indonesians maids may earn more money overseas, but working overseas is always a second choice. Oftentimes, the best maids stay and work in Indonesia.
Malaysians do not understand that not all maids are equal in education or training. The use of maids has evolved over many years in Indonesia, with an accepted system of recognition that is simply unheard of in Malaysia.
In Malaysia, the maids are thrown into a new culture and a new system of working that breaks with their tradition. While maids are lumped and paid as a homogenous group in Malaysia, there is a clear system of recognition and pride among maids in Indonesia.
There are the junior maids (who do the basic everyday cleaning) and the senior maids (who do the cooking and have access to the employer’s family quarters). Then there are the babysitters and the governesses, both of whom have a higher level of education and are generally higher paid.
A maid may only have some primary school education, whereas a babysitter is required to complete Form 3 and babysitter training (normally a month of basic training and an internship with a hospital).
In many cases, maids work without formal attire whereas babysitters and governesses have to wear uniforms.
In Indonesia, there is a clear demarcation of pay and recognition by education and seniority. While Malaysians may consider themselves as living in a more “advanced society”, to Indonesians, this lack of role separation and work recognition is seen as crass.
It is further reinforced in the way we talk to them – kasar. Worse, before the maids arrive on the shores of Malaysia, we already have a negative impression of them – lower educated humans who do not live in the same social class as we do.
We offer them no respect and we make no effort to understand their family, their standing in society, and their individual human needs. To us, they are just paid workers.
Another critical issue that separates maids in Malaysia and Indonesia is the concept of family and community.
In Indonesia, when the maid has toiled loyally for the employer’s family, they are sometimes absorbed as a part of an “extended family”. Not only is the maid paid a salary, but her welfare lies strictly with the employer’s family.
Of course there are lots of conflicts between employers and maids in Indonesia, but sometimes in an almost perfect situation, maids and employers co-exist harmoniously, helping one another.
However, maids arrive on our shores stripped of pride, recognition, and family support. They are abused the minute they sign up with “kampong agents” who are often wolves in sheep’s clothing – a friendly neighbour promising riches to the family.
Often times, these “kampong agents” are paid by the family, and the family is obligated to them for providing a wonderful opportunity for their child.
The maid is then sent to key cities like Jakarta and kept in a “holding area”, where she has to pay several hundred US dollars for food and training while waiting for an assignment.
She cannot leave the compound and is cut off from her family. She does not dare to run away because her family is already in debt.
Until and unless Malaysians learn to adapt and adopt maids as a part of an extended family and as long as we continue to push them to the fringes of society, we should take a long, hard look at our own humanity in the mirror every morning.