Dear Human Resources Minister,

It is with great alarm I read your statement about Indonesian maids. It gives me the impression that you think all employers are bad and you have to save them from us. I have had maids for many years.

My first Indonesian maid stayed with us for10 years and when she wanted to go back to take care of her husband who was ill, she arranged for another maid to take her place. This current maid has been with us for six years now. My first Indonesian maid used to take the weekends off every fortnight , with us sending her to her husbands place every Friday evening and taking her back every Sunday evening.

Every weekend off, she would be given a food allowance to buy whatever she needs as we do not eat pork nor beef in our home. My maids are able to take a day off whenever they want; go back to Indonesia whenever there is a problem to be sorted out there, even annually.

I do not hold them to their two-year stint and only then a free ticket home is given. When they take leave to go home to Indonesia, they are given a free ticket, paid leave and a bonus as spending money in case they do not have savings.

When I allow them a month off, they want to come back in two weeks and I have to persuade them to stay there the full duration. Am I treating my maids wrong. Do tell me.

I have recruited maids from Indonesia for my family with ease and many prefer to work within my family and actually wait for the opportunity to do so. It costs only about RM3,500 to recruit a maid and this includes the Indonesian agent’s fee, transports costs within Indonesia, airfare, passport and visa costs, medical fees in Indonesia and in Malaysia and the levy.

Why then is Papa talking about a fee of RM8,000? Why are they against maids being recruited directly from Indonesia? I have had no problem with maids running away. They are all very reliable though we do the training ourselves to suit our needs. When I told my maid that she should take a day off every week, she felt that would be one way to bankrupt her.

No kidding, that was her response. Wherever she goes on her off days, she has to pay the host of wherever she is for the privilege of being there and she feels she does not need the added expense. She does not want weekly off days. I have a situation here.

On another note, what about Malaysian employers and their rights and needs? No thought seems to be given to this group of people who actually pay for the so called ‘privilege’ of having a maid.

Your target seems to be the employers who have legal maids – what about the tens of thousands of homes where there are illegal maids? On entry into Malaysia, our maids have to undergo a medical examination to ensure that they do not carry any communicable disease followed by annual checks.

The peculiar problem with Indonesian maids is that there are many more illegal maids than legal ones. There are tens of thousands of illegal Indonesian workers milling around especially males who prey on Indonesian women who earn a wage. Mind you, these people have not been tested for diseases

With your suggestion to give a day off every week, our legal maids will be socialising with these people and may contract diseases which will be brought back into our homes. These maids work very closely with babies and children within the home and contamination and infection will be easy. This is not so with the Filipinos as there are not many of their male compatriots here.

If you want us to give a day off, please make sure that there are no illegal Indonesians around before you make it mandatory for employers to give them a day off. How do you propose to take care of our safety and needs ?

Our situation with Indonesian maids is not the same as with Filipinos. I would appreciate it if you could give some thought to my request and my opinions.