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View point: Indonesians must have their maids

Maids have increasingly become Indonesia’s best known global export commodity (excuse me for lack of a better word) and while the government would not recognize it and many Indonesians feel ashamed in acknowledging it, no one seems to have any serious intention to stop it

Endy M. Bayuni (The Jakarta Post)
Buenos Aires
Sun, April 26, 2015

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View point: Indonesians must have their maids

Maids have increasingly become Indonesia'€™s best known global export commodity (excuse me for lack of a better word) and while the government would not recognize it and many Indonesians feel ashamed in acknowledging it, no one seems to have any serious intention to stop it. We have to admit that these young rural women are earning foreign exchange valuable to the economy.

Many times have I come across people in Asia and in the Middle East who would tell me the moment they learn that I come from Indonesia: '€œHey, my maid at home is an Indonesian.'€ They'€™d say this as a statement of fact rather than a derogatory remark about my nation.

Many of them would add that Indonesians make the best domestic helpers, presumably based on their experience of hiring other nationalities in the past. They would describe their Indonesian maids as hard workers, loyal and obedient.

I have heard such remarks from well-meaning friends and acquaintances in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Korea, Japan (camouflaged as nurses in their working permits), Hong Kong and Taiwan. It'€™s also a known fact that Indonesian maids are the most sought-after across the Middle East, especially since other countries, our '€œcompetitors'€, are abandoning the practice. Indonesia is filling the vacuum left by the Philippines and other Asian countries.

We learned about the number in their thousands in a small country like troubled Syria when the Indonesian government had to evacuate them out to safety last year. I even heard from an Israeli acquaintance at one time that she had hired an Indonesian maid.

What they would never say, but something what we would quickly recognize, is that these Indonesian women are vulnerable to abuses. Their fates and conditions, like in any master-and-slave relationship, lie entirely in the hands of employers. Most may be benevolent, but some are evil.

We have heard stories of Indonesian maids being enslaved, subject to unimaginable tortures and physical abuses, including rape and murder. Missing from media reporting are stories of maids who do well, make a decent living and send money to their families back home out of their hard-earned money.

With more horror news stories of Indonesians being abused, there are growing calls for the government to ban the practice of sending maids abroad, starting with a moratorium. News of the beheading of two Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia last month for murdering their employers have made the calls louder to stop the export of the country'€™s number one commodity once and for all.

But we have been here and done that before to know that it'€™s not going to work. Unskilled rural women hard-pressed for jobs to eke a living would find ways of circumventing the moratorium or ban, making them even bigger prey to unscrupulous middlemen and employers.

There is no stopping it as long as we only address this as an economic matter of supply and demand. There are millions of young rural women desperate for jobs that the nation could not provide, while at the same time there are families out there, both at home and abroad, who can'€™t live without them.

Yes, Indonesian households actually are the largest employers of these young women. This makes their calls to stop exporting Indonesian maids abroad selfish at best and hypocritical at worst.

What makes them think that they make better employers than those in other Asian countries or in the Middle East? Going by the length the government goes to in trying to ensure these workers better legal protection abroad, such as by insisting on a legal contract with conditions attached, including minimum wages, these young rural women are much better off there than at home.

Their exposure to living abroad often allows them to develop skills they would not get otherwise. Ask any housewife, she'€™d tell you the best maids are those with '€œinternational experience'€. They tend to be far more disciplined and diligent at work and they can cook those delicious Asian and Arab foods.

And in the absence of any legal protection in the country '€” maids aren'€™t considered as workers '€” can we seriously claim that these women are better off working here at home? Activists who demand better protection for Indonesian workers abroad usually turn a blind eye to the situation at home because like other middle class Indonesians, they are employing maids at home without holding themselves to the standards they are demanding of employers abroad. And just because we rarely if at all hear stories of maid abuses in Indonesia doesn'€™t mean they'€™re not happening.

Indonesians housewives are usually the first to scream for help the moment they lose their maids, even if only for a week or two. Listen to how loud they complain around the time of Idul Fitri when these maids join other revelers to celebrate the big Muslim holiday.

In the absence of any law governing their employment '€” it is left entirely to the kindness of the employers '€” there is a tendency for these households to impose stringent measures, like keeping part of the maids'€™ meager wages, to ensure their return.

If we want to stop sending maids abroad because we are concerned for their safety, then we need to ban the practice of hiring maids altogether at home first. But can Indonesians live without their maids? The answer will most likely be a big '€œNo!'€
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The writer is senior editor at The Jakarta Post

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