This was the case with the 1976 film titled Inem Pelayan Seksi (Inem, the Sexy Maid). The titular character was a sensual, voluptuous divorcee, who alternately distracted the husband and caused consternation to the wife of the family she worked for. The poster of the 1976 film displayed Inem sitting on the floor, crossed legged in an inviting pose, dressed in a black bra and a skimpy sarong which revealed more than her covered thighs.

The film was so popular there were two sequels to it, both in 1977. Imagine!  In 1997, 20 years after the first Inem film, it was recycled into a sinetron (soap opera), and in 2019, remade into Inem Pelayan Sexy New.

The 1976 Inem film unabashedly commodified women as sex objects whose role was to serve men in any way they needed. The 2019 remake was devoid of exposed breasts and thighs, and adapted in keeping with the more conservative tone of these current times.

But the new Inem was nevertheless still an attractive sexy divorcee. Like the old Inem, the new 2019 Inem also received a marriage proposal from the wealthy boss of her boss. Ah, the old Cinderella theme used in Pretty Woman (1990) and Maid in Manhattan (2002). That is one way to turn the tables around: The maid from the bottom of the social rung gets elevated to a high economic class status by virtue of marriage, and therefore can now lord over her erstwhile bosses. Hah!

But in real life, would a domestic worker get a marriage proposal from the boss? Pipe dreams. It’s more likely that they would be raped by the father or adult sons, or by all of them, in turn.

If all the films mentioned above have a fairy tale quality to them, the fate of real maids, or domestic workers, are anything but. In fact, quite often, they are nightmares.

Horrific stories of their being tortured, verbally abused, physical beatings, being scorched by a hot iron, doused with scalding water, not being given food or a salary, not being given proper accommodation, kept captive like a slave and being maltreated in the most unspeakably cruel ways. In some cases, they are even murdered. The abuse happens in Indonesia as well as to domestic migrant workers abroad.

This has been the plight of maids since colonial and feudal times. They are considered “a part of the family,” are unwaged, belonging to the informal private sphere therefore invisible, and not considered the responsibility of the state.

Despite their invisibility, their so-called “unskilled” work is essential to the functioning of society, including modern (Indonesian) society. In Marxist terms, reproductive tasks essential to capitalism are performed by unpaid housewives who gave birth to and bring up future workers, and to feed and clothe their husbands, members of the productive workforce essential to profit-making.

While historically and culturally different, during colonial and feudal times in the archipelago, a similar process occurred.

Both boils down to the unequal relationship resulting from the dichotomizing of life into public-private, formal-informal, productive-reproductive, men-women, masculine-feminine which is part of the patriarchal hierarchical exploitative mindset. Despite the fact that both are indispensable to each other, one side of the dichotomy (the masculine) is valued much more than the other (feminine) side, dominating and exploiting it.

This patriarchal mindset is so entrenched that it is considered normal, and internalized even by women leaders like Puan Maharani, the House of Representatives Speaker. She “has come under fire for using an outdated conclusion as a reason not to kick-start efforts to introduce a much-needed new legislation to better protect domestic workers” (see “House leadership decision on domestic worker protection bill faces backlash,” The Jakarta Post, March 13).

The bill for the protection of domestic workers was first proposed in 2004, to address “discrimination, abuse and humiliation.” It was added to and removed from the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) three times in 19 years.

“For ratification, the bill still needs to pass several stages, such as harmonization, establishment as an initiative bill of the DPR, level 1 discussion, and level 2 discussion, for which the target is still not clear. The House has been pushed by several parties to ensure the prompt ratification of the bill, which is deemed essential for protecting domestic workers from various forms of violence and providing legal certainty to domestic workers and employers.” (Antara, March 10)

In an attempt to break the stalemate, in mid-January President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo assigned the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Manpower Ministry to coordinate efforts with the House and speed up deliberations to provide better protection for Indonesia’s 4 million domestic workers (the Post, March 13). This is the official number, but the figure is most likely much higher: 10 million, or even more, according to Jala PRT, the National Advocacy Network for Domestic Workers formed on July 11, 2004.

In fact, according to Eva Kusuma Sundari, director of the Sarinah Institute, coordinator of the coalition of civil groups advocating for domestic worker protection and a former lawmaker (2005-2014 and 2016-2019), if a plenary session of the House were to be held, she said the Deputy Law and Human Rights minister guaranteed it could be ratified in one week. Really? Wow!

The 19 year-delay begs the question: What is the underlying cause of the delay of bills related to the betterment of women’s lot? It also took 10 years to ratify the bill on sexual violence, and 45 years to revise the marriage law, to raise the marrying age from 16 to 19 for both women and men.

The barriers are not technical, but are due to a lack of political will, in fact the predominance of a political malaise that refuses to recognize the ills of society, thus further contributing to it.

It also points to the inherent sexism, even misogyny, in our very patriarchal society. It points to consistent siding of the state with the interests of capital and capitalists, rather than those of the downtrodden “little people.”

The patriarchal mindset of many leaders and politicians combines the worst of both capitalist and feudal gender ideologies, which see maids not as workers but as whores and slaves with no human rights.

 ***

The writer is director of the Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Center at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES).

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