Applications to work in KL fall in NTT
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang
The abuse of Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonat has had a negative impact on local people in her home province, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), seeking similar jobs in Malaysia.
Labor recruitment agency PT Bina Rizki Kurnia, which dispatched Nirmala to Malaysia on June 24 last year, confirmed on Tuesday a decrease in the number of local residents wanting to go to the neighboring country to work.
"We were scheduled on Tuesday to send more workers to Malaysia but the management suddenly canceled because the level of interest of locals in becoming maids in Malaysia has decreased since the Nirmala abuse case," said Jhon Salmon, director of the Kupang, NTT, branch of Bina Rizki.
He said the decision to cancel the departure of 10 Indonesian workers from the province was made pending the legal processing of Nirmala's case in Malaysia.
Apart from that, the number of prospective workers to be sent by the company to the neighboring country failed to achieve the quota of around 50 people, Salmon added.
He stressed that the cancellation was not due to trauma among prospective workers, who had registered themselves with PT Bina Rizki to participate in vocational training before being sent abroad.
PT Bina Rizki is an authorized recruitment agency registered with the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.
Salmon acknowledged that before the Nirmala abuse case surfaced last week, many people in East Nusa Tenggara were interested in seeking jobs in Malaysia via his company.
The high level of interest was indicated in statistical data on those who had registered with the company and other recruitment agencies seeking work in Malaysia.
"Usually, they total 50 to 100 per departure. However, this time, it is very small, only 10 people. So, we have decided to cancel their departure until the quota is filled," Salmon said.
He believes that clarity in the legal processing of Nirmala's case by the Malaysian authorities would help restore the interest of people in the country's eastern province to seek work there.
Last Saturday, a Malaysian court charged Nirmala's employer, Yim Pek Ha, 35, with scalding the Indonesian domestic helper with hot water and burning her with an iron, in one of the country's worst maid abuse cases.
Prosecutors reportedly demanded a sentence of 67 years in prison.
Yim pleaded not guilty to four charges of causing grievous bodily harm to Nirmala at her luxury condominium in central Kuala Lumpur between January and May.
Judge Akhtar Tahir denied Yim bail and ordered her to remain in prison pending trial on July 26, a court official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
In charges read out in court, Yim was accused of using "dangerous weapons" -- a hot iron and hot water -- to inflict grievous bodily harm on the maid on three occasions.
The charges each carry a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine or whipping. A fourth charge accused Yim of beating Nirmala with a metal cup, and carries a jail term of up to seven years.
However, Nirmala's parents, from Tuapakas village, Kualin subdistrict, South Timor Tengah regency, East Nusa Tenggara, demanded on Tuesday the death sentence or life imprisonment for Yim
"I, as Nirmala's mother, cannot accept the threat of an 80- year jail term for her (Yim). For me, a life sentence or the death penalty would be most appropriate because the abuse of my daughter was very savage and inhuman," said Martha Bonat Tony, 36.
She was speaking in Kupang before leaving for Kuala Lumpur via Jakarta on Tuesday along with her husband Daniel Bonat, 39.
The alleged abuse sparked a national outrage in Malaysia and Indonesia after newspapers printed front-page photographs earlier last week of the maid, showing burns and bruises over much of her body.