Domestic worker narrates tragic tale of maltreatment

JAKARTA (JP): The life of Jumiati is a reflection of thousands of poor villagers who come to the city seeking a better life.

The 19-year-old, like many others, came to the capital with high hopes. Jumiati, who only completed elementary school education, actually was not asking for much. She just wanted to work as a domestic helper for a good family. She said that she had heard about abuse of domestic workers, but was willing to take the risk.

"My family and I needed the money, so I could only pray that I would get a good employer," she told The Jakarta Post from her bed in the intensive care unit at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta on Monday.

Jumiati was sent to the hospital on Sept. 7 with burns all over her body after her coworker, Sipon, had burned herself to death in their room. Sipon committed suicide as she could no longer endure the suffering from being assaulted by their employers, Maj. Edison Hutapea and his wife First. Adj. Insp. Marsini Napitupulu.

Jumiati, who has five siblings, is from Candirejo village in Pekalongan, Central Java. Most adult men in the village, including her late father, when he was still alive, work in the rice fields, while the youth prefer to work as laborers or as domestic helpers in Pekalongan or in Jakarta.

Jumiati's two sisters, Prapti, 26, and Dariyah, 17, currently work in Pekalongan as domestic helpers.

Jumiati said that five years ago, Prapti and Dariyah had worked in Jakarta as housemaids, before moving to Pekalongan.

Her first brother, Jupri, is a laborer in their village, Badrun, her second brother, works as a driver in Jakarta, while the youngest is still in elementary school.

Jumiati first came to the city three years ago, where she worked with a family in Sumur Batu area, Central Jakarta, who treated her well.

But after her father died two years ago, she returned to her village, where she helped her mother making emping (chips made from the fruit of melinjo).

Jumiati said she could only make about Rp 5,000 a day, which, she felt, was not enough.

With the help of her neighbor, Turini, 45, she went to Jakarta to apply for work at an employment agency two months ago.

Jumiati felt fortunate when several days after her arrival, Hutapea and his wife, Marsini, employed her as a maid and promised her Rp 200,000 as a monthly salary -- which she never received.

She felt even more fortunate when she heard that Hutapea was with the Navy, while Marsini was a police officer.

"All this time, I assumed that officers were good people," she remarked, saying that people in her village have the same assumption about the police and the military.

The couple then brought Jumiati and another housemaid, Sipon, to their house in the navy housing complex in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

A day after their arrival, the couple allegedly started to abuse her and Sipon. According to Jumiati, the couple were always suspicious that she and Sipon neglected to take care of their two children, aged one-and-a half-years and two years old.

The couple allegedly hit her and Sipon with their hands, shoes and sticks when they got angry. Many times, they ordered Jumiati and Sipon to douse each other with boiling water.

Hutapea had allegedly even hung Jumiati by her neck once when he got angry, according to Jumiati.

As Sipon could no longer bear the suffering, she decided to commit suicide by dousing herself with kerosene and setting herself alight. Sipon died during the incident while Jumiati was severely wounded.

Her brother Badrun, who came to visit her at the hospital three days after the incident, could not even recognize her.

"She looks totally different. She has become so thin and her body is covered in wounds," he told the Post.

Badrun said that she had become quieter than usual, often cried without any apparent reason and talked during her sleep.

"I cannot forget the assaults and the incident. I want to go home, I don't want to stay here any longer," she said, adding that she did not want to know anything about the couple, who have not been detained.(04)