How many more 'Nirmalas'?

How many more 'Nirmalas'?

Reports on the torture of an Indonesian maid in Kuala Lumpur
have shocked both Indonesia and Malaysia, while the message
coming from Malaysia through its leaders' remarks regarding swift
legal action has been loud and clear.

Malaysia's top-ranking officials have said that such
"inhumane" practices are "intolerable" and that the perpetrator
could face up to 80 years in jail. The maid's employer, Yim Pek
Ha, was immediately arrested even as her husband filed a
rebuttal, which said Nirmala inflicted the wounds on herself and
that she had stolen up to 10,000 ringgit (US$2,632) from the
couple.

Sympathy and anger were expressed in abundance by the
Malaysian community in relation to the case, which, the
Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said, was the worst instance
of employee abuse ever seen in the country.

Malaysia's reaction is commendable. It signals to Indonesia,
among the main sending countries of Malaysia's migrant workers,
that in any event involving such a heinous crime immediate action
will be taken to ensure that it does not recur.

We shudder, indeed, at the realization that Nirmala's case may
not be the last, in Malaysia or in other countries where our
migrant workers struggle far from home to improve their own
welfare and that of their families.

Even before the economic crisis, Indonesian men and women had
for decades sought to work anywhere possible, given the tough
competition in the labor market back home.

But we have also heard similar stories of abuse, rape and even
death in mysterious circumstances concerning our workers. And,
through the years, we have failed to address even the most
fundamental weaknesses in their protection.

This week alone, Siti Aisyah, another Indonesian migrant
worker from Saudi Arabia, was last reported still to be in a coma
at the police hospital in East Jakarta. Originally from Cianjur,
West Java, she had been stabbed in the abdomen after reportedly
trying to fend off her employer's attempt to rape her.

Year after year has gone by. A plan exists for better
regulation and the better monitoring of both workers and their
labor supply agencies. Regional talks have been held, all aimed
at assuring the public that the migrant labor market is not
merely one of commodities, but of human beings with a basic right
to decent work and to protection of their well-being.

Malaysia has, meanwhile, deported thousands of our illegal
workers, often to find thousands repeatedly returning, also by
illegal means, thanks to the services of corrupt parties in both
countries.

Nirmala, who had traveled all the way from East Nusa Tenggara,
was among those who entered legally, according to the records,
but even she was not immune from "punishment", which allegedly
included being beaten and burned with a hot iron on several parts
of her body.

The Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is currently
accommodating a few hundred of our workers, mostly women, who are
undocumented and who, like Nirmala, work as maids. Indonesian
envoy Rusdihardjo was quick to add, however, that those cases
were few compared to the hundreds of thousands of our workers
employed in Malaysia.

But a few hundred workers reporting abuse at the hands of
employers is no small number, and one source of hope of progress
in this long-standing issue was the signing of a memorandum of
understanding between the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia
on May 10.

Initially aimed at better labor protection, unfortunately the
document focuses more on ensuring the legal entry of workers
through stricter terms of recruitment. It appears Malaysia feels
that ending the recurring "disease" of illegal workers from
Indonesia and other neighboring countries will automatically mean
better protection for them.

Nirmala's case, however, proves otherwise. And while, once
again, we commend the display of Malaysia's firmness against such
suspected perpetrators of barbarous acts, we urge that both
governments act more wholeheartedly to ensure that everything
possible is done to ensure that even those toiling behind closed
doors in private premises -- true for the majority of our migrant
workers, who are maids -- may be confident that they are not
merely thrown to the mercy of strangers in foreign lands.