Maid policy stays

Maid policy stays

Malaysians are generally tolerant when it comes to religion
and so far foreign maids are free to work in any household,
regardless of religious faiths.

When the idea was mooted that foreign maids be deployed in
households based on their religious beliefs, employment agencies
and employers reacted with concern over the difficulties they
would face if such a policy was implemented. Many Muslim foreign
maids are employed in non-Muslims households and there would have
to be another costly recruitment and deployment exercise.

Thankfully, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has
decided to retain the existing policy on recruiting foreign
maids.

However, safeguards to ensure that families which hire foreign
maids accommodate their religious sensitivities and obligations
should be strictly enforced. Under the existing policy, there
must be an agreement between the employer and foreign maid on
matters like religious freedom.

Given the occasional abuse of maids by employers, there is an
obvious need for an effective mechanism for foreign maids to air
grievances and seek quick redress from employers. There should
also be an equivalent avenue for employers unhappy with their
maids.

Employers of foreign maids must realize that they have
obligations and reponsibilities. They must care for them, just as
they expect the foreign maids to take good care of their
families.

-- New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur

Minors in jail

Height of child rights abuse

In a society where glaring incongruities are overlooked, there
are perhaps not many who bother about the children growing up in
jail. But this does raise some unpleasant questions.

The truth of the matter is that children or infants forced to
stay with their detained or convicted mothers suffer worse than
the adult prisoners. They grow up in the dark, squalid
conditions, deprived of the basic needs of life. There is nobody
to look after those innocent boys and girls who are in jail for
no fault of theirs.

The presence of those children in jail is particularly
unacceptable when the nation is committed to establishing their
rights as a matter of priority. Scores of seminars and discussion
meetings are held to build awareness among the masses on the
issue. Child rights advocates are constantly hammering on the
oppression and discrimination that children are subjected to. But
here is a very well defined area of concern in which children are
identifiably staying with their imprisoned mothers in jail to be
saved from such dangerous upbringing. And, yet nothing is being
done about it.

The jail code permits female prisoners to keep a child with
her for up to four years and the time can be extended by another
two years by the jail authorities. If their stay is codified then
why not give proper space for their living along with some
facilities for literacy. After all they are not convicted
prisoners.

The thought that should be uppermost in the minds of the
advocates of jail reform and restructuring is that babies born in
jail or accompanying their mothers to it are as lovable and
innocent as any other children. The state should be obliged to
look after them. The issue should not be linked to long term jail
reforms. It can be addressed right now.

-- The Daily Star, Dhaka