'Officer has history of domestic violence'
JAKARTA (JP): A domestic help supplier revealed on Wednesday that the mid-ranking naval officer whose maid committed suicide in his house earlier this month had employed seven maids from the agency within less than one year.
Suparlan, the owner of the Leksana Mandiri agency, told The Jakarta Post that since last October, he had supplied seven domestics to Maj. Edison Hutapea.
Hutapea came to the agency many times seeking new maids after the previous ones had fled from his house, usual after about two weeks of employment, Suparlan said.
Suparlan never suspected that Hutapea and his wife could be violent people.
"He is very soft spoken and polite. Besides, he's in the navy while his wife is a policewoman, people with respected positions ... we never suspected anything," Suparlan said.
Jumiati, a housemaid who worked for Hutapea and his wife, First.Adj.Insp. Marsini Napitupulu, was sent to Cipto Mangunkusumo Public Hospital on Sept.7 with burns all over her body after her coworker Sipon had set herself ablaze. Sipon died in the incident.
Suparlan said that on July 5, a house maid returned to his agency the day after she had been employed by Hutapea. The maid, Kusuma, 18, said that Hutapea had a bad temper and often made cutting remarks without any apparent reason.
On the same day, Hutapea came to the agency asking for the replacement.
Suparlan without hesitation provided another worker for the family.
"I thought Kurnia was just making the story up because she was still young and wanted her freedom ... that's why I later proposed an older person," he explained.
He sent Wiji, who, according to her identity card, was born in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1947.
Wiji was also known as Sipon, the maid who doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze in despair, reportedly because she could not stand being assaulted any longer by her employers.
Suparlan, who refers the housemaids as "my children", does not appear to have any particular means of preventing them from being hired by potentially abusive employers.
As long as a future employer is able to present a copy of their identity card and pay the Rp 300,000 (US$27.90) agency fee, Suparlan is willing to provide a domestic helper.
But the employer may request a replacement domestic without any additional charge if the maid proves to be incompetent or flees, as happened in the Hutapea case.
"Before they go to their new employer's house, I remind the children that if they find themselves in any difficulty in their new place, they should immediately ask to be sent back to the agency," Suparlan said.
At the nearby Agung Bina Karya agency, where Jumiati was recruited by Hutapea, the safety of maids is also not the agency's primary concern.
Sutadi, the agency's owner, said it was impossible to determine the future employer's nature.
"After they (employers) sign the agreement, provide a copy of their identity card and pay the fee, we then send them the maid," Sutadi said while acknowledging that some of his workers had complained of maltreatment from their employers in the past.(06)