Ruling on maids will tarnish country's image

Lee Lam Thye New Straits Times Kuala Lumpur

Following Home Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Abu Zahar's statement, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung commented that non-Muslim families would be allowed to hire maids from countries other than the Government approved ones, should a ruling stopping them from employing Muslim maids be enforced.

I have to express my concern over the proposed ruling which, if enforced, will have dire consequences for all the affected families.

If the aim of the proposed ruling is to curb abuse of maids, it is certainly not the right move.

There are more logical and better ways to deal with abuse of maids without having to resort to such a drastic step.

There are tens of thousands of Muslim maids who are working with their non-Muslim employers without any serious problems.

This boils down to a question of mutual understanding and maintaining a good employer-maid relationship.

And if a Muslim foreign maid is prepared to work for a non- Muslim family, I see no reason why this should pose a problem.

What is important is mutual understanding whereby both the maid and the employer are sensitive to each other's religious beliefs and needs.

Two years ago, the Immigration Department introduced two undertaking letters -- one to be signed by the non-Muslim employer specifying consent to observe strictly the religious rights of the Muslim maid, and the other to be signed by the foreign maid stating her consent to work for the nonMuslim family.

Such undertaking letters are sufficient to ensure an appropriate employer-maid relationship and establish mutual understanding and respect.

Viewing it from this perspective, introducing a new ruling to ensure that foreign maids are only employed by employers practicing the same religion is inappropriate and unnecessary.

Furthermore, it is misleading to assume that putting two parties of the same religion together would prevent abuse.

Abuse against domestic workers or maids is dominance-related, rather than a question of religion. Incidents arise when the foreign maids are deemed as inferior and seen as fit for exploitation by the employers.

But what is of serious concern to me is that if the proposed ruling is to be enforced, it will be detrimental to Malaysia's image as a nation and example of religious tolerance.

Malaysia is reputed as a peaceful, harmonious, multi-racial, multireligious and multi-cultural nation. People of diverse racial backgrounds and religious faiths live and work together in a harmonious setting.

The Government encourages the various ethnic groups to interact with one another and foster interracial harmony.

All this will be put in jeopardy if the Home Ministry were to introduce the proposed ruling.

If the ruling is allowed, where do we go from here? In future are we to stipulate that our personal or company drivers could only work for those with the same religion? If there is a problem regarding abuse of maids by employers, it should be dealt with through other appropriate channels.