Ruling on maids will tarnish country's image

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.