Servants: Can we rely on them all of our lives?

Servants: Can we rely on them all of our lives?

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): One of the city's leading newspapers recently carried an article to prove that servants bring profit to their employers. Having relied on servants all my life, I was happy that this article, illustrated with tables of the nature of the profit, was published. Not so a friend, who was afraid of an uprising and a demand for higher pay. That fear is rather surprising for a person with a brilliant career and a yearly nine-figure income, of which probably not even one percent goes to the servant.

Indonesians who have lived in foreign countries can tell how blessed they are with their servants here. They do not have to do menial jobs and can go out without having to worry about baby- sitting.

When I was at an international conference a couple of years ago, I sat next to a lady who told me that she had been able to work all these years because she had no children. I told her then that I could keep on working in spite of my children because I had my servants. When we parted, I heard a voice behind me say, "Psst, where are you from?" The voice was from a middle-aged lady and I told her that I was from Indonesia. Whereupon she said: "Oh, I thought you were from out of this world! Did I hear right, did you say you have seven servants? And they are living in and are available around the clock?" I confirmed it. But I admitted that, although they are available, we treat them as human beings. We don't call them at night and we give them days off too. She sighed: "To think that we can barely afford to have a cleaning woman once a week!"

Whereas we, Indonesians, count our blessings, we also have fantastic stories to tell. One example is that of my friend Tanya, who was not so lucky with servants. She found out some time ago that her servant had used her telephone to call some of her friends to gossip about her. And another friend found out that her houseboy used her mobile phone to call his girlfriend long distance!

Be careful when you have good servants, because your neighbors may snatch them away. That happened to the Sutomo family, whose servant was taken away from her by another family who had to serve abroad. They had to go to Norway and the poor woman thought that it was near Holland, where her former employer lived. She returned a few months later after having a nervous breakdown. She had spent days in the city searching for the Meyer family. And when she was packed off in a plane she cried, regretting that she had not met them. She was later admitted to a "jail", which turned out to be a psychiatric ward.

I myself have been rather lucky with my servants. Some are so good that I have them now for decades, like my driver, who joined his father as a boy of 14. His father was the jaga (night watchman). But because he had nothing to do but watch the house, he kept a becak, which he rented out to a driver. Apparently he made a lot of money from this enterprise, because he soon managed an armada of eight becak. They were all parked in front of my house, which gave me a safe feeling, because they scared away potential thieves. His son started working as a house-boy and was later promoted to driver. He has banged up quite a few cars, but he is now a good driver.

He knows all the addresses of my friends and I only have to mention their names to go to their houses. He also tells me when the car needs servicing, when the road tax expires. More than that, every month he checks the phone, electricity and water bills to inform me how much I have to pay. Now he is learning typing from his daughter, so he can help me with the filing of my book collection.

But nobody can beat my dear friend Nora. She has a maid, who is not only a superb cook, but a private secretary as well. When I have a message to convey I call Yatmi, and not one of the two unreliable secretaries that Nora pays to hang around.

Just recently Nora told me triumphantly that she does not have to go shopping for cosmetics. "I just send my driver to buy one like the old one. And Yatmi managed to buy a refrigerator for me. She is so good she went shopping around the whole city, comparing prices and thought that one shop in Pasar Senen offered her the best price," she said.

Poor Nora, she should know how much fun it was for Yatmi to go to the shops to buy a refrigerator and cosmetics.

I wonder what Nora would do without servants during the Idul Fitri holiday, when Yatmi will be among the crowd that goes mudik (homebound trip). Yatmi will be wearing Nora's daughter's cast- off designer's jeans, Estee Lauder eyeshadow and lipstick. In her bag she must have new clothes for herself and a lot of oleh-oleh (small gifts), which she found while shopping for the refrigerator. And Nora herself will most likely check into a hotel again and enjoy the room service.