This Is No Isolated Incident ..
Once again the collective conscience of Malaysians are (or at least should be) hit by the revelation of another human being being subject to physical abuse by virtue of that person being a migrant worker. The tragedy is that this time, the abused person ended up losing her life.
I am referring to the recent tragic death of Mautik Hani, a 39 year old migrant worker from East Java, Indonesia who was employed as a domestic worker in Malaysia.
Even the term “domestic worker” is subject to some level of denial here. Some of us would prefer the term “maid” or even more de-humanising – “servant”. Perhaps it helps us forget that they are human beings. It helps us forget that they too have families, have dreams, have aspirations. Perhaps to some of us, they represent a totally different species – homo sapiens servitus.
In Muntik’s case, she was found locked in a bathroom with a badly bruised face, a broken back and a broken wrist. In fact, if it weren’t because another fellow migrant worker noticed that a foul odour was emanating from the premises and made a police report, Muntik might never have been found at all.
The Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, went on television last night claiming that this was merely an isolated incident. I would beg to differ. This is NO isolated incident!
The NGO Tenaganita which acts as the focal point for handling cases like these (does the state not have an infrastructure for this? I reckon not) recorded at least 265 cases of abuse related to domestic workers alone within the last 2 years. These are cases whereby domestic workers have been beaten, raped, deprived of wages, harassed, violated, kept in isolation, tortured and abused. While some of the cases involving deprivation of wages have been resolved by monetary compensation, none of the cases involving violence have been prosecuted nor the perpetrators brought to justice!
What the officially aligned mass media have continued to play up is the “menace” that such migrant workers constitute to the general society. Everything from crime to diseases are attributed to migrant workers “running wild” amongst us. I must grudgingly admit that this has actually been somewhat successful.
A recent proposal to grant domestic workers one day off in a week was greeted with some vehement disagreement from some sectors of society. The most common arguments raised against this are that these “maids” would run away, or that they would make friends outside who might conspire to rob their employers.
I suggest that you re-read the previous paragraph again. Perhaps the absurdity of the arguments might hit you then.
When we say “run away”, aren’t we implying that we “own” these workers? That they are our chattel? How different does that make us from the slave owners of yore? Apparently the banning of slavery in 1885 as a result of Hugh Low’s reforms has done little to change our attitudes.
Wouldn’t we raise holy hell if we were denied the right to choose our own employer? To leave our jobs as and when we see fit? Wouldn’t we be indignant if we were forced to work during weekends and denied our own day offs? Wouldn’t we be outraged if 100% of our wages gets docked for 7 months to pay off the employment agency that we got our jobs from (say for example, Star Classifieds)?
Why then do we not apply these same indignance and outrage when domestic workers are routinely denied these rights and choices? Why do some of us play the part of the protagonist in these cases?
Apart from matters of conscience, may I also suggest that we look at one of the major systemic causes that feeds off the fear of the average person in order to perpetuate this form of abuse.
This would be the current exploitative recruitment regime that exists to recruit migrant workers. For domestic workers, the fees currently stand at RM 8,000 payable by the potential employer up front. This creates the fear that a worker recruited through these means would abscond before they have worked long enough to pay off the fees and justifies some of the most inhumane methods to keep them “incarcerated” until they have paid their dues.
Google “indentured labour” and see how some of the examples parallel our current system of migrant worker recruitment. Those of us who have Chinese forebears may recall the term “賣豬仔” (maai zyu zai – selling piglets) being used by our elders and their own painful memories. The current system is equally exploitative and perhaps, to the detriment of the current victims, lack the mutual aid societies and clan associations that provided some level of support to the “豬仔 / piglets” of yore.
Statistics indicate that up to 27 million people worldwide are subject to some form of servitude very similar to the slavery and indentured labour in the 19th century. This alarming figure is TWICE the number compared to when the slave trade was still legal.
Fortunately this is something we can actually put a stop to. Part of the solution is actually in our own hands – in how we relate to our own domestic workers, in how we refer to them (domestic workers, maids, servants ..), in how we compensate them, in standing up against the agency methods, in bringing these issues to the attention of our elected representatives for the necessary legal reform, etc.
I still have hope and trust that my fellow Malaysians will know what the right thing is and develop the moral courage to do what is necessary.
Until then, let us remind ourselves .. this is NO isolated incident. This has occurred way too often and way too consistently for us to console ourselves that this is merely a glitch in the system. Silence in the face of injustice and violence has an uncanny capacity to legitimise these abuses.
We cannot .. we MUST NOT stay silent any longer.
