Five "AP Holders" Can Import "Maid In Indonesia"

I believe there is more to this Indonesian maids matter than the Gomen is divulging to us. Today's report in The Star reveals a little bit of what is really going on.

Monday March 19, 2012

Maid negotiator rapped over ‘unfair’ selection of agencies

• PETALING JAYA: Malaysian officials at the recent meeting of the Malaysia-Indonesia joint task force for the deployment, placement and protection of Indonesian maids have been accused of being unfair in the selection of maid agencies.
• Papa president Jeffrey Foo claimed the Malaysian delegation, led by Labour Depart­ment director-general Datuk Sheikh Yahya Mohamed, had instructed Indonesian agencies to supply maids to only five agencies in Malaysia.
• Foo said his Indonesian counterpart had informed the association that Sheikh Yahya had “ordered” agencies in the republic to transfer their (Papa’s) business dealings and the 106 maids currently being trained to the five selected agencies.
• ..a check on the ministry’s website yesterday showed only five agencies had been listed.

Firstly the Indon maids have assisted tremendously in the growth of our GDP. For families where both spouses are working, having a maid is a great help. Both spouses can pool their human capital and engage in more productive economic activity when there is a maid to tend to the home.

Even if a pair of spouses run a small business together it will not be difficult to earn RM10,000 or more per month. For families like this, if they do not have a maid, then their ability to spend time more cost effectively is reduced. There is a high economic benefit in hiring a maid.

But at what price? And to do what type of work? It is best that the market decides. If a Filipino maid can get a salary of RM1,200 per month then so be it. They must be able to generate output that is worth RM1,200 in the maid employment market.

Indonesian maids get paid RM600 per month now. Many would think that even this RM600 is too high. Taking it further to RM700 per month doing just one set of chores sounds even less feasible.

However Indonesia is right next door, just across the thin slice of water that separates us. The number of Indonesians who are looking for work runs into the tens of millions.

Our maid tells us that in Indonesia they must pay bribes of 5 million Rupiah (RM1,665) just to get a passport issued. This is because the Passport has economic value. With a Passport, a girl from Indonesia can travel overseas and earn more money than an Indonesian civil servant. So they force the girls to pay a bribe.

If they cannot find employment in Malaysia and other countries, then where will all these Indonesian girls go to find work? I think the Indonesians are being short sighted about this. Their economy will lose substantial amount of remittance revenues from their girls who work overseas. However I get the feeling that their Civil Servants also do not really worry too much about these issues.

I feel that the easiest way to overcome this issue is to remove the requirement for the maid agencies as the "AP holders" to import maids. Just break open the market. Let any individual or agency bring in the potential maids from Indonesia and anywhere else (Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos etc).

And also make it easier for individual employers to source their own maids or workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh or anywhere. If a factory wants to hire 500 workers from Indonesia, just go across the water and find your own workers. Fill up the necessary borang and bring them over. Do the medical tests, blood tests etc in Indonesia itself. Why fly them here and then find out that they have this and that disease and you have to send them back?

We can make special allocations for Indonesians. They are our historical and cultural cousins. Allow any Indon worker to turn up at your plantation or factory, so long as they are willing to work. Allow any Indon girl to turn up at your doorstep so long as they are willing to be a maid, with or without a proper Indonesian passport.

Then subject to a small fee, medical tests etc, the Jabatan Imigresen can issue them a new version of the SPLP (Surat Pengesahan Lanjutan Perjalanan etc) to enable them to stay here for a year or two years. With this paper or ID card, they will not be deported by the Jabatan Imigresen or harrased by the Police.

And there is no need to tie them down to just one employer. I think that is slavery. Let them have mobility. Then the employers too must learn to behave themselves and treat them well - or risk losing their Indon workers and maids. Soon enough the market will impose its own discipline.

Also in this way, there is no need for our PM to have 'Maid In Indonesia' talks with the Indonesian President. This need not be a policy issue between the two countries. Let the market decide. If the Indons want work, let them come here on their own cost or at the cost of prospective employers.

This is what we used to do before all these funny rules and maid agency crap became too toxic. We were doing business in Pantai Dalam and we would just pass the word that we needed a maid. Over time we hired three different maids through this method. At a critical juncture in our lives when the kids were small and my wife and I were very busy with our jobs and the business, the Indon maids were a major help to us. It would have been very difficult for us without their assistance.

I dont know if our Civil Servants understand all this.

Make things easy lah for everyone - for us the employers and for the Indon maids and workers as well. Tak payah pi sekolah pun kita patut tahu benda-benda simple macam ini. Pasal apa kita ni suka sangat nak menyusahkan manusia? Is it some mental disease specific to the Dunia Ketiga mentality?

You might counter argue that the country will then be flooded with Indons. I say kekawan, have you been to Chow Kit lately? Or to Masjid India? I think the Malaysians are in the minority in these places. Every other person is an Indonesian already.

For the past three decades, in Semenanjung alone we have had a floating population of 2.0 million Indons or more living and working here continuously. So I am not saying anything new ok? Besides, they were here first. "Majapahit" was not a designer brand created by Alfonso De Albuquerque ok.

But the problem is if we simplify things too much, then the "AP holder" Datuks and Tan Sri's will not be able to get their cut from the 'Maid In Indonesia' AP business. And the Civil Servants like Labour Depart­ment director-general Datuk Sheikh Yahya Mohamed are in cahoots with the AP Holders as well. They dont mind burdening the whole economy just to benefit the five "AP holders"

Recall once upon a time, anyone who wanted to open a maid or labour agency to hire Indon workers first had to kow tow to the wife of a certain Minister. At that time she was the "Master AP" holder for Indon workers. I think the same crap is happening now.

Who are these five agencies that are so privileged to be named by the DG of the Ministry of Labour Who is behind these agencies? Can we have their names? Are there any Datuks or Tan Sris behind them?

Does the entire Malaysian public, the factory owners and potential employers of domestic maids have to suffer inconvenience and make sacrifices just so that these five AP Holders can reap the benefits? Ini kira-kira macam mana pula?

"Satu untuk kau, dua untu aku, dua untuk aku, satu untk kau."