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The Shaming Of Malaysia

Hantu Laut

In Sabah, we have many Filipinos and Indonesian domestic help but you hardly hear of any case of abuse against these poor and helpless people.The sickness seems to be peculiar to Peninsula Malaysia.

Second-Class Citizens?

By Irwin Loy

The Diplomat

Faced with a shortage of domestic help, Malaysia has been turning to Cambodia to find workers. Many, though, aren’t receiving what’s promised.

The wound over Lay Limheang’s left ear has healed into a coarse, bulbous lump. But she says it’s the scars you can’t see that trouble her most now.

There have never been many options for women like her in this small village in central Cambodia: make your living in the fields, or head to town and get a job at the factory.

Limheang chose the latter. But she found she could barely make ends meet working for $80 a month, so in 2009, she quit her job and moved to Phnom Penh to train as a live-in housemaid.

By that September, she was starting a new life in Kuala Lumpur. She had spent months learning how to cook and clean. But within weeks, battered, penniless and holding no passport, she says she was praying for an escape.

Malaysia is facing what’s been described as a crisis over its foreign domestic workers: there just aren’t enough of them. Now, Malaysia has turned to countries like Cambodia to fill in the gap. And with its burgeoning population—disproportionately young, unskilled and underemployed—it seems like a natural fit.

Almost overnight, the number of women leaving Cambodia to work in Malaysia has skyrocketed, but the crucial regulations and oversight meant to keep the women safe haven’t kept pace. At best, the industry’s harshest critics say, foreign maids in Malaysia are treated like second-class citizens and denied minimum labour rights afforded to other workers. At its worst, the job can become a form of modern-day debt bondage.

For Lay Limheang, the problems started within weeks of arriving in Malaysia. The agency that trained her had provided her courses in basic English—she learned the words for different kinds of food and household objects, as well as some simple commands. But the couple she was placed with didn’t speak English.

‘My boss asked me to bring her some vegetables, but I couldn’t understand what they said. They were speaking Chinese,’ she says. ‘So they slapped me.’

She claims the abuse became progressively more frequent—and more violent.

‘I was so scared whenever my boss came home. I just expected that I would be hurt again,’ Limheang says.

She’s far from alone in making such claims. In 2009, Indonesia—the main supplier of Malaysia’s estimated 300,000 foreign domestic workers—imposed a moratorium barring new maids from heading to Malaysia, following a string of high-profile abuse cases. The two sides have yet to reach a new agreement despite continued negotiations on wages, mandatory days off and other benefits. Many of Malaysia’s basic rules under its Employment Act that cover rest days, work hours, termination, holidays and maternity leave explicitly don’t apply to foreign maids, known as ‘domestic servants’ under the law.

Meanwhile, the number of Cambodian women working in Malaysia has jumped dramatically. Last year, Malaysia issued 28,561 work visas to Cambodians, according to statistics provided by the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh. More than 24,700 of those were given to domestic workers. That figure is almost five times the total number of visas issued just two years earlier.

At the same time, the number of recruitment agencies operating in Cambodia has taken a corresponding leap. These have established loose networks of agents paid to recruit potential employees from villages throughout the country.

Yu Khorn is one of them. Shirtless and sweating in the afternoon heat, he parks his motorbike beside the family’s cows.

He says he was paid $90 a month to recruit women from the surrounding villages. ‘I learned how to convince people. How to speak to people,’ Khorn says. ‘You tell the women, “You don’t have to worry about supporting your families. The company will take care of it.”’

He pulls out a pamphlet that he says he gives to prospective recruits. Young women are pictured grasping fistfuls of US dollars. ‘Two years = $3,500,’ the pamphlet declares. Work 3 years and earn $5,600. Four years gets you $7,800. The minimum wage at the closest factory here is $61 a month.

‘I have a chance to help people in my community,’ Khorn says, pointing toward a large wooden house down the path. It towers over most others in this village. The woman that owns it, he explains, worked in Malaysia for two years. When she returned, she was rich enough to build it.

But authorities in the surrounding commune say they are alarmed by the number of middlemen who have started operating in the area in the last 18 months. Some of the more destitute villages have proven to be fertile grounds for recruitment. In one village alone, 30 women have signed on to what local police chief Hun Miera believes is an uncertain future.

‘These people don’t have legal protection when they leave. Anything could happen to them,’ he says.

But more and more women have still been willing to take the risk.

‘The people are very poor. They only have one way to make income: by farming,’ he says. ‘The crops weren’t good this year, so they’ve become poorer. So they look to Malaysia.’

A few kilometres away, the flattened dirt road gives way to a muddy, uneven path. The houses here are noticeably more basic than in neighbouring villages—thatched leaves for walls, or uneven wooden planks badly in need of replacement.

This, local officials say, is one of the poorest villages in the commune.

Ein Chhunly sits on a slatted bamboo bed perched over the mud, explaining why most of the women in the village have asked her about sending their daughters off to Malaysia.

‘There isn’t much, here,’ she says with a shrug. ‘There’s not a lot of work.’

Chhunly says an agency pays her to recruit local women. On behalf of the company, she promises the parents 50 kg of rice and the equivalent of $125 in cash up front—a gift, she says. If the women make it to Malaysia, they can earn up to $285 each month.

To many of the parents here, the offer is difficult to turn down. Chhunly says she has referred at least 20 young women herself. Even her two daughters, who struggled to save any money while working at the factory, left last year.

She expects many more will follow in their footsteps—if they return with good news.

‘A lot of people are interested in going,’ she says. ‘But they’re waiting for my daughters first.’

And that’s what worries critics of the industry. Labour rights groups say they’re observing a new trend: women have started complaining of ill treatment, either in Malaysia, or during the training process at home.

Adhoc, a local human rights group, is handling more than 50 new cases from workers who have returned from Malaysia, says Lim Mony, the head of its women’s programme. Some have claimed they were raped while on the job.

Another non-governmental organization, the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) saw its first domestic worker client last year. Now the group is advising more than 20 women who have claimed various forms of abuse or mistreatment.

‘We think it’s a serious problem,’ says Moeun Tola, who heads CLEC’s labour programme. He says many women don’t understand that the money their families initially receive for signing up—what they see as gifts—must actually be worked off. So do the costs of medical tests, visa applications and other expenses. In the end, many of his clients say they go months on end without seeing a single dollar.

Once there, workers have complained that they have few options if they are abused. They say company representatives rarely, if ever, visit the employers’ homes.

‘There’s no protection,’ he says. ‘It’s not just about giving people jobs. There should be someone that inspects the homes regularly to make sure the workers are alright.’

The rapid growth in demand for domestic workers has also left authorities in Cambodia—and the industry itself—struggling to keep up. Read more.

Dissolve The Royal Commission

Hantu Laut

Environmentalists all over the world including the UN, WWF and many others lauded the government decision to scrap the coal power plant in Sabah.The oppositions have their own stories.

Instead of lauding the State and Federal government they think the smart thing to do is to ridicule the decision, which actually make them looking more stupid.

DAP's MP for Kota Kinabalu Hiew King Cheu said it was an election ploy while another political donkey Jeffrey Kitingan said it could be temporary and likely to be reinstated after the general elections.

Across the South China Sea in Tanah Melayu the oppositions made a mockery of the Royal Commission by urging the Teoh's family to withdraw from the hearing.

PM Najib has gone out of his way to appease the family by appointing the Royal Commission and the opposition is using delaying tactic in the hope of using the controversial issue as a battle cry for the general elections expected anytime soon.

Than there is the sodomy case of Anwar Ibrahim using the same delaying tactic for political mileage.Delayed many times without probable cause. The judge should not be intimidated and should proceed with the case to its finality.

The PM should give the family of Teoh an ultimatum, participate or the government will dissolve the Royal Commission.

The opposition's ploys are wasting court's time and taxpayers money .

We have had enough of this unpalatable circus.

With oppositions like this who needs a new government.

Singapore Malay families seeking economic refuge in JB

I have been coming across several Malay families who are renting out their HDB flats or even selling their HDB flats and living in Johor Bahru and commuting to Singapore. Each family had the same reason to give. They are unable to afford the cost of living in Singapore.

PROFILE OF MALAY FAMILIES SHIFTING TO JB

A few days ago, a friend of mine who is a senior professional in logistics industry claimed that around 40% of the Malay despatch riders live in Johor Bahru. However I am unable to verify this. However when I asked others in logistics industry, they did agree that there are large number of families, where the breadwinner works as a despatch rider, have indeed relocated to JB due to cost pressures in Singapore. These despatch riders earn less than $1000 per month and they are unable to cope even when they have two children.

It does not seem to be the case that all the families that shifted are having a single income earner. There are indeed families in which both the couples are working and yet they are unable to afford to live in Singapore. The few families that I managed to talk to have a household income of less than $2000 a month. They shared with me that given the high costs they face which come along with work e.g. lunch meals,
transport, clothings etc etc they are left with little to afford the other family expenses such as grocery, electricity etc.

Another group of Malay families who make up this trend of Malay families shifting to JB include those who are unable to service their HDB loans. Apparently some of these families are having problems paying their HDB mortgages and out of desperation not to loose their HDB flats they rather rent it out and shift to JB.

The last group of Malay families that I came across are those who faced life shocks such as retrenchment, illness etc and they were unable to ride through the financial turblence that came along. Hence they shifted to JB to keep afloat.

CAN MALAY PAP MPS AND GOVERNMENT RELATED MALAY AGENCIES SOLVE THIS?

I am inviting, not challenging, all 12 Malay MPs who repeatedly claim they are leaders of Singapore Malays along with their associated Malay agencies to do an assessment of the situation and resolve it by facilitating the Malay families to return to Singapore.

These families are almost like economic refugees seeking refuge from astronomical costs in their homeland. LKY not too long ago asked if Malays will share their last grains of rice with non-Malays in Singapore. I am sure these Malay families may not be able to do that since they are not even located in Singapore and secondly they unlikely to have any last grains during such catastrophic moments. My question is if LKY will share his current godowns of rice supply with these Malay families in current normal circumstances?

Malays in Singapore are repeatedly questioned on their allegiance and fidelity to the nation. Stop asking what they will do for the nation. Lets ask what the nation did for these Malay families in desperate circumstances.

The PAP Malay MPs constantly claim the Malay community have progressed under their leadership. Well at no time in history before 1959 was there ever a moment during which significantly number of Singapore Malay families had to seek economic refuge in Johor.

No where in first world do you see the poor in one country running to the next to commute to work to save costs. US costs are much higher than in Canada and Mexico, yet the poor communities along US borders dont commute from Canada or Mexico to save costs.

This essentially is not really a Malay community problem. If not for the language issues, I am sure many other Indian and Chinese families who are stuck in similar circumstances will also be commuting from JB. This problem is essentially the failure of:

1) fiancial security mechanisms in Singapore
2) elected MPs
3) community agencies such as MUIS, WAREES, MENDAKI etc that sit on large amounts of community endowments but yet not expend for those stuck in rainy days
4) government agencies whose role is to help such families

Temasek