Agreement on maid stays

Wednesday March 7, 2012

Subra: Agreement on maid stays

By JOSEPH SIPALAN and P. ARUNA
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will continue to pursue its current maid agreement with Indonesia until and unless the latter changes its policy, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

He said the Indonesian government had not given any indication of a supposed roadmap to stop sending maids to several countries, including Malaysia, by 2017.

“At the present moment, we will go by what has been discussed and signed, and what has been endorsed by our Prime Minister and Indonesia's President,” he said after chairing a National Labour Advisory Council meeting here yesterday.

Subramaniam was commenting on a report by a local daily yesterday, which claimed that Indonesia had laid down a roadmap to almost entirely stop sending maids abroad by 2017.

The minister noted that Malaysia would not be able to do much should its neighbours decide to change its policy on Indonesian migrant workers in the domestic sector.

“If Indonesia changes its policy, then we will just have to live with it,” he said.

Subramaniam pointed out that Malaysia still had other source countries for maids, such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India and Cambodia, as options.

However, he added that Malaysians may eventually have to accept the possibility that hiring a maid would become too expensive.

Meanwhile, maid agencies in Indonesia claim they would suffer losses if they supply domestic workers at the price agreed upon in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia.

The agencies said the delay in the entry of maids into Malaysia was due to the price agreed in the MoU, and not because of incomplete applications submitted by the Malaysian side as reported.

Malaysian National Association of Employment Agencies (Pikap) said their counterparts in Indonesia had informed them they were unable to send the maids for the agreed price.

“They told us the cost of recruiting and training maids was too high and it was unrealistic for them to supply the maids to us at the price agreed in the MoU,” said Pikap secretary Lim Mei Yun yesterday.

On another matter, she said Pikap had received almost 12,000 requests from Malaysians who wanted to hire Indonesian maids.

“We have registered these employers and placed them on a waiting list,” she said.


oNCE YOU CALLED YOURSELF INDON, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE INDON AND WILL ALWAYS BE KOELI OF THE WORLD, AND YOU STILL PROUD OF THAT BEING KOELI EVERYWHERE.OH YEAAHH? UNTIL WHEN? YOU CLAIM YOUR COUNTRY IS RICH, BUT WHAT HAPPENING TO YOUR GOVERNMENT? INDON TRUELY KOELI