Do you, or your family employ a foreign domestic worker? In a country where there there are more than 150,000 foreign domestic workers (Ministry of Human Resources estimate, 2002), it is part of our daily reality. If we do not employ one, we would know of someone who has a 'maid'. But how much do we actually think of them and their situation?

Imagine you had to leave your family, friends and homeland behind for two years, probably without having much chance to communicate apart from letters and a few phonecalls (if lucky). You have very little idea about the family you will be working for and staying with, and you have only heard about Malaysia from other people who have been there with mixed feelings. The job you will be tied to for two years is not pleasant, and it means a lot of hard work. But you have not much choice since this is best available option to you to earn some money, for whatever reason.

But to us, Malaysian employers, we are rarely concerned with our "maids'" concerns. We care about their ability to do housework, we have irrational fears about their 'difference' (fed in part by irresponsible journalism, social myths or political representation), we worry about the high costs that the government wants us to pay to change "maids", or if our "maid" will run off or be cheated by a man. In short, we forget that foreign domestic workers are humans. That they have histories, feelings and thoughts that are beyond our construction of what 'maids' are supposed to be.

So far, I have put the word "maid" in inverted commas, because this is how we normally refer to foreign domestic workers. This word helps to slip foreign domestic workers from the category of employees (like some of us may be) into that blurry area of slavery. The word "maid" conjures up archaic images of voiceless women scrubbing the floor and saying "ma'am". It makes us feel superior, and removes from us the need to see them as humans with lives apart from cleaning our house, cooking and caring for our children. It reflects our lack of respect for their human dignity, and it makes us unquestioningly take their subservience as appropriate, in fact, valued. When we use the word "maid", we don't have to think about foreign domestic workers as having a life beyond our prescription.

Then when foreign domestic workers demonstrate that they are human; that they are capable of making mistakes, human fallibles, or falling in love, our reactions become irrational. We box them from "good maid" to "evil/loose/stupid woman". When an employee steals from us, usually we would fire them or make a police report; or if an employee decides not to turn up to work, we would black mark her then hire someone else; and if an employee mistakenly hears our directions, we instruct again, possibly not considering her for a bonus or promotion. Not so when it comes to "maids". We behave like senseless, violent human beings - we shout, threaten, humiliate them by degrading names (stupid, idiot, moron); to an extreme, some of us resort to hitting, pinching, forcing them to drink urine, burning them with irons, cigarrette butts and so on.

We do not see them as humans, so we do not treat them as humans. Since foreign domestic workers are constrained within the walls of our house, we treat them like our property, to be done with as we please. Since they speak a different language and have a different culture, we think they are inferior and exhibit gross amounts of racism. Since they are women, we inflect upon them sexist stereotypes and unproblematically package them as either "good virgin" or "bad whore". All these thoughts, reactions and feelings become exacerbated and made normal by political representatives who irresponsibly share our perspectives.

The policies and laws reflect this. Agents are not made accountable for their soliciting of foreign domestic workers, training, or other matters that middle person are usually accountable for. Special financial measures are made in the event that "maids run away", automatically presuming it as something within the "nature of maids" without questioning why. However, there are no corresponding measures as effeciently effected for the protection of foreign domestic workers, to warn them from abusive employers or to hold employers in general accountable. Laws restrict the ability of employers to dismiss or hire foreign domestic workers according to suitability. Everyone is constructed and tied within this dynamic of master-slave. It is small wonder that abuse and violence happen, and happen so frequently.

There are many layers to this issue of violence against foreign domestic workers and the levels of power and control that we exert over foreign domestic workers that can potentially lead to abuse are manifold and complex. We can only begin to unravel them and stop this chain of violence if we start to examine our own perspectives and behaviours. Do not think that the recent case against Yim Pek Ha is unique, or that she is particularly different in her purported treatment against foreign domestic workers. She implicitly received your support if you have not questioned the construction of "appropriate" relationship between foreign domestic workers and us, as their foreign employers. We have to challenge our complicity by examining our own standpoint when it comes to the dignity, respect and treatment of foreign domestic workers.

Jaclyn Kee
13th June 2004

Fortnightly Column by WAO on Sunday Mail