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Indonesia, Malaysia Clinch Maid Deal

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE

A key defendant testified on Wednesday that guilt and old age had motivated him to come clean in a Rp 24 billion ($2.8 million) bribery scandal tied to a Bank Indonesia appointment.

Testifying for the first time at the Anti-Corruption Court, Agus Condro Prayitno is himself a defendant accused of receiving Rp 500 million in traveler’s checks to help elect Miranda Goeltom as Bank Indonesia’s senior deputy governor in 2004.

Agus, a former Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, turned on a number of his former PDI-P colleagues who are also suspects in the case: Ni Luh Mariani Tirtasari, Soewarno, Matheos Pormes and Soetanto Pranoto.

“All this while, Indonesia and Malaysia continue to conduct research, evaluation and improvement in worker-placement mechanisms to protect the rights of both workers and employers.“

The agreement seeks to remove common areas of dispute between maids and their employers, as well as some of the ways the women, who often have little or no education, have been intimidated and blackmailed.

They will be allowed to retain their passports instead of giving them to their employers, and will be guaranteed the right to communicate with relatives and Indonesian authorities, Iskandar said.

Rather than working seven days a week as was common in the past, the women would be entitled to one day off or cash compensation in lieu. Both governments will now determine the recruitment fee, including flight and accommodation costs usually borne by employers and maids and fixed by recruitment agencies.

However, the agreement made no mention of a minimum wage, which was understood to be one of Indonesia's negotiating points. Malaysia is one of Asia's largest importers of labor such as domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia. The women often work for as little as MYR400 ($130) a month, and have no laws governing their conditions.

Indonesia froze the market in June 2009 after a series of incidents of mistreatment of Indonesian citizens at the hands of their Malaysian employers. Malaysian woman Hau Yuan Tyng, a 45-year-old mother of two, is serving 11 years in jail for inflicting horrific wounds on her Indonesian maid, Siti Hajar, using a hammer, scissors and scalding water.

Siti, 35, escaped from her employer's upscale condominium last year and made her way to the Indonesian embassy. Pictures of her injuries appeared in newspapers in both countries.

(KOMPAS)
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