RM800 a month for a maid?

Indonesia demands that its maids be paid a minimum RM800 monthly salary. Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Da’i Bachtiar has been quoted in press reports as saying that the republic is pressing for the minimum wage following cases of maid abuse by Malaysian employers.

Dei, I mean Da’i Bachtiar sir, where did you get the RM800 figure from? Have you seen the quality of the maids you send here? Can we also have a guarantee; if they don’t perform up to expectations can we demand a refund? Can we charge them (market rate) for food and lodging? Or are you saying it’s RM800 plus food and lodging? And maybe some “duit raya” too?

H.E. Bachtiar sir, do you know that there has been (real, confirmed) cases where the maids you send here to work steal our children’s clothes for their kids back home? Have you seen the video where a maid trampled and stomped on a little girl?

A reader in the Star newspaper asked this question; “can he (Bachtiar) assure us that the maids come with basic skills and knowledge about housekeeping and with a positive attitude as well?” No doubt there are many decent quality maids around. I was quite fortunate to get one and I have very little to complain about her. But at RM800, they better be graduates, possess decent manners (and dress sense), hygienic, speak some English and actually know how to operate the washing machine, kettle, microwave oven, iron, blender and toaster. At RM800, I think your women are better off being maids in Malaysia then being office workers in Indonesia.

RM800? We’ll pay for quality but given the present quality of your maids, we are over paying even at RM450.

We seem to be having lots of controversies with Indonesia, not just recently but since, what 1963/4? They wanted to “ganyang” us then, and they still do now. To think that many Indonesian bungalows, motorbikes, children’s education, medical care etc. are funded by salaries paid by Malaysian contractors and households (not to mention the loot from robbing Malaysian homes).

I have nothing against Indonesia or her people. I love the country. It’s just sometimes I feel some of them are pretty unreasonable, overly emotional. Some conspiracy theorists say the Singapore secret service has a hand in stirring their negative emotions towards Malaysia but that remains what it is, a theory and we shall not go there.