Modern Slaves

The recent announcement by Minister of Human Resources, S. Subramaniam, that maids be given compulsory one day leave per week is long overdue. What is not said is that this is a standing ruling which has largely gone unenforced by the Ministry.

We have heard, read and to some, seen, so much injustice being done to foreign workers that we cannot be blamed to think that perhaps the government condone slavery in its modern form. True, the abused may be in the minority. And true, perhaps the media in countries like Indonesia may have blown the issue out of proportion. But what is also true is that these abuse do happen, and a lot more often than we will admit.

Maids being tortured, and physically and emotionally abused are only the tip of the iceberg. What has been reported occasionally, and happen every day, are foreign workers in factories and plantations working 16 hour days, salary (some as low as RM 300) illegally deducted for accommodation and food. And because of the illicit trade of these workers by unscrupulous agents in cohort with greedy business people, some are not even paid any salary for the first one year, purportedly to cover immigration and transportation costs to bring them to Malaysia. And so far, we are only talking about the legal workers.

The plight of illegal workers are even more heart wrenching. It's a long standing tale among the Indonesian workers community of how one renowned property developer has a worker killed because he was leading a group of abused workers to rise against their employer; and when this was reported to the authorities, we did what we usually do, arrest the complainants for illegal entry, put them in an illegal workers camp, convince them what they saw were not real and then deport them to their home country. Of course, this is hearsay and may be the work of over-imaginative minds, but are they really that hard to imagine? Now, who do we blame when some of these abused workers, many of whom borrowed heavily to come to Malaysia and thrown out of jobs, decide to turn to theft and robbery to put food into mouths?

Ask any foreign worker - legal or illegal, who they fear the most, and you inevitably get that four letter word - RELA. While the idea behind this quasi-police unit may be noble, what really happens on the ground may not. I've seen suspiciously non-Malaysian looking men donning the uniforms, which puts into question both the admission criteria and the discipline and self-regulation of this organisation. It has been widely perceived among foreign workers, justly or unjustly, that RELA condones its members to use unnecessary force and extort bribes for not arresting illegal workers. Of course, we pray these are just lies. But they are enough to instill hatred among even new foreign workers of Malaysians, uniformed or otherwise.

MORE THAN JUST A DAY OFF NEEDED
While a day off a week may be a good start, it is hardly enough. We don't need more laws and feel good press conferences, but the political will to cut off the rot, starting with quasi-police units that some political parties rely on to deliver the votes. Followed by local kingpins / politicians who make money from the misery of these foreign workers. Then go after the unscrupulous agents, many of whom are no better than pimps and human traffickers. More importantly, give one Ministry - preferably the Ministry of Human Resources, the full authority and responsibility to deal with every aspect of foreign worker employment - from immigration, health inspection to licensing and enforcement, to minimise abuse.

Now that we have a new Premier and a new Home Minister, it's about time we put things in order.