The one task for us to do now is to put family first

THERE appears to be much confusion as to whether there is indeed a “one maid, one task” condition for the hiring of Indonesian maids before they can start making their way into Malaysian homes.

Indonesia’s Labour Placement Development director-general Dr Reyna Usman reportedly said last Friday that although the fresh batch of Indonesian maids bound for Malaysia would be trained in four household chores, each maid could only be employed to carry out one specific task for at least RM700 a month.

The issue has developed into a running controversy with everyone wanting to have their say.

Eversince the supply of indonesian maids was frozen on June 26, 2009, Malaysians have had to look to other countries to meet their needs, but there is no denying that Indonesian maids still rank high in terms of preference.

The “one maid, one task” condition has thrown a spanner in the good work put in by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to resolve the issue.

No doubt the understanding is clear at the highest level but the bureaucrats charged with ironing out thedetails appear tohave missed the intent and spirit of the agreement.

Was something lost in translation, despite the similarities of our two languages?

Until this issue is properly ironed out, this is also a good time for us to reflect on our dependence, or overdependence, on domestic helpers.

Our country has reached this stage of development, where both husband and wife have to earn a living, and traditional support via the extended family system is rare.

The running of a household has effectively been transferred to the domestic help.

In fact, the four areas identified by the Malaysia-indonesian Joint Task Force (JTF) for Deployment, Placement and Protection of Indonesian Maids – housekeeping, babysitting, caring for the elderly and cooking – actually cover awhole myriad of tasks.

Depending on the employer, domestic helpers can do a good day’s work for a good day’s pay, or are exploited to do way beyond what they should.

While the ideal situation is for good employers to be blessed with good domestic helpers, there are also many horror stories, not just of employers exploiting the maids, but also of the maids exploiting the employers.

As long as everything is seen as a supply-demand chain where costs play a major factor, the ideal situation will always be the exception rather than the rule.

Our reliance on foreign domestic help has already resulted in many unfortunate consequences on our family lives.

Many children growing up in homes where there is a maid on call 24 hours, seven days a week, do not know how to perform simple household chores, like washing plates or sweeping the floor.

One reader suggests that there are already subtle changes to our Malaysian cultural landscape as these foreign domestic helpers have an invasive impact on the growingup years of our young children.

We should look at how we can change our lifestyles so that the running of the household remains primarily with us.

And there should be a serious relook at the way we work, considering the many technological advancements available today. Support systems like creches in the workplace and the option to work from home must be accelerated.

Maybe the time has come for us to put family first and everything else, career included, a distant second.