The Maid Story - Of Evil And Angel Hearted

Maids In Singapore (4)

The Evil

 

During the 6-day trial that started in April, widow  Madam Mah told the court how for over a year, she would doze off within minutes of having a meal. 

She also found it difficult to wake up at her usual time of 6am.

She lived with her maid in a house in Paya Lebar Crescent.

 

26-year old Windri Hartatik (Photo: Singapore Police Force) was jailed a year on Monday. 

Windri was found guilty by District Judge Lim Wee Ming of administering the stupefying drug to 79 year old Madam Mah Ah Choo, in December 2009. 

She laced a soup with 10 sleeping pills so that her employer would fall asleep and not find fault with her work.

 

While Windri would help herself to the fish and vegetable dishes, she would give the soup a miss on some occasions. 

On Dec 9, Madam Mah had taken a pork rib soup prepared by her maid. 

The retiree did not suspect anything. 

 

However, the next morning, she suffered a bout of giddiness and nearly collapsed at a supermarket. 

She had to be helped by staff and returned home with the maid in a taxi. 

After resting, Madam Mah confronted Windri, who admitted to adding 'medicine' to the soup, to make Madam Mah sleep more and stop her from inspecting and finding fault with the maid's work. 

 

The widow went to the Serangoon neighbourhood police centre to complain that her maid was poisoning her on Dec 22. 

 

Sergeant Norhafizah Kamaludin, 26, then interviewed Windri, who alleged that a neighbour had given her a pack of white-coloured pills that would make Madam Mah "slow down" and not nag and complain so much. 

The Indonesian maid had told a police officer she fed "medicine" to her 79-year-old employer to make her less troublesome. 

The maid, who had worked for Madam Mah for 2 years also said she got rid of the remaining pills when police were informed. 

 

In her separate police statement to investigating officer Ong Xiqing, Windri changed her story and said that she had brought the pills from Indonesia and had taken them when she had difficulty sleeping. 

 

Deputy Public Prosecutor Bhajanvir Singh asked the court not to show leniency to the Indonesian because employers and their family members need to be protected from violent maids. 

He said that Windri had abused the trust placed in her by her employer and had poisoned an elderly and very vulnerable victim.

 

****** 

 

The Angel 

 

Almost one third of the space in Ms Puji's bedroom was filled with her employers' children's toys. 

It shows the so much love she has for them. 

 

Her attachment to the children was evident - The children will always go to her room to play. 

 

Her employers were not the only ones Ms Puji left a deep impression on. 

Mr Samuel Lam, 36, a technical account director said:  

"When we got this maid in September 2008, we thought we were lucky to have her." 

 

A neighbour's 10-year-old son, Abdullah, said Ms Puji was very nice. 

She's very friendly, and would say 'hi' to him whenever she saw him.

 

Because of the abundance of her love towards the 2 children, she was even willing to lay her life down for the girls.

 

On Saturday night 24th April 2010, Indonesian maid Puji Astutik died proving her love - and saved her boss' one-year-old. 

 

Ms Puji, 28, was crossing the road with her employer, Mrs Lam's younger daughter, when an SMRT bendy bus ran into her at the junction of Choa Chu Kang Street 52 and Choa Chu Kang North 6 at around 7.30pm. 

 

She flung the baby girl forward but she herself, was pinned under the wheels. 

 

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it took 11 minutes for them to extricate Ms Puji from underneath the bus using one 10-tonne jack with multiple injuries. 

She was conveyed to National University Hospital as was reported by The New Paper and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao. 

 

She died later that night from her injuries. 

The Lams' daughter suffered minor scratches on her left arm and kept shivering that night. 

 

Both children were very attached to the maid. 

The elder girl asked her parents:  

"The bus hit Kaka, Kaka (sister) where?"

 

After witnessing the accident, both could not stop crying for a long time. 

After they stopped, both went into a daze and kept silent. 

 

Just 2 days before the incident, Ms Puji, 28, had pleaded with her mother in Indonesia to let her stay in Singapore after her contract expired. 

 

She loved her employer's two young daughters, aged 1 and 2, too much to leave.

Mr and Mrs Lam (above), Photo: TNP, intended to renew the maid's contract when it expired in September.

 

Ms Puji had S$3,221 in savings, which her employers had taken to the maid agency to be sent to her family.

 

Mr Eric Lim (above), director of Jack Focus Employment, who brought Ms Puji to Singapore, with her belongings that was sent home with her body.

He planned to raise S$10,000 for the maid's family, and hand the amount to the Indonesian embassy, which will then pass it to the family.

"It's such a pity. She (Ms Puji) worked so hard, she had aspirations, but just like that, she's said goodbye," said Mr Eric Lim.