Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Maid Story - Babies At Stake

Maids In Malaysia (2) And Singapore (5)

SERDANG: An Indonesian maid allegedly stomped a 15 month-old-infant to death in Puchong and then disappeared. It is learnt the incident occurred at 4pm last Friday when the only child was found unconscious at his home by a relative.
It is learnt the 25-year-old Indonesian maid from Majalingka, West Jawa had called the victim’s father to inform his son had fallen ill and was unconscious.
The victim’s father, Tang Meng Kiang, 40, a businessman asked his relative who lived nearby to rush his son to a nearby private hospital.
However, the infant, Tan Jin Yang was pronounced dead on arrival.
Serdang OCPD Supt Abdul Razak Elias said that, initially, the case was classified as sudden death.
However, the post mortem from the Serdang Hospital revealed numerous elements of fould.
It is learnt the child had strangulation marks on his neck, internal brain haemorrhage, bruises believed to be from being stepped on and lung infection.
“In light of the post mortem results, we re-classified the case as murder and have been on the lookout for who could help shed light on the child’s death,” he said.
Further investigations revealed that the maid had been working with the businessman’s family for nearly two years.
“At one point, the parents suspected their son was abused when one of his legs was fractured, but they did not follow through their suspicions”, he said. - The Star

****** ****** ******

After almost 2 weeks of absence, Fahmi was sent straight to the classroom by his mother.

He entered the room wailing aloud,
"Teacher, police catch Bibik." 

The mother signaled that she'll be outside the room waiting for Me.

"Why?" I asked him.
"Baby sick so police want her to sleep with baby at hospital."

After having adjusted himself with friends, I met his mother who was patiently waiting.

"You remember when I told you that my baby girl was still sick?
She was warded for observation.
Then the very night, the police wanted us to be at the station because x-ray showed  fracture on the skull.

We were kept overnight at the station suspected of abuse.
You think we want to do that to the 3-months old?
After going hell, we were released.

Then I asked the maid what she had done to the sinless being.
You know what she said?
She purposely dropped her BUT on the bed with thick mattress on!!!

I could not believe her admission that I called the police straight away!
She said the same thing to the police!

When I asked her why she vent her frustration on the poor soul, she said there's just too many things to handle.
Too many things to learn all at once and too many electrical things to operate."

******

I used to have a brief chat with the maid, in her 30s, when she passed Fahmi to me while carrying the baby girl.
The maid was a typical Javanese lady from remote village with heavy accent, whom I saw as slow in picking up new things and adapting oneself to new environment.
She was always with a tired face most of the time.

The 3 children were left in the maid's care for most of the time as the parents had to be at their 'Yong Tau Fu'  stall 12 hours daily, ever since the father was being retrenched from work.

I knew the mother as a super insurance agent, forever on her feet.
She was a warm, friendly woman whom others would want to go to for advice.
She would always volunteer to help out the school and would occasionally drop by to update herself with the latest development.

Before this incident, Fahmi used to say,  
"Teacher, baby fall down on the bed again."

I thought he was talking about his 4-year old sister as I did not find anything amiss as he was closed to his Bibik and often expressed his love for her.

******

Six months after the maid was being taken away, the baby was still in hospital.
By then she was already 9-months old, but still unable and will be forever unable, as the doctor said, to turn herself on her belly, to crawl, to walk, to blabber, to talk...
Though it maybe only a hairline crack, the baby has had only 10% survival rate.

Fahmi by then, had became withdrawn as he was too attached with the maid, since his 4-year old sister was born.
Occasionally he would say that the police is bad and naughty to take his Bibik away... 

4 comments:

Lee said...

Hi Ummie, really sad to read such incidents. There must be something wrong mentally with the maid.
Also maybe her boss might have scolded her or whatever.
sad about the baby. Hope the cops apprehend her soon.
Best regards, Lee.

Ummie said...

The maid who looked after Fahmi's sister is now serving her sentence.
It's all because of cultural shock & work stress that led her doing such inhumane act.

RoseBelle said...

This is another reason why I don't trust anyone to watch my kids when they were babies except for my mom. You just never know what the caretaker would do to them. In the U.S., there are cases of baby abuse by caretakers. I remember watching a hidden video of a nanny violently shaking an infant because the infant wouldn't stop crying. The baby suffered from permanent brain damage. I feel so sad for the baby Fahmi's baby sister. Taking are of 3 kids (I have 3 myself) is an overwhelming job and add onto doing cooking and housework, can make someone who is not used to handling too many things go crazy.

Lee said...

Hi Ummie, selamat hari raya and happy holidays.
Have fun....best regards, Lee.