The Maid - Boyfriending @ Geylang

Nora*'s soft laughter as she talked, was to hide her blushing face.
She regretted hiding the paper that My Elder Sister was searching.
But she was ashamed to let My Sister read it.

There was a picture and story of an Indonesian maid and her boyfriend.
She felt ashamed looking at it, without even reading the paper.
She was ashamed because it involved her nationality, and it revolved around the work she is doing, being a domestic worker.

I did not know which paper and who was Nora talking about.
In My head, it was because of boyfriend issue that led Me to want her to follow Me to City Plaza.
It was not exactly because of remittance.

The second time she remitted some money, it was My Elder Sister who did it for her.
With that money, the mother had bought storage for water for Singaporeans' (???) usage, when they will be at her house soon.

******

Stories of maids had been hogging headlines lately.

27-year old Indrani arrived in Singapore last year, in March.

In July, she ran away from her employer and prostituted herself to earn money.

In October, she discovered her pregnancy without knowing who the father was.

She dug a 10cm hole to bury her newborn, his umbilical cord attached, on April 18 in Eunos Crescent in a rooftop garden.

Her baby's mouth, alive when found, was stuffed with mud and dried leaves.

The baby is now under foster care.

She was arrested near Eunos MRT Station on April 24 after overstaying here for 273 days.

She was jailed for 10 weeks and fined S$2,000 for abandoning her newborn baby.

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

Ruliyawati, married with a son, entered Singapore in July 2010.

A month later, Md Repon Mostafa befriended her.

Her body  was discovered on Monday morning, in a 2-meter water tank atop the 15-storey Housing Development Board block of flats in Woodlands, serving residents of  Block 686B, Woodlands Drive 73 on May 16.

The 27-year old Bangladeshi cleaner Md Repon was charged with her murder between 7:10 a.m. and 9:54 a.m.

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

An Indonesian domestic worker was about to finish her two-year contract.

She was asked to continue her service.

The four and two-year old toddlers she looked after, are too attached with her.

The maid laid down her term for extension.

She needs off days, which the employer agreed.

The employer received a police call at her working place to pick her maid at the police station.

Her domestic worker was caught with a Bangladeshi man at the beach not far from her house.

The employer was shown compromising and intimate photos of the maid with her boyfriend.

The maid gave the worst shock to the employer last February - Her two small kids were locked at home.

Just the two of them, to fend for themselves.

****** ****** ****** 

29-year old Anis Dwi Rianawati had told her employer that she was pregnant and would work for another two to three months before quitting.

A week later, she was missing from her bedroom at about 8am.

Her wallet, jewellery and some notes was on her bed.

It was a suicide notes.

The pregnant Indonesian maid had jumped from her employer's flat through the 18th-floor kitchen window on October 24, 2010.

Her body was found on a second-floor parapet shortly afterwards.

Her 45-year old Malaysian married boyfriend refused to stop seeing another girl in Batam. 

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

Another Bangladeshi worker, 35-year old Kamarul Hasan Abdul Quddus, met 25-year old Yulia Afriyanti at a social gathering in 2005.

They became intimate a year later in January 2007.

In September, she told her employers and friends that she would be marrying Kamrul in Indonesia.

But a month later, the marriage was called off as Kamrul was already married in Bangladesh with two children.

Early October, a Filipino construction worker, 25-year old Joseph Guerzon Corpuza, was given Yulia's number by his close friend, Aunt Annabelle.

He called her and they made plan to meet on Sunday, October 14.

She told him that her boyfriend had returned to Bangladesh.

Their relationship blossomed, became intimate, planned to marry but she never broke up with Kamrul.

Joseph would sometimes travel from Boon Lay to Grange Heights to meet her when she walked her employer's dog at 8 pm every night.

They had intimate relationship in November despite Yulia's fear of getting pregnant again.

Her previous pregnancy was aborted without knowing who the father was.

When Joseph saw the last of Yulia on Dec 9, she told him she and Kamrul Hasan were getting married in January.

On the evening of December 15, she called Joseph telling him she was going to Changi Airport with Kamrul to welcome his mother and brother.

He then tried to contact her many times but failed to do so.

When he finally managed to phone Yulia, a police officer answered, saying his former girlfriend was dead and that the police wanted to talk to him.

******

In mid December, upon Kamarul's return from Bangladesh, he met Yulia.

He then returned to his dormitory in Kaki Bukit but at 11.30pm, he took a bus to his worksite.

Less than eight hours later, a construction worker found Yulia's body in the cardboard box.

His fingerprints were found at the crime scene and DNA test showed they had sexual relationship within the 12 hours before she was found dead.

He was found guilty of strangling his girlfriend on December 16, 2007.

Her naked body was found at about 9.50am, in a big 1m long and 3/4m wide cardboard box in the bomb shelter of a third-storey unit at a condominium construction site in Queensway, near Holland Road, where he worked.

Police found Yulia's phone and jewellery in his Kaki Bukit dormitory locker when he was arrested on December 19.

He was sentenced to death in early January 2010.

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

24-year old Umi Umiroh was plagued by dreams of a crying baby in her employer's semi-detached house along Hillside Drive, a month into her job in July 2008. 

She told her friends about her dreams whom she usually met at the old age home, Ling Kwang Home in Serangoon Gardens. 

She took her employer's mother for therapy sessions twice a week.

The friends said it was the ghost of the previous maid's baby.

Kirun had confessed to them she had secretly given birth to a seven months baby girl in the toilet of her employer's house. 

She did not know what to do, so she just killed the baby, and buried her in the backyard.

While trimming grass in the garden later in theday, Umi smelled something foul. 

She related her fears to her employer of what her friends told earlier. 

A police report was made and the next day 9am, the police with four sniffer dogs, spent three hours in the garden. 

Then they digging up something buried about 15cm deep into the soil. 

Some small bones, born prematurely, wrapped with a yellow batik cloth, were recovered and analysed by the Health Science Authority.

Kirun, married with two children, was employed in June 2006, was always seen wearing loose-fitting batik dresses or oversized T-shirts.

Her main job was to take the employer's 82-year-old mother for physiotherapy sessions twice a week. 

They spent about seven hours from 8.30am to 3pm. 

Umi Umiroh arrived at Ms Goh's house on 6th June, spent two weeks with Kirun before she returned home on June 22.

Kirun, before her departure, had told Umi that she had at least two boyfriends in Singapore. 

She also told Umi about having aborted her three-month foetus, fathered by the Bangladeshi boyfriend.

Her Bangladeshi boyfriend gave her $10 each time they met.

Before she met the Bangladeshi, she was seeing a Myanmar national. 

She was able to meet them while waiting for the therapy sessions to end.

Three days before she left Singapore, she took Umi to meet her Bangladeshi boyfriend. 

He asked her to be his girlfriend after Kirun returned home.

****** 

I brought Nora to City Plaza to show her the popular hang-out for Indonesians on weekends.
It's Orchard Road's Lucky Plaza of the east. 

I wanted to show her how her folks are clothed, what some of her people are doing and behaving here - shopping, friending and boyfriending.
The partners are usually from Bangladesh.

But last Saturday afternoon, there were none to show her.
City Plaza was a desert, not a single maid's soul.
(to be continued)

The Imprisoned Obedience In A Wife

August 19, 2010 - No Outside Food For Inmates

PUTRAJAYA: There will be no home-cooked rendang, lemang, ketupat and lodeh for prison inmates come Hari Raya as food items can no longer be brought during visits to prevent dangerous and prohibited items from being smuggled into the cells.
Due to attempts by some to smuggle in drugs, cigarettes, tobacco, money, liquor and even handphones for prisoners by “hiding” them in food items, the prison authorities have banned families from bringing outside food to inmates for the past five years.
Prisons Department head of secretariat unit Sufri Hashim said the decision had upset some families and even inmates as they could no longer enjoy the occasional home-cooked meals; but the ruling was necessary to ensure prohibited items did not enter the prisons.
Sufri said there were occasions when prison guards found substances hidden in cakes, secret compartments in containers, soup thermos and milk-powder boxes or tins.
“Malaysia’s prison is not the only correctional facility that imposes such a ruling. Most prisons around the world do not allow visitors to bring outside food for the prisoners.
“However, items such as clothes, books and other basic needs can be passed to the inmates but it will still be subject to inspection to curb attempts at smuggling in prohibited items,” he told a media briefing yesterday.
He said if non-governmental organisations were sponsoring meals for inmates, the prison authorities would check the source of the food to ensure “they are safe and healthy”.
Sufri also said that relatives need not have to go through the trouble of smuggling money to prisoners as they were actually allowed to leave money for the inmates but it would be under the care of prison officials and an official receipt would be issued.
He also said it was important for family members to visit inmates as often as possible as it was a form of moral support for them to turn over a new leaf and to encourage them to behave.
Visitations were allowed once a week. - The Star

******

As I read this, it brought back memories of the early 90s when I was lucky to visit one of the Kajang Prison inmate.

Lucky?
Yes, I was.
When visitation rights are strictly meant for family members and relatives only. But ex-neighbour?

The inmate, whom I shall refer to as Kak Maimun, showed me and taught me a lot about married life and staying married.
An observing servant to her Creator, a very obedient wife, a responsible mother and a mindful neighbour.
I still made a point to occasionally visit her after I moved house.

During one of those visits, I received the news that she was being remanded by Johor Bahru narcotic police and will be charged in KL court for possessing of unlawful drug (I've forgotten what the drug was).

When I asked her children, they blamed their mother's youngest brother,  a drug addict,  for the mother's involvement in drug transactions.
So she had been selling drug for quite sometime? I can just tell myself, impossible for her to do so.

She was proud to tell me she was saving up for her coming pilgrimage to Mecca. She had even showed me her Tabung Haji savings of RM9,000 - more than enough then, for the trip there.
I was proud of her far sightedness and initiative.
Although illiterate, she maximise the skills she had - massaging and taking care of mothers before and after delivery, and sewing - and sewing she did, day and night, after doing her morning rounds of giving body massage to mothers in confinement and cleaning the newborns.

Sitting around with her youngest sister, another story emerged.
Kak Maimun had been helping her husband, an ex-policeman turned security officer, with his illegal trade. Always an obedient wife, she had never said no to him.

When narcotic police, based on public tip-off, raided their house, the first thing she did was to salvage the drug which was kept in a Tupperware - She was caught red-handed with the drug in hands.
Both husband and wife were remanded at the local police station.
The husband was released after two weeks in detention. Kak Maimun's mother went berserk upon his release.

Kak Maimun was transferred to Women's Prison in Kajang, Kuala Lumpur.
Of course an ex-policeman knows how to worm his way out with consistent denial of possessing the drug, claimed Kak Maimun's mother.

During one of the Hari Raya, with her sisters from JB, I followed them to pay her a visit.
Her daughter who was staying in KL prepared her mother's favourite dish - 'soto' - the night before, and we set off early when the sun was about to rise.
My heart sank when the food was checked, the soup was drained, leaving just the plain, tasteless rice cake for her.
Even the 'begedel' was taken away too.

Conversation with her was again, full of advice for me to properly take care of my family.
How she passed her time in prison when a life sentence had been passed to her? Again, maximising the skill she had, she was tasked to take care imprisoned pregnant ladies and to assist in looking after newborns.

I figured upon her release, how was she going to face her neighbours as they were surprised to know that I can see eye to eye with her and visited her in prison.
I see the goodness she imparted in me is way much more than what was printed in the local paper.
Didn't I read the paper? An elderly neighbour asked. Maybe I missed out.
She blamed Kak Maimun for her son's dabbling in drug.
From then on, almost all Kak Maimun's help and services to mothers and newborns went unappreciated.

Few months after the life sentence was passed to her, Kak Maimun's husband remarried and went back to his hometown in Batu Pahat to stay in his mother's house which was left vacant for more than 10 years after the old lady passed away.
Kak Maimun passed away in prison in the early 2000s, without ever knowing that her husband had remarried, although, on his behalf, she claimed the drug was hers.

To safeguard himself, the husband had never once visited the wife in prison.
His five children with Kak Maimun, who are all now married, could not be bothered to visit him in Batu Pahat as he showed no remorse and empathy towards his late wife who sacrificed her freedom for her unquestioned obedience towards her husband.

To him, his life must go on on...

***Changes Made