Our Children's Education, At Its Best ?

Pilot project for vocational training
By NELSON BENJAMIN

SINGAPORE: A total of 50 schools have been selected to carry out a pilot project offering a subject on basic vocational training for students entering secondary school, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, also said the subject would be offered to students in Form One to Form Three beginning next year and would be on a voluntary basis.
“We will issue them with certificates and if they want to continue after that, they can pursue vocational training until diploma level,” he said, adding that the subject would be taught during school hours.
He said the ministry had adequate manpower to teach the subject.

Quizzed: Muhyiddin (middle) asking hospitality student Michelle Yap (left) during his visit to the Institute of Technical Education.

 

Muhyiddin reiterated that this project was in line with plans to carry out a transformation of the existing vocational training model being used in the country.
He added that the ministry was keen to learn from Singapore’s model as, presently, 20% of those entering the republic’s schooling system opted for vocational training.
“At the moment, 70% of their vocational courses are based on practical applications while 30% involves theory.
“Although the Singaporean model is different, we are interested to learn from them as they started early,” he said during a press conference after his two-day official visit to the island nation recently.
While in Singapore, he visited the Institute of Technical Education College West to find out more about its vocational training.
During his trip, Muhyiddin had inspected the Tuas South Incineration Plant.
He said Malaysia would have to follow Singapore’s steps to build such incinerators as part of its long-term measures to manage solid waste in the country.
“Back home we have a lot of challenges, especially managing people’s concerns whenever we decide to build such a plant.
“But whatever system we use, it will be the best as in Singapore. They not only dispose of their waste this way, but also generate electricity with it,” he added.
On other matters discussed during the visit, Muhyiddin said all issues agreed by both countries, especially with regards to the handing over of KTMB land in Tanjung Pagar, the handing over of the Singapore water treatment plant to Johor and the development of property projects, were proceeding as planned.
“One issue that both parties have agreed to take to a mediator is the development charges imposed on certain pieces of land in Singapore,” he said.
Earlier, at dinner with about 250 Malaysians living in Singapore, Muhyiddin called for citizens to return home and contribute their skills to the country’s development.
He said the country was in need to professionals and those with these skills should think about returning to Malaysia.
“It is good that you have served the Singaporean community. Now it is time to think about Malaysia.
“There are many avenues for you, especially through Talent Corp,” he said in his speech during the dinner.
Muhyiddin added that talent is needed to fill at least three million jobs that will be created through the various economic and transformation models being carried out by the government.

Source: The Star - Saturday, October 29, 2011

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Where we have gone wrong in education

DEPUTY Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has indicated a desire to learn from Singapore’s vocational and technical education.
May I point out that success in any field at higher levels does not happen in isolation?
A lot of work has to be done at the foundation so as to pave the way for such achievements to occur.
Trying to emulate whatever is happening at the top level without first scrutinising and doing the same at the foundation is bound to lead to failure.
As far as the Singapore model is concerned, it does not take much to see what they have been doing at the foundation.
At a very simplistic level and one that is obvious to all but those who refuse to see:
> HAVE only one national education system that caters to all;
> MEDIUM of instruction – English; and
> PAY the teachers well to attract the best to enter the profession.
Do we not realise that what Malaysia has done and is doing is directly the opposite to the above?
This is our situation:
> OUR education system is split: There exists national schools which are primarily Malay medium, national-type Chinese and Tamil schools, and private ones which cater to parents who want their children to have the advantage of learning in English.
> MULTIPLE mediums of instruction in school which multiply the difficulties for our children when they enter institutions of higher learning because of the lack of fluency in English, which is the medium used in most universities abroad.
And now with the imminent reversal of PPSMI, the problem of poor fluency in English in subjects for which a command of the language is of utmost importance in order to ensure progress will resurface.
> LOW and unattractive salary scale for the teaching profession.
The notion of trying to overcome problems by tackling the issue(s) at the wrong level is evident in the way the Government is trying to instill racial integration through programmes like National Service.
Does it make sense to tell the youth at age 17 or 18 to learn to live together with other races in harmony when they’ve lived out their entire formative years in racial isolation in schools which have segregated a majority of them by race?
Save the money currently being poured into National Service and use it to reboot the failing school system.
Put our children together in schools where, from a young age, they can interact with all races and a natural outcome of this will be racial integration.
Listen to the voices of Malaysians united across the racial divide, encompassing all ages, over the request to continue PPSMI for the benefit of our future generations.
Then maybe young Malaysians in future will instead have the upper hand and be able to teach the Singaporeans a thing or two about education instead of being condemned to lag behind them forever.
As a matter of interest, can the public be informed as to which schools the children/grandchildren of the politicians, who are against the PPSMI, are in?
If the PPSMI is not retained, can it be made mandatory for them to be enrolled in the national school so as to be able to get the “best” education possible for them?             
H0OR YOU MEI,
Kuala Lumpur.

Source: The Star - Sunday, October 30,2011

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Don’t tinker with PPSMI

I REFER to the letter “Where we have gone wrong in education” (Sunday Star, Oct 30). I cannot agree with her more.
The Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, on an official visit to Singapore, sang praises about the vocational and technical education system in Singapore.
Did he fail to realise that as a whole, parents in Malaysia are envious of the good education system in Singapore?
It is not only vocational education alone that is worth emulating. The schools in Singapore are well funded, teachers are motivated, the standard of teaching is high.
But more importantly, they teach in English, the language of science, commerce, and diplomacy of the 21st century.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) ranks consistently as one of the top 30 universities in the world.
Universiti Malaya, the precursor institution of NUS before the two universities split in the 1960’s, struggles to stay within the top 200, despite numerous attempts by many vice-chancellors to improve its ranking.
This is an example of how our education system has deteriorated. It is all because of meddling by our politicians since the early 1960s.
Now we know why there are bus loads of school children crossing the check point in Johor Baru at 4am every morning.
Not something that you would want for your children if you do not believe that studying in English gives them an edge in the job market.
I cannot understand the statement made by Muhyiddin yesterday, that it would be ‘kucar kacir’ (chaotic) if parents are given the choice to choose the medium of instruction for Science and Maths.
This situation arose only because of the Education Ministry’s weak position on Teaching of Science and Maths in English.
I could sense that the level of English among our teenagers was improving because of this policy.
Malay, Chinese and Indian kids no longer give you a blank look when you speak to them in English.
The children themselves agree that their English is improving. So what if we do not have enough competent English teachers for now?
The teachers’ English proficiency will definitely improve over time.
Do not underestimate our children’s ability to cope on their own, with the help of the Internet, tons of study materials are available in English compared to Bahasa, and also the fervour of the parents helping their children with school work. We need at least 20 years to see results.
An entire generation of school children will benefit if this policy is carried through with strong will.
Unfortunately, our Cabinet, together with the ministry, saw it fit to again tinker with something that works, pandering to grouses of a few short-sighted Malay and Chinese educationists and numerous obscure pressure groups who may not even have school-going children!
I also find it extremely hypocritical that our ministers and senior politicians have no shame when they mention that their children are studying in international schools instead of national schools.
Why the need to study in international schools? Is it not because they can learn in English?
Why is the future of our children less important than theirs?
I urge the Deputy Prime Minister and his colleagues in the Cabinet to think again for the future of other people’s children, and do not back track on this policy of teaching of Science and Maths in English.
It is the only semblance of a good education the average child can hope for in this country.
YAP BOON KAH,
Kuala Lumpur.

Source: The Star - Monday, October 31, 2011

Not Just 'Imam Muda', But Eternal Leader

"Imam Muda" or Young Leader, a Malaysian television series with 10 young men between 19 and 27 entered the show.
Another reality show thrusts for viewers.

For a simple reason that these young men are not hopefuls of 'Akademi Fantasia', 'Malaysian Idol', 'Mari Berdansa'... and many more reality show that I am not possible to keep track,
not the reality fit for soul food,
these young men had voluntarily opted the responsibility to place heavy baggages on their shoulders, had their private lives 'intruded into',
'out of pity', I do not follow the reality show from day one on Astro Oasis 106 when “Imam Muda” first aired last year, which the participants were only Malaysians.   

'Imam Muda', said to be a hit Islamic reality show, yes, I heard about it, but honestly I did not follow.
One reality show after another.
A copycat nation?
Hopefully, not us at all.
To keep up with trend, now we need a reality show to choose a highly religious leader who should be seen fit and worthy to lead the society?

The end result, according to Izelan Basar, station manager for the Malaysian satellite television station which produces the show, they wanted to do the best they could to attract youths to be closer to the religion.

But the further end result is what I feared then, as we have no see-through 'kasyaf' eyes, able to penetrate the unknown.

These young men, with long future years ahead, are thrown into the limelight.

They can plan their future, but they cannot predict them.

We can point straight to Qada' and Qadar, fated that things should happen when it's 'not according to plan'.
We can be the best planner of the best, but in the end, it is up to HIM to execute or abort it.

People tend to remember the 'once only' mistake than the positive doings we do all our lives.

Many people are less forgiving, lesser than HE who creates us.

People and prints tend to harp over the black tiny dot of ones doing, over, and over, and over again.

I had read and observed many cases, befell to those well known in this region, when once only mistake done, all goodness will go into the drain.

Even when things done are not mistake, but not according to norm or culture, the masses are too easy with accusation, even fault not those well known, but masses themselves, for having 'half full half empty' understanding.

But when I heard "Assalaamu'alaikum, saya Mujahid, berasal dari Woodlands, Singapura... Memecah suatu tradisi, meneruskan perjalanan suatu kehidupan..." on tv in a house I visited few Wednesday nights ago, that was the turning point for Me to know more about the reality show.
I would have not recognised him, if not for the resemblence of his father's feature.

As was My previous sharing, when too many Muslims from Pakistan married among their own relatives, wrong perception of Islamic teaching was reflected.

I submitted myself to become a victim of wrong perception too.
When too many local reality show, 'Mentor', 'Raja Lawak', 'Maharaja Lawak'... were served on platters to us, to Me then , 'Imam Muda' was on such category too.
How wrong was I then.

Credit should be given to Tuan Asmawi Tuan Umar.
He made his presentation to Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) for the 'Imam Muda' reality program.
But it was turned down, as RTM already had its reality show.
The same proposal was made to TV9 but it already had 'Akademi Al-Qur'an'.
Although he was under great pressure to bring forth his idea to realisation, but he still has great confidence in HIM.

He will be helped if he wants to help others to HIS path.
He brought forward his working paper to Astro, but the Malay panel was sceptical, not interested in his idea, since Astro already has had its AF and RL.

He then seek permission to see their superior, who came all the way from India.
The response was "Good!", knowing imam's duty and responsibility is more than a priest.

“Imam Muda”, a Malaysian Islamic reality show first aired in 2010.
It is to create a new generation of young and credible ' imams', training them towards depicting a true picture on the essence and responsibility of being true leaders. 

“This is not like other programs that have no religious values,” said the show’s chief judge and 'imam' at the National Mosque, Al-Fadhil Dato' Hasan Mahmud Al-Hafiz, a former prayer leader at Malaysia’s national mosque.  
“We have no shouting or jumping. We provide spiritual food. We’re not looking for a singer or a fashion model.”

This formula works in 21st century Malaysia.
Other reality TV have crowned chefs, designers, hair stylists, models, singers, but religious leaders?
Malaysia Boleh.
Unlike other reality show, showing their best at runway walk-offs and challenging among themselves at quickfire cooking challenges, these young men, they have no jumping, prancing around or shouting.

They enrich the spirit.
They performed 'fadhu kifayah', dia yang buat, kita tak payah, attended to corpses at morgue that had gone unclaimed for weeks and burying them, joined police crackdown on "Mat Rempit", teenage motorcyclists and counselled unmarried pregnant mothers-to-be.
This journey is documented in the program, dealing with a highly important institution amidst the crumbling society of I have full right of what I want to do, not what I need to do in this progressive nations.

When imam of the past used to be always someone ancient-schooled with old-fashioned thinking and refused to understand the youngs, Astro Oasis is steering towards a new generation of young, credible, and progressive leaders.
They are unearthing and training new versatile imams, giving information to the society on the importance of versatility towards the right path.
We are witnessing the process of finding true essence in the modern and progressive imam. 

"Imam Muda" is the most-watched program ever on Astro Oasis, an Islamic-themed cable channel.
Even the programme creators were thrilled by its success in achieving their goal of bringing young generation closer to their faith, with aim to find leaders who will connect with youths, keeping faith close to their heart amidst nowadays generation immersed in fun-filled pop culture.

Astro Oasis had already paved the way for ten 'Imam Muda' last year, and GOD Willing, another ten for this year.

These talented good young men, from the beginning, it is made clear of their intention is not for fame, not for money, not for showing of how good they are.

It's truly amazing with the idea of using reality tv to search for today's young people to become tomorrow's religious leader.
This bizzarre marriage between religion and pop culture is working miracle, sparked a new level of interest for believers, and took the world by storm.
The reality show proved that the amount of potentially good program is enormous.

The show is midway, (tonight too, if I am not mistaken. I had not really sit down to specially watch the program, just snippets here and there) through its 10-week stint.
It's producers are looking for pious but progressive Muslims who can prove that religion remains relevant to Malaysian youths despite the pop culture and other negative influences.

The show has become the Islamic-themed channel’s most-watched program ever.
It debuted to great popularity in Malaysia, and the programme has gained global attentions.  
'Imam Muda' was shown to 3.7 million viewers worldwide, surpassing 'Akademi Al-Qur'an' viewers, many times more.
Even its Facebook site has surpassed its 370, 000 fans and is still growing.

******

I had worked with Mujahid's mother, and I had worked under his father.

Mujahid had been my kindergarten student, and so was his few siblings.

Once, some time last year, on Friday visiting My ex-colleagues, before An-Nur underwent total renovation, I heard a very familiar voice reciting verses from The Holy Qur'an.

I was listening attentively to the familiar voice when My friend said,  

"Your son lah, Mujahid."

I was surprised because he was in secular school.

But like father like son, "kemana tumpahnya kuah, kalau bukan kenasi."

I had made known to his father that I would prefer children to get real exposure of the truly mixed Singapore races.

Never mind the father's a UIA graduate, and any other university for that matter, and it's ok I obtain my master from u-never-study education centre.

No doubt Mujahid's parents are both theologically inclined, but I would prefer Mujahid to be sent to secular school, given his active and outgoing nature.

No doubt the father was My principal, but I had often voiced out My views despite opposing his.

I had to let him weigh rationally a piece of My mind as I had always look upon the late Ustaz Taha Suhaimi.

Born on a Thursday, July 27, 1916.

Although his father, Sheikh Muhammad Fadhlallah as-Suhaimi, had helped to establish Kulliyah Al-'Attas in Johor Bahru and founded Madrasah Al-Ma'arif in Ipoh Lane in 1936, yet the young Taha Suhaimi received his early education at the Raffles Institution.

He later spent eight years studying at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

Since he went to Al-Azhar to sincerely seek knowledge, and not certification, he returned to Singapore to become a lecturer at the Ngee Ann College.

He was also the first president of the Syari'ah Court.

After his father, Sheikh Muhammad Fadhlallah as-Suhaimi's demise in August 16, 1964, at 78 years of age, Ustaz Taha took charge of Madrasah Al-Ma'arif. 
 It was first built in Tanjung Katong before resited at wakaf land in Ipoh Lane in 1939 by Shaikh Omar Bamadhaj.

An all-girls' Islamic school, it is one of six full-time Islamic madrasahs for primary, secondary and pre-university levels students in Singapore.

With futuristic vision the school master was empowered with, I remember looking at old pictures of the 70s of Madrasah AlMa'arif, with Chinese teachers.
They had even enrolled Chinese staff for the future generation.

Its school curriculum has always emphasis the balance of theology studies and secular subjects from the Singapore Ministry of Education, a more well-rounded and wholesome education.

In 1971, Al-Ma'arif had its students sat for the first GCE 'O' and 'A' Level as private candidates, more than twenty years earlier before the madrasah curriculum was revamped by MUIS, the Singapore Islamic Council, to include the curriculum from the Ministry of Education.

Madrasah Al-Ma'arif Al-Islamiah has since moved to Lorong 39, Geylang.

Ustaz Taha As-Suhaimi had authored 'Biography of Sheikh Muhammad Bin 'Abdullah As-Suhaimi' (his grandfather), 'Commentary of the Surah Yasin' Hajj and 'Umrah', 'Proofs Concerning the Validity of the Qur'an', 'The Book of Fasting, 'The Book of Fiqh', The Science of  Tawhid', 'The True Meaning of Heresy', 'Qadha' and Qadar,  all in Malay.

Some of his English writings are 'Has the Bible Been Altered?' and 'Muhammad Foretold in the Earlier Scriptures'.  

He passed away on Tuesday, June 8, 1999. 

May we benefit from knowing him.
Al-Faatihah.

Keeping Johor Bahru Clean (2)

Free Garbage Bin For All When Act 672 Comes Into Effect 
by MK Ong on 24 May, 2011

Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Corporation will be distributing some 3.5 millions garbage bins for free to all residential houses and business premises in Peninsula Malaysia to enable the government to manage the solid waste management more effectively.

Chief Executive Officer, Zaini Md Nor said, each of the garbage bins will be serial-numbered to ensure that the garbage bin will be taken care of to last a minimum of seven years.
“The one hundred and twenty litres capacity garbage bin will be for the residential houses and the two hundred and forty litres one will be for the business premises and restaurants”, he said after the official launching of “The  Transformation of the Nation Solid Waste Management After Act 672″ , seminar here, yesterday.
Meanwhile,  Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Corporation will also set up a solid waste management tribunal to allow the public and contractors to forward their dissatisfaction and grievances related to the solid waste management issues, he added.
He said, the proposal to set up the tribunal will follow suit once the Solid Waste and Urban Cleansing Management  2007 Act 672 is implemented.
“If there are any complaints and reports from the consumers and contractors who are unhappy with solid waste management matters can refer them to the tribunal”, he said.
He said after the Solid Waste and Urban Cleansing Management  2007 Act 672 comes into effect, the work flow will be more systematic.
The one day seminar was attended by some two hundred contractors organised by Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Corporation with the objective of allowing the contractors to fully understand the full implications of the privatisation exercise when Solid Waste and Urban Cleansing Management  2007 Act 672 comes in to effect. 

Footnotes: 
In order to better manage these operators and to regulate the tripartite relationship between the Federal Government, private operators and the Local Authorities, it has been proposed that the federal legislation be passed in the form of the Solid Waste Management Act.
There are two Solid Waste Management Act has been enacted in Malaysia in which Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672) and Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 673)
It appears that should these initiatives proceed to full implementation, Malaysia would be setting a precedent in the world community.
No other country has "federalized" soli waste management nor has privatization been undertaken at the federal level with a specified limited number of operators for the country.

MK Ong

is a Citizen Journalist trained by Citizen Journalists Malaysia

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Restoring The Dignity Of Segget River With RM200mil
by Steven Chen on 12 Feb, 2011

Imagine: Tourists in white gondolas cruising down the Segget River, alongside Jalan Wong Ah Fook, where they disembark for a walk along the crystal clear waters, with a magnificent view of Johor Bahru town against the backdrop of Singapore’s CIQ in the distance.
This might be far-fetched, looking at the current state of the infamous Segget River which runs through downtown Johor Bahru, and the pedestrian walkway known as Legaran Segget.
Prior to the existence of Legaran Segget, one could mistake this river for an extra-large monsoon drain, its rat-infested water exuding an unbearable stench.
However, despite its murky waters, the Segget River has been a huge icon for Johoreans since the 1800s. Just as how Klang River was central in the development of Kuala Lumpur, Segget River has largely made the surroundings of Jalan Wong Ah Fook and Johor Bahru what it is today.
Conveniently, the Johor Bahru City Council took an easy way out by sweeping the problem under the carpet.
Backed by RM6 million and an ill-conceived redevelopment plan, the river was covered and some meaningless structures with water fountains erected on top of it.
The whole idea of the redevelopment by Johor Bahru City Council was to mitigate the unbearable stench from the river.
However, in the process of covering up, the contribution of Segget River to the development and heritage of Johor Bahru were simply overlooked.
The Segget River was once the passage for small traders to the Tanjung Puteri (Johor Bahru’s old name). The traders in the area took the opportunity to trade with the passing ships and economic activity around Segget River flourished, it eventually becoming a village known as Kampung Wong Ah Fook.
Kampung Wong Ah Fook today is known as just Jalan Wong Ah Fook.
In May 2010, Prime Minister Najib Razak, during his visit to Johor Bahru for the Iskandar Regional Development Authority’s (IRDA) briefing on the Johor Bahru City Renewal Plan, had envisioned the Segget River as a new tourist attraction, not unlike Venice.
Najib had compared it with Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, South Korea which was closed due to heavy pollution, until the 5km river’s rehabilitatation three years later to become the most popular recreation site in Seoul.
To help kick-start the Segget River restoration project, Najib had announced a RM200 million allocation to open and clean up the river.

According to Johor Menteri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman, the river will be re-opened and built as a double-deck river, with the upper deck channeling clean water and the lower deck channeling treated sewage to the Tebrau Straits (presumably after treatment).
Since then, the Johor Bahru City Council has taken initiative to release a large amount of ‘friendly’ bacteria into the murky river to improve its water quality. The result so far has been positive and the prospect of re-opening the river is brighter than ever.
The vision of having gondolas plying the entire Johor Bahru downtown through Segget River might a reality but only with implementation of the project, and if a proper public awareness campaign can be done. The glory of Segget River can be restored and it will mark a milestone in heritage and environmental conservation.

Steven Chen

is the current Citizen Journalists Malaysia's Johor Chapter Head. Apart from his undying love of Bee Gees, his other love is to help make Johor Bahru a better place to live.

 

Both Sources: Komuniti Kini

Towards Lesser Crime In JB (8)

Foreigners And Drug

Three Mexican brothers Luis Alfonso Gonzalez Villarreal, 43, Simon Gonzalez Villarreal, 36, and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, 33, are natives of Culiacan, Sinaloa.
Culiacan, Mexico, is considered a cradle of the drug trade.
The brothers are accused of being part of the Sinaloa cartel and members of an international network for the production and distribution of methamphetamine in Southeast Asia.

The three men, together with a Singaporean, Lim Mun Wang, 54, and a Malaysian, Lee Boon Sian, 46, were arrested at 3.15pm in March 4, 2008 at the IPL Packaging Industries Sdn Bhd factory in Jalan Idaman 1/5, Senai Industries Park, Senai, Johor Bahru.
It is a secluded factory in the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia's southern Johor state.

Police found a drug laboratory and approximately 240 kilograms of methamphetamine.
The lab was believed to have been operating for about six months before the raid.

All five were charged with trafficking in 29,460.17gm of methamphetamine worth RM44 million.
They face the mandatory penalty of death by hanging if convicted.

The judge hearing the case, Justice Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh, said that based on the evidence by a prosecution witness, a chemist, it was proven that there were traces of drugs at the scene, on the various processing equipment as well as on the clothing and on the accused.
He said based on the evidence by witnesses, the court also found that the factory was used to make and process drugs.
Justice Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh is known for his strict adherence to the law and in recent years has condemned more than 30 people to the gallows.

The High Court ruled in February, it was unreasonable to conclude that it was a mere coincidence that the Mexican brothers were at the factory during the raid.
The accused, who are charged under section 39 B (1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, were represented by lawyer Kitson Foong, who has been on the case since January.

The attorney offered an outline of how the brothers ended up in Malaysia.
They were seafarers,working and  travelling on ships.
They came over to Vietnam first in search of work, and then were promised jobs on a merchant ship in Singapore.
While they were waiting to board the ship in Malaysia, they found employment for a couple of weeks cleaning factories.
They are in Malaysia on tourist visas, but facing the death penalty for alleged drug trafficking which had been adjourned until June 2.

The Gonzalez brothers have been held in a maximun security prison since their arrest in 2008.
During the nearly three years the brothers have been in custody, they have received no visits from relatives.

The only  visit was from the Mexican Embassy.
Embassy personnel have met several times with the men, and have been in contact with their lawyer.
The lawyer has been called to the Mexican Embassy in Malaysia to update authorities on the case.
A report in the Milenio newspaper spread their story to a wider audience.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry, in a statement said, it has offered and will continue to offer consular assistance to the brothers.
The Mexican authorities offered to support them in obtaining legal representation, but the three opted to get their own counsel.
Last January, using their own resources, the defendants hired a new lawyer.

The Mexico's Foreign Ministry, in a statement said Mexican authorities have also been in touch with the Gonzalez family in Mexico to offer advice.
The family denies that the government has briefed it on the case.

******

Prosecutors have presented drugs and paraphernalia that were allegedly found at the trio's location the night of the raid.

But police have lost a third to a half of the seized drugs.
Four policemen are under investigation for the loss, and one committed suicide, the lawyer said.
Lawyer Foong dismissed the evidence as unpersuasive.

Because the evidence had been tampered with, it should not have been admitted in court.
The judge accepted the evidence, to the utter surprise of everyone.
Now, the three terribly scared Mexicans are pleading for a fair trial.

Lawyer Foong rejected any suggestion that the Gonzalez brothers exemplify the growing reach of the Mexican drug cartels.
Not every Mexican is a drug trafficker, as there is no evidence of that in this case.
Mexican drug cartels are known to have spread their operations into Central and South America.
Although there have been reports of activities in Asia, but activities in Asia is very limited and not very well tested or sourced.

Under Malaysia anti-drug laws, any person found in possession of at least 15 grams (1/2 ounce) of heroin, 200 grams (30 ounces) of marijuana, 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of cocaine and 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of methamphetamine is presumed by law to be a drug trafficker.
A mandatory death sentence is the punishment if convicted of violating its strict laws against drug trafficking.

The brothers'  lawyer has urged that a translator be sent help prepare the defense.
The lawyer said that the three have no ties to any drug trafficking organisation and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
If the defense attorneys are unable to convince the judge of the brothers innocence, they will be convicted and sentenced to death.
A plea was sent to the Mexican media for help after his attempts to request assistance from the Mexican Embassy.

The Mexicans' other brother, Jose Gonzalez Villarreal, from the western city of Culiacan, has urged their country's government to help them, saying the family has only spoken to the three suspects twice since their arrest.
They have little knowledge of developments in the case.
Their parents are in despair over the situation.
The mother of the three Mexicans jailed in Malaysia is pleading for authorities to intervene in their case.

Referring to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Carmen Villarreal Espinoza, the mother, as quoted from CNN said, "I ask that he lend us a hand to get our sons out of there."
And she added, "I ask God to help us, to give us strength."
Mother Villarreal said the last time she heard from her sons was after their arrest in March 2008.
They called to say that they had been mistaken for drug traffickers and arrested.
She learned they faced a death sentence only when she read a newspaper article.
She like to see them, but a heart ailment and lack of funds mean she cannot fly to visit them.
Being poor and lacking of resources, they have not been able to do anything.

"My sons -- thank God, who never have traveled down a bad path -- they have no criminal history, nothing," she said.
Her sons used to make bricks for a living in Mexico but left in February 2008 for better opportunities.
They told her that a friend had invited them going to a job, without telling her where they were going.
They would likely be back by Mother's Day.
But well, they never came back.

If there is no possibility of acquittal, then hanging is the only other one sentence prescribed by law.
Even if the brothers are convicted, they would still have two layers of appeals that could last three years before they are exhausted.

The three brothers from Sinaloa have no criminal record in Mexico, a major drug trafficking hub and the cradle of a powerful Mexican cartel of the same name.
But in Malaysia, they were charged with violations of Malaysia's Dangerous Drug Act.

The U.S. State Department warns potential visitors that “Malaysia strictly enforces its drug laws.
If you possess, use or traffic in illegal drugs in Malaysia, you will be sentenced to significantly longer prison sentences and much heavier fines than in the United States [or Mexico].
Malaysian legislation provides for a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers.
 If you are arrested in possession of 15 grams (1/2 ounce) of heroin or 200 grams (seven ounces) of marijuana, you will be presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs.”

The Malaysian legal system enforces this law and had executed several foreigners.
Several drug traffickers from Australia have been convicted and executed in Malaysia.
In 1986, Australian citizens Kevin John Barlow and Brian Geoffrey Chambers convicted of trafficking heroin, were hanged.
The Australian government did attempt to defend Barlow and Chambers,but polling indicated little sympathy for the pair among the Australian public.
Even with the intervention of appeals from Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Foreign Minister Bill Hayden, the executions went on as scheduled.
In 1993, another Australian, Michael McAuliffe, was hanged for drug trafficking.

Besides the Gonzalez Villarreal brothers, a Philippines female college lecturer and another two Zimbabwean women are other foreigners facing trafficking charges now.
Malaysia, unlike the United States, where there are many Mexicans, appeals may fall on deaf ears.

******

Taiwanese Men On Drug Trafficking Charge Escape Gallows

JOHOR BARU: Four Taiwanese men escaped the gallows when the High Court acquitted and discharged them on a charge of drug trafficking.

Judicial Commissioner M. Gunalan made the decision after defence counsel Naran Singh and G.K. Sritharan managed to raise a reasonable doubt in the case against Chung Sheng Wen, 37, Chang Min Yen, 36, Chang Yun Sheng, 32, and Wu Sheng Yuan, 32.

The four were charged with trafficking Nimetazepam (or Erimin) weighing 43.033 grammes in March last year.

They were alleged to have committed the offence at a factory at No 12, Jalan Angkasa Emas 6, in the Tebrau Industrial Area 2 here, at about 5.30am on March 22, 2009.

They were charged under Section 39B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under Section 39B (2) of the same act, and read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Umar Saifuddin Jaafar, in his submission, said all the accused, who were arrested at the factory, were involved in processing and trafficking the drugs.

However, Naran Singh said that during the raid on the factory, all his clients were on the upper level of the building and were unaware of the activities which took place on the ground floor.

"The prosecution only relied on certain evidence. Besides, there was no specific evidence to prove the direct involvement of the accused in the drug processing activities, or that the accused knew anything about it," he said.

Naran Singh said the prosecution also failed to call the key witnesses in the case - the security guard and tenants of the building - to testify.

In his judgement, Gunalan said the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against the accused and their involvement in the case.

"The prosecution succeeded in proving that all the accused were in the factory, but failed to prove that they were involved in drug-processing activities.

"It also failed to prove the direct involvement of the accused in the possession of the tools and exhibits seized from the premises. Therefore, all the accused are freed of the charge," he said.

Source: Malay Mail - Monday, December 27, 2010

Towards Lesser Crime In JB (7)

Foreigners And Drug

There has been a steep increase in the number of alleged Iranian drug traffickers caught in Malaysia, with 138 arrested from January to October last year.
In the whole of 2009, there were only 16.

Iran's ambassador to Malaysia has said international crime gangs are using Iranians to smuggle drugs into the country.

Last month, nine Iranians were arrested and the seizure of more than 70 kilogrammes of methamphetamine as well as RM7 million (S$2.9million) in foreign currency in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The nine were believed to be using Malaysia as a base to supply drugs to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Last Wednesday, police shut down an international syndicate's bid to distribute 4.5 kg (10 pounds) drugs in southern Malaysia with the arrest of two Iranian smugglers, aged 22 and 27.
The pair were arrested on arrival at the state's Sultan Ismail International Airport in Johor Bahru here.
They  arrived on a flight from KL International Airport (KLIA) at 4.30pm on Wednesday via a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight.
They were believed to be part of an international drug syndicate from the Middle East trying to distribute drugs in southern Malaysia.
Photo Source: Utusan Online

The international syndicate’s maiden effort at supplying the party drug in the southern region via Johor ended prematurely when the police detained the two suspected Iranian drug couriers in Senai here.
It was suspected that they belonged to an international drug trafficking syndicate and had used a domestic flight to arrive to throw the police off their scent.
One of the suspects had been regularly coming to the country since 2009.

The drugs, believed to be syabu, worth RM1.2million, were found hidden in a secret compartment of a trolley bag held by one of them.
It could be dealt out to at least 15,000 addicts in Johor.
Both suspects have been remanded until May 4.
The case is being investigated under Section 39(B) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for drug trafficking.

******

Mexican Brothers Face Death In Malaysia Drug Trial 

Dario Lopez-Mills   AP Photo

In this April 4, 2011 photo, Ismael Gonzalez Villareal, 40, prepares bricks at his family's brick shop with his brother Efrain, in Culiacan, Mexico. Both were raised, like their seven brothers, to become brick makers but now three of them are in Malaysia facing the death penalty on drug charges.

CULIACAN, Mexico — From age 6, each of the Gonzalez brothers learned to make bricks, trudging like nine little chicks behind their father every day before dawn to work in his dusty hilltop brickyard.
Three years ago, three of them in their 30s and 40s quit the backbreaking work, saying they had a better opportunity abroad.
Now, having escaped the Mexican drug war that leaves dead bodies on the streets of their city of Culiacan almost daily, the brothers face the gallows in Malaysia, standing trial on Wednesday for allegedly working in a factory where police found $15 million in methamphetamine. If convicted, they face Malaysia's mandatory sentence of death by hanging for drug trafficking.
The case raises questions about a connection between their home state, Sinaloa, the cradle of Mexico's drug trade, and a country more than 15,000 kilometers (some 10,000 miles) away that is a regional production hub for meth. While authorities say there is no direct evidence to tie the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful, to meth production in Asia, they wouldn't be surprised by such a link.
"If you look at trends, then you see that these organizations are fanning out," said a U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico who couldn't be named for security reasons. "They are popping up everywhere."
Only a month after leaving Mexico, the brothers - Jose Regino, 33, Luis Alfonso, 43 and Simon Gonzalez, 36 - called home during a family birthday party. Their relatives thought they were calling with congratulations. Instead the brothers told them they were under arrest.
The family hung up stunned, and searched for Malaysia on their globe.
"If I had been asked to go I would not have gone," brother Ismael Gonzalez said as he dragged a wheelbarrow filled with dark clay at the brick yard, his bare feet caked in mud. "I say they had no idea what they were getting into."
Malaysia has increasingly become a regional production hub for methamphetamine production, according to the U.S. State Department 2011 International Narcotics Control report. Most labs so far have been financed or operated by Singaporean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai or Iranian traffickers.
Mexican drug cartels have long-standing ties with Asian suppliers to obtain methamphetamine precursor chemicals, but they have not been known to be involved in production in that part of the world. U.S. officials, however, suspect the Sinaloa gang is seeking market share in Asia.
While the brothers have no criminal records, and the family insists they are innocent, the U.S. law enforcement official said it would not be unusual for a Mexican cartel to recruit inexperienced foot soldiers for such an operation, and cooking methamphetamine is a simple procedure.
Malaysian police say the brothers were arrested in March 2008 at a secluded meth factory along with a Singaporean and a Malaysian. Police seized more than 60 pounds (nearly 30 kilograms) of methamphetamine worth $15 million.
The Mexican Foreign Relations Department says three other Mexicans were detained in Malaysia on drug charges around the same time and released last year. It declined to give details about their cases. The six are the first Mexicans to be arrested in Malaysia on drug trafficking charges, according to the department.
The brothers' Malaysian attorney, Kitson Foong, said they were arrested outside the factory and were not involved in what was going on inside. He declined to give details about what the brothers were doing in Malaysia but said "They are not guilty. They are not drug traffickers."
Malaysian prosecutor Umar Saifuddin Jaafar said the Mexicans were arrested inside the factory. He said the prosecution team was not aware that the brothers came from a hotbed of drug trafficking in Mexico but that they "had some knowledge of the procedure, the equipment" at the laboratory.
"These people knew what they were doing. They operated in a very secretive environment. It seems to be that these people are experts," Jaafar said.
Neighbors and relatives say there was no sign that the brothers aspired to the ostentatious world of Sinaloa's capos, whose families live in mansions, drive Jaguars and bury their dead in gaudy mausoleums with spiral staircases and balconies.
On good days, the brothers earned about 300 pesos ($25) making and selling bricks. Simon dislocated three discs in his back several years ago, and a doctor urged him to quit.
"He kept working," said their sister, Alejandrina. "It's the only thing to do in the neighborhood, and it's the only thing that my father taught him since he was little. Bricks, bricks, bricks."
She said two men her brothers sometimes played soccer and basketball with told them about a job opportunity abroad and they left together.
"They never told us where they were going. They only said they were going to try their luck at another job," she said.
When the phone call came in March 2008, the family pooled their money and borrowed from friends to send Alejandrina and a friend to Malaysia. She saw her brothers for the first time in a courtroom, chained with about a dozen other prisoners from different cases. They looked up, stunned to see their sister, and assured her they did not go there to get involved in drugs.
Foong said police have mishandled his client's case from the start. He charged they lost two-thirds of the drugs seized at the factory and that at one point they filed a report claiming the drugs had been stolen. He alleged that four police officers were arrested after being caught on camera stealing some of the drugs themselves.
Prosecutor Jaafar said four policemen were investigated in late 2008 on suspicion of stealing about 5 kilograms of meth from the evidence room of the state police headquarters. He insisted the theft does not affect the prosecution's case because chemists had already examined the drugs by then and prepared a report about their contents.
In February, the Kuala Lumpur High Court refused to throw out the case and ordered the brothers to stand trial.
Foong said the brothers have been bewildered by the Malay-language proceedings, and the Mexican Embassy in Kuala Lumpur says it will provide translators for the trial. The Foreign Relations Department says its consular officials have visited the brothers from the start.
If convicted, Foong said, the brothers still have two layers of appeals and the overall process could last another year.
In Jose Regino's old room, three photographs of his daughter Bianca still hang on the wall. Now 6, she has started school, but her mother, Brenda, says the child has nightmares and refuses to learn to read or write.
"She says she won't learn until her father comes back," the mother said. "I tell her, 'No, you must learn quickly so you can write to him.'"
-----
Associated Press Writers Julia Zappei and Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Source: The News Tribune - April 24, 2011

The Maid - Reliable? Biodatas

Employers Burnt By Misleading Biodata

MANY employers have been the victims of unreliable biodata provided to them by maid agencies.
Gina D. 51, working mother of four.
In 2006, I applied for a maid who was supposed to be 35 years old as stated in the biodata provided to me. She could pass for 35 from her photograph as well. However, when I picked her up from the agency I was shocked at how much older she looked.
She was definitely in her 50s or even older. I later found out that her hair was actually almost completely white and she had been dyeing it black to cover it up.
When I confronted my agency, they said that maids sometimes lie about their age. They couldn’t have known, they said, as the Indonesian agencies just send them the biodatas and the photos and they distribute that to their customers who make a choice.
As I really needed the help and didn’t want to go through the process of applying for another one, I thought I’d give her a chance.
We tried for a year before I decided to send her back. Because of her age she was very difficult to work with and would answer back frequently.
I can’t confirm if they let her work with someone else but I think she must have left the country as I applied for a check-out memo after deciding to send her back.
Once you apply for a check-out memo, the maid has to leave the country by a certain date and if she hadn’t left I wouldn’t have been able to apply for a replacement maid (which I was able to do).

Stretching the truth: Some agencies falsify biodata to make maids appear bigger and stronger than they actually are.

Susan, homemaker, mother of three.
I once had an underaged maid who lied about her age. In her biodata she had listed down her age as 24 or 25 but when she arrived you could tell she was very young. It turned out that she was only 15 and she didn’t know anything! She told me that the agency asked her to lie about her age or she would not be allowed into the country. I held on to her for as long as I could but in the end she just couldn’t handle the work
Another problem is when they claim to have worked with children before but when they come you can tell that they actually haven’t. I’ve not really sent back many maids before their contract has ended.
The agencies never take responsibility anyway. You tend to just ignore what you read in the biodata because you end up having to train them all over again.
From the biodata you choose a maid based on if you’re happy with her face, and that she’s physically well or can be at home alone and take care of dogs. The agencies are not going to bother checking either if they can actually do what they say.
Once when I was living with my mother-in-law, we had a maid who was three months pregnant when she arrived! We actually confronted the agency about it but they said they weren’t responsible as the maids are supposed to undergo a screening in Indonesia.
I think employers are victims in the sense that this maid had worked for my mother-in-law less than a year, and they said they’d give her another maid but she still had to pay all over again because the local agency wasn’t liable.
CG, KL, working mother of one.
My husband worked in Indonesia for a long time and from what he knew and from what people have told us, we didn’t want to employ a maid from this particular region of Indonesia as they are known to be aggressive. We made sure our agency knew that.
I picked my maid from all the biodata given to me because she fulfilled certain criteria and had completed her Form 5.
When she showed up, however, it turned out that she was from that region we weren’t keen on!
Also despite her biodata saying otherwise, she couldn’t cook. She had a horrible attitude – she was always falling ill and waking up late, probably because she was using the phone till late at night.
So after five months of her behaviour, we decided to send her back. We dropped her off at the agency who later told us she was being sent back to Indonesia.
I never went into her room as I respected her privacy, but when she left I had to. I found that she had been stealing things like money and had vandalised all my antique furniture in her room!
My agency never reimbursed us or even apologised.
Of course, there are agencies who now allow you to interview them (potential maids) over webcam but you can’t really trust that because it could be rehearsed.
I feel very violated and taken advantage of by that maid agency. I think it is the government’s fault really for never having put into place real procedures or ensuring that agencies’ standards are maintained.
Paula S, working mother of two.
In 2004, I applied for a maid to take care of my elderly mother. On both her biodata and her working permit, her age was listed as 25 years old. As she was tall we didn’t question it.
The next year when we were celebrating her birthday, we asked her how old she was going to be and she told us that she was only 19! She said the agency in Indonesia had asked her to lie about her age otherwise she wouldn’t get a job.
We didn’t inform the Malaysian agency so we don’t really know if they knew her real age.
But even if I had known then that she was only 18 when she came, I probably would have still employed her unless it was illegal as she was emotionally mature.
Low W.S. 54, homemaker, mother of three.
About seven or eight years ago, I employed an Indonesian maid. Her biodata was all right – she was 28 and had a husband and kids.
When she got here, though, and started working she was always complaining that she was tired at the end of the day, which didn’t seem right because she was so young. I suspected she was pregnant but didn’t say anything.
There’s supposed to be a screening procedure in Indonesia to make sure the maids aren’t pregnant before they are sent here. But maybe technology was different back then and they didn’t detect it.
However, after working for two months, I confronted her and she admitted that she was pregnant. I took her to a doctor and discovered that she was five months pregnant! So, of course, I sent her back to the agency and got a replacement maid.

****** 

Maid To Fit The Bill

For most people who are seeking to hire foreign maids, the biodata is their first introduction to their potential employee. However, the information it contains has proven to be not as truthful as it should be.
WITH her mother’s worsening health, Marie Gomez has no choice but to hire a foreign maid to help care for her. But after hearing numerous hair-raising stories about maids from hell, Gomez is being extra careful in the selection process.
“It is definitely not easy when you only have a stack of biodata to base your selection on. There is no guarantee that all the information submitted is true,” she says.
Even the pictures provided with the biodata raise doubts.
“The prospective domestic workers claim to be of average weight but they look really frail and scrawny in the pictures,” relates Gomez.
“I thought I had found one who looks strong and sturdy enough to look after my mother and help lift her if needed, but then I realised that her picture was stretched sideways to make her look bigger than she really is. In fact she is as scrawny as the rest.”

Age limit: The rule, according to the last memorandum of understanding between Malaysia and Indonesia, is that Indonesian domestic workers who are selected for work in Malaysia must be at least 21 years old and no more than 45. – Filepic

Falsification of biodata, including for their official documents, among foreign domestic workers is more rampant than we realise.
Chan G. from Kuala Lumpur likens selecting a maid from a biodata to buying a lottery ticket.
Says the working mother of one, “I picked my maid from all the biodata given to me because she fulfilled certain criteria and had completed her secondary schooling. When she showed up, however, she was nothing like what she claimed to be.”
Despite her biodata saying otherwise, she could not cook and her attitude was bad, she adds.
“She rang up a phone bill of RM1,400 at my house. She was completely disloyal and unreliable. We discovered later on that she was entertaining people at our home when we were not around as weird people began showing up at our doorstep. When I confronted her about her attitude three or four months after she came to us, she told me that she had not wanted to be a maid but had wanted to work at a factory instead. So we decided to send her back to the agent who promised to send her back to Indonesia.”
A few months after her maid left, says Chan, she started receiving threatening messages from her.
“I learnt later that she was not sent back to Indonesia and is now working for a new employer in Malaysia. My agency never reimbursed us or even apologised,” she says, adding that she will never hire a full-time maid again after her experience.
The biodata is basically a resume for the maid. It contains information about the identity, age and experience of the maid and other details such as their working preferences, willingness to handle pork, take care of dogs or care for the elderly.
“In many situations, however, this information is made up by the agents to make the maids more marketable,” says Migrant Care Malaysia country director Alex Wong.
Many employers keep mum when their domestic workers fail to live up to their biodata or when they find discrepancies in the information provided because “returning” them will cost money.
Employers would have to pay an additional “exchange” fee of between RM,1000 and RM3,000 for a replacement maid, or start the process all over again, forking out the standard fee of RM8,000 as required when one seeks to hire a foreign maid.
Wong alleges that this has created a “business” where some agencies sell their migrant workers to different employers after they are found wanting and sent back by their original employer.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Alwi Bavutty views this claim as rubbish but concedes that many foreign domestic workers who are sent to Malaysia, especially those from Indonesia, do falsify their personal details when applying for their passport and visa.
“But there is not much we can do because they are supposed to be screened before they come over,” he says.
Maid agency director Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan agrees, stressing that the biodata is a necessary evil because it provides an insight of the maid’s background for employers.
“It is for employers to choose according to their specification. Once they agree, they have to pay the Indonesian agent a 10% deposit to secure the biodata or to book the domestic worker.

Raja Zulkepley: ‘The biodata is a necessary evil because it provides an insight of the maid’s background’

“Most of the payment goes to the Indonesian agent. Our profit is only around RM630 per maid and we have to pay for our office expenses and staff,” he says.
Wong attributes the problem to the hiring system in place.
“True, currently the biodata is the only way that employers can check out the candidates but what you see on paper is often not what you get,” he says.
This has led to numerous cases of maids running away because they are not willing to handle dogs or pork, although their biodata clearly states otherwise.
“Malaysian employers need to be smart ‘consumers’ when they deal with the agencies instead of acting desperately and giving in to all the demands of the agents when they don’t do anything other than provide the biodata,” stresses Wong.
They need to ensure that the domestic workers they receive are trained. In Indonesia, for example, the regulation is that they get 200 hours of training. There are agencies who do not follow the regulation but they claim they do.
Malaysian agents are also supposed to “retrain” the maids they receive before dispatching them to the employer to ensure that they are able to do the work they have been hired for. Unfortunately, this is not a regulation in Malaysia.
Wong highlights that there are many Indonesian domestic workers who are lured to Malaysia to work as factory workers or shop assistants.
“Some even have it stated in their employment contract but when they get here, they are forced to become domestic workers because that is a more lucrative market. This causes a lot of bad blood between the employers and domestic workers,” he says.
Tenaganita programme coordinator Aegile Fernandez concurs, saying that many are sweet-talked into working abroad.
“They are promised lots of money and a better life to come to Malaysia. Some are promised other jobs – like work in a restaurant – but when they arrive they are forced to be maids.
“But they are bound to the agency because they have either spent a lot of money or owe the agency money for the ‘expenses’ to come to Malaysia. Some are even threatened with prostitution,” she says.
Wong believes that many Malaysian agents are colluding with their overseas counterparts to falsify the biodata and other documents of the foreign maids.
The most common “lie” is the age of the prospective domestic worker.
This is well demonstrated by the recent case of the underage maid who torched her employer’s sister’s home in Terengganu after he decided to send her back to Indonesia.
Early investigations revealed that she had gained entry with a proper but allegedly falsified document, which listed a fake name and birth date.
While the police were baffled about how she manipulated her personal details, anyone with a foreign maid at home or those who have gone through the experience of hiring one will vouch that this is part and parcel of the process of hiring a foreign maid.
The rule, according to the last memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Malaysia and Indonesia (we are currently in the midst of negotiations on a new one), is that Indonesian domestic workers who are selected for work in Malaysia must be at least 21 years old and no more than 45.
However, industry insiders say that the accepted average minimum age for Indonesian maids in Malaysia is 18, which is the minimum age allowed for Indonesians to work abroad.
The situation is that in most areas in Indonesia, registration of citizens is not strict while the control system is loose, so there are many abuses.
Most of the poor in rural villages don’t even bother to register their newborn babies for birth certificates or get proper identification papers (ID) when they come of age, he says.
“Many only do it when they want to work as a migrant or domestic worker. They are then assisted by their sponsors, who help process their paperwork to create their identity and get their ID for the purpose of applying for a passport and visa.
“To get a passport, the documentation requirement is more stringent but with a small payment, the process can be made easier and faster,” Wong says.
This is a common practice in Indonesia, he adds, and this is common knowledge among Malaysian agents who use it to their advantage.
“Many Malaysian agents just accept whatever documents and whoever the Indonesian agents send over to them without question. When problems arise, they pass the blame and responsibility back to the Indonesian agents.”
Alwy denies this, stressing that most of the time the minors get through our immigration gates because the documents are genuine.
“It is difficult for us to verify if the data is true or not. If it is accepted by the Indonesian authorities, we should accept it. We do have our own measures to check this; we will interview the candidates to ascertain their real age when we suspect that they are younger than they claim,” he says.
Fernandez warns employers who are landed with an underaged maid to report the case to the authorities.
“If you suspect that a maid is young, send her back and report the agency to the authorities. It is illegal to bring in underaged maids; it could surmount to human trafficking,” she says.
These underaged domestic workers are usually not able to handle the work or the conditions of the work, being isolated from other people and, more often than not, having no means of communication with their families back home.
“They do not have the maturity yet at that age to handle their emotions, what more when they are alone in a strange country. That is why some of them ‘explode’ and take revenge on their employers,” she cautions, citing the case of a 16-year-old Indonesian maid who stabbed her employer’s mother to death in Kuantan in 2008 after she allegedly got tired of the old lady’s nagging and scolding.
Employers really need to keep in mind that these underaged maids are basically still children, she adds.
“At 14 to 16 years old, for example, a girl is young and still wants to have fun. Many do not want to spend their days cooped up doing long hours of housework.”

Both Sources: The Star

Towards Lesser Crime In JB (3)

Number Plates And Stolen Cars

An Unusual Kind Of Theft In Johor Jaya
by Goh Siew Mei



 
Losing a car registration number plates is puzzling and at the same time causes the victim to worry.
This was expressed by Huan Wai Fong, 42, who found her Proton Waja car registration number plates missing after her day long work in her office in Taman Johor Jaya on April 10.
She said she parked her car bearing car registration number JGV 2859 in front of her office and was working all day long without realizing what has happened to her car.
She added that the whole incident was recorded by her office CCTV system which showed two men in a taxi parked beside her car and stole the front and rear registration number plates.
“I am puzzled with this rather unusual theft but at the same I am also concerned that the culprits will misuse it for criminal intent”, Huan commented.
She then lodged a report with the Taman Johor Jaya police station and urged the police to investigate the incident.

Source: KomunitiKini - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

******

Someone's Using My Number Plate, Says Manager

JOHOR BARU: A 53-year-old sales manager here is crying foul that his car registration number has been used by someone else to commit traffic offences, resulting in seven summonses against him within two months.
"Someone is using the same car plate number as my Naza Citra," an angry Tan Kwee Huat (pic) claimed, saying he first got wind of the matter when he received a traffic summons on June 3.
"I checked my work schedule and realised that I was not in the area where the offence took place," he told a press conference at the office of Senator Khoo Soo Seang here.
After a second summons, this time from the Johor Baru city council, he went to a car park company in Permas Jaya to report the matter and verify pictures that accompanied the summons.
To his shock, he found that the car in the pictures was of the same colour and make as his own, with an identical number plate.
The difference, he said, was that his car had five stickers on the windshield.
Tan has lodged a police report at the Taman Perling police station.
State internal security, public order and traffic chief Supt T. Raveendran advised those who encounted such problems to report the matter as soon as possible.
"If they see the culprits having the same car plate numbers then they should call the police hotline at 07-221 2999.

Source: The Star - Friday, November 12, 2010

******

IN THE first case of its kind, a businessman was jailed 10 months for conspiring with a croupier to cheat a casino of $31,500.

A district court heard yesterday that Tan Tiong Loon (right), 32, met Keith Yong Kee-Hwei, 24, of Marina Bay Sands, and promised the younger man a share of his winnings if the croupier would work with him.

At about 4.30am on Oct 7 last year, Yong used his hand to stop the Money Wheel from spinning to help Tan win $18,000 from his bet of $400. A casino patron saw it and blew the whistle on them.

Minutes earlier, Yong had done the same thing so that Tan, the only player at the Money Wheel table then, made $13,500 from a $300 bet. The pair were arrested days later, after Yong was handed $11,500 as his cut.

The duo were said to have also cheated the casino of unspecified amounts on two other occasions. Those charges were among 20 others for unrelated offences, which were taken into consideration by the judge for sentencing.

Yong’s case will come up later this month.

Tan committed the casino offences while on bail for exporting stolen cars to Brunei. For his dealings with 15 stolen cars between January and March last year, he was jailed a further three years and eight months, and barred from driving for three years.

Investigations revealed that he paid Ho Wei Siang, 29, $1,000 a month to set up and run Reliance Car Export firm in 2008. In December 2009, the pair started dealing in Toyota and Honda cars stolen in Malaysia.

They bought these cars and got them fitted with fake Singapore licence plates at a workshop in Johor Baru. The cars were driven here and exported to Brunei.

The scam came to light when a Malaysian saw his stolen Honda Accord, complete with fake plates, in a carpark here.
He then went to the police. When a tow truck was seen taking the car to the export processing zone in Tuas, the police closed in and arrested the duo.

Ho has been jailed a year for his role. For dealing in stolen property, Tan could have been jailed up to five years and fined. He could also have been jailed up to seven years and fined up to $10,000 for cheating.

Source: The CourtRoom.Stomp - March 8, 2011

The Maid - Yes Or No, They Are Our Daughters, Too

Escaping Hard Labour: Maids In Malaysia Return 

David Boyle and Mom Kunthear

Photo by: Sovan Philong

A group of Cambodian workers are trained at VC Manpower office in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district last August before departing for Malaysia.

---

If the recruitment agencies want to go legit they
have  to stop providing loans, it’s as simple as that

One week after they arrived at a maid training centre in Malaysia last year, two teenage Cambodian girls say their intake of recruits, fed up with working conditions, tied their instructor to a chair and fled the premises.

The girls say they had been forced to work from 7am to 5pm with just a three-minute lunch break, performing a monotonous training programme before going home to study English before bed.

Their instructor, they say, had devised a spirit-crushing regime, making the girls wash every floor, surface and utensil in the centre, then wash the same items again for days on end.

“I wondered why the office was small, yet my boss ordered me to clean it again and again,” says Soy, who has requested her real name be concealed.

“The trainer did not hit me, they just blamed me. I could not endure working in the office so much.”

Soy and two other girls with her were under the minimum legal working age in Cambodia – 18-years-old – and well below the required 21 to work in Malaysia, according to photocopies of their birth certificates obtained from the rights group Licadho and seen by The Post.

The documents show the girls were aged between 15 and 16 at the time of departure – an assertion that the company that sent them there, Ung Rithy Group Co Ltd, strongly denies.

Outside the offices of the labour company Soy says her, and 12 other trainees, found themselves stranded with no idea where they were, no passports and no way of calling home.

Stumbling upon a church, the girls say they took refuge and began a long process involving the anti-human trafficking group Tenaganita, the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia and a lawyer who ultimately would lead to the repatriation of the three girls while their other colleagues were sent back to work.

Conditions like those described by the girls echo a recurring theme documented in a litany of complaints filed to rights groups and police by women working in Cambodia’s labour-recruitment industry.

Aegile Fernandez, anti-human trafficking coordinator of Tenaganita, says her organisation has rescued 55 Cambodian women and girls from abusive conditions at different firms since April last year, at least 20 of whom were underage.

But Fernandez says these efforts have been hamstrung by an alarming aspect of what she has been told by the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia is government policy.

“The embassy tells us that it is a policy of the Cambodian government that the [rescued] girls must be sent back to the agency,” she says.

“From our experience once the victims go back to the agency, they are abused by the agency and then they are re-trafficked back to Malaysia.”

The Cambodian embassy was repeatedly called to confirm or deny that it advocated such a policy but officials did not make themselves available for comment.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denies any such policy exists.

“In principle the embassy has to cooperate with the company to repatriate them back to Cambodia, not to send them back to the company for further employment,” he said.

“The Cambodian embassy in Malaysia, after rescuing them from the abusive places, cooperates with the respective country in order to repatriate them to their homes in Cambodia.”

Under no circumstances, he says, should a worker who is underage or who has allegedly been subjected to abuse be returned to the organisation which sent them to work, even if the company has paid for the return ticket.

“When they are repatriated into Cambodia the social affairs department or anti-human trafficking police take them back to their provinces,” he said.

When Soy and the girls arrived back in Phnom Penh on June 16, 2010, staff members from both rights group Licadho and Ung Rithy Group were waiting to pick them up.

Both sought to take custody of the girls.

Licadho argues that as underage workers sent to Malaysia by Ung Rithy Group, they could not be sent back to the very firm that had recruited the girls in the first place.

Company denials
However Ung Seang Rithy, president of Ung Rithy Group, denied yesterday the girls were underage while employed by her company.

“My company has never had even one underage worker, so the organisation has to find the evidence for me to show that my company has underage girls,” she said.

“I don’t accept workers into our company if there are not parents proclaiming in front of us that their children are aged 21, and we have the documents that express that from the authorities.”

It is a claim An Bunhak, the director of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, backs up.

“I do not accept that they were underage because we have the documents to prove that the girls are of enough age,” he said, arguing it was the parents who provided identity documents verifying their ages – a claim the girls dispute.

Those documents could not be forwarded yesterday because his office was closed for Khmer New Year, he said.

An Bunhak also says that because Ung Rithy Group paid for the girls’ travel, a claim he has backed up with copies of their flight itineraries, they rightfully should have been returned to the company.

He alleges the Licadho staffers who were waiting at the airport to pick up the girls did not have appropriate identification, a claim Licadho rejects, leading him to write a letter to authorities accusing Licadho of “kidnapping”.

Both An Bunhak and Ung Seang Rithy also deny the girls escaped abusive conditions but rather became embroiled in near-lethal fights that almost landed them in jail.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division says it is ludicrous to suggest that by paying for tickets the company had a justifiable claim to take custody of the girls.

“Their argument that ‘we paid, we have the right to take’ displays a complete lack of understanding from Ung Rithy about human rights,” he said.

That the age of the girls remains contested nearly a year after they returned, raises important questions about the arcane lines of responsibility, regulation and monitoring of an industry that propels its recruits, underage or otherwise, into foreign territory.

Labour legislation
As the Cambodian Ministry of Labour prepares a new draft sub-decree to update 1995  legislation regulating the labour-recruitment industry, rights groups have been left in the dark about what shape the legislation will actually take. Only an early draft of the new sub-decree has been released publicly.

If that is any indication of the final form the legislation will take, then key measures that groups such as Licadho, Adhoc and South East Asia Investigations into Social and Humanitarian Activities have called for to effectively regulate the industry will not be included.

One of those, rights groups, such as Licadho and HRW, stress, must be a mechanism to prevent trainees from entering debt bondage.

Upfront loans offered by labour-recruitment firms to poor Cambodian families desperate for some financial relief can be an almost irresistible temptation, one that Soy’s mother says she succumbed to despite harbouring significant concerns about her daughter’s welfare abroad.

Before the girls left Cambodia Soy’s mother, who also wishes not to be identified, said Ung Rithy Group lent her US$1,000 – money the company is alleged to have demanded back along with expenses spent during the girls training after their escape.

“Licadho helped me because if we went to the company I would have to pay US$2,500 to them. I did not pay because Licadho helped us,” she said.
Ung Seang Rithy rejected this claim.

“There are difference cases in which we can use our right to demand [money], but I just want to clarify that the Ung Rithy Company has never asked or demanded the money from those workers,” she said.

Hou Vuthy, deputy general director at the Ministry of Labour, says it is illegal for recruitment firms grant the families of trainees upfront loans, unless the money is a provision to cover expenses related to the girls departure.

“It is illegal if the companies give the money to the trainees, but if the companies give money and don’t demand it back from the workers, it is okay,” he says.

Matthieu Pellerin, a consultant for Licadho, said that before trainees even enter the physical premises, such loans are tantamount to human trafficking.

“It’s a very simple form of debt bondage but it also falls into the definition of trafficking,” he said.

“If the recruitment agencies want to go legit they have to stop providing loans, it’s as simple as that.”

Prosecuting directors of labour firms who engage in unlawful recruitment practices and revoking licences, he says, are crucial first steps that need to be taken if Cambodia is serious about addressing an escalating problem.

According to information that Licadho say they received from the Ministry of Information, 53 minors between the ages of 13 and 17 were rescued from labour-recruitment companies last year.

Of the 53, 16 were rescued from Ung Rithy Group Co Ltd’s Kandal centre, 22 from VC Manpower Co Ltd and seven from Champa Manpower Co Ltd, Licadho says.

Again Ung Seang Rithy denies this allegation, while representatives of Champa Manpower were unaware of the case or unavailable for comment, as were representatives of VC Manpower.

Underage rescues
At a seminar of regional parliamentarians on labour trafficking earlier this month, Chou Bun Eng, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior, confirmed 55 underage trainees had been discovered in Cambodian labour-recruitment centres in the past year.

“We arrested eight suspects from the companies and rescued the underage workers and allowed them to return to their parents,” she said.

She was unable to recall the names of those arrested or the companies they had come from.

Eric Meldrum, operations director of South East Asian Investigations in Social and Humanitarian Activities, who works with Cambodian authorities to investigate cases of trafficking in labour recruitment, confirmed police were conducting serious investigations.

“My experience of working with the [anti] human-trafficking police is that they do actually do proper investigations in these cases,” he said, but while he was aware of prosecution in regard to labour trafficking, there had not been many.

And even if judicial authorities and regulatory bodies are able to take concrete action against labour-recruitment companies that act unlawfully in Cambodia, it is no guarantee that the basic rights of workers in Malaysia will be respected, Malaysian Senator Firdaus Haji Abdullah said.

He said Malaysia has been swamped with so many migrant workers, some 1.8 million in 2010, that authorities are simply unable to implement proper regulation of the industry, despite the existence of legislation to do so.

“Put it this way, you have a few bad apples here and there but again I keep on telling you [about] the huge number … I mean when you have 1.8 million people, less than 100 can cause a problem,” he said, referring to reported cases of abuse.

But banning migrant workers, he said, is no solution.
“[If] you stop issuing visas they come illegally. That’s what I’m saying: for every legally registered worker there is another illegal [worker].

“You can sum it up this way: migrant workers are an expanding problem faced with a shrinking solution.”

Source: Phnom Penh Post - Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Maid - Squeezing Dry The Employers (4)

Maid Via The Black Market

KUALA LUMPUR – Freelance recruitment agents are making big bucks by supplying maids to Malaysian employers through the 'black market.'
A probe by national daily The Star showed that the continuing high demand for Indonesian domestic helpers, despite a temporary ban in place, has created this lucrative, albeit illegal,  recruitment of maids.
Most pf the people involved are freelance individuals - who dubbeed themselves as agents - who have contact with similar kind of people in Indonesia.
Both parties are not tied to any associations in their respective countries.
Therefore, they can supply maids “under the radar” despite the supply freeze imposed nearly a year ago by the Indonesian government.
Hefty increase in recruitment fee
One 'agent' here told the paper that business had been good despite a hefty increase in the recruitment fee.
Before the freeze, the recruitment fee charged by an agency was about RM5,000, inclusive of payments for levy, work permit, airfare and six months' salary.
Now, the fee can go as high as RM10,000.
An executive from Bukit Mertajam said it was difficult to raise RM9,400 for the agent but she was desperate to get help to look after her mother.
The woman, who gave her name only as Tan, said the agent agreed to get a maid from Indonesia provided she (Tan) personally applies to the Immigration Department for a one-year calling visa to allow the helper to work here.
Discussion between PM and Susilo
It is learnt that a high-level meeting held last Friday between the Home Ministry and Indonesia's Manpower and Transmigration Ministry finally broke the impasse on the issue between the two countries.
A memorandum of understanding on maids is expected to be signed during the visit here of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The signing will be witnessed by the Indonesian president and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak after their retreat on Tuesday.— Malaysian Mirror.

Source: Malaysian Mirror - Monday, May 17, 2010  

****** 

I was approached by a number of friends in JB who asked me to get maids, or helpers from Batam, as I often visit the place. 

Sad it seem, the shortage of maids really affect normalcy in some households I know. 

I know of Indonesians from faraway, stationing themselves in Batam, hoping to work in country across it.

Ironically, I was approached by a number of Indonesians in Batam who made their wish known to Me. 

They wanted My help. 

They wanted to work, any type of work available, in Singapore (???) 

I was even approached by someone who was prepared to provide rotating female house helpers, again, to work in Singapore. 

When I mentioned of knowing many households in JB that need helpers, they were not keen, as they work for money, and they go after the exchange rate. 

****** 

Indonesian Women Slaves Saved from Malaysian Hell

Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities rescued 71 Indonesian women who claimed they were forced to work long hours as cleaners without pay for at least two years, an official said Monday.

Immigration officials raided a house where the women were staying after three of them fled and alerted authorities, said Nar Azaman Ibrahim, the immigration enforcement chief of Malaysia’s northern Kedah state. The women were kept at the house and sent to different homes for daily cleaning jobs.

The women entered neighboring Malaysia through a migrant worker recruitment agent who promised to find them work as maids for 500 ringgit ($160) a month. But when they arrived, the man took away their passports and forced them to clean homes every day without any time off, Nar Azaman said.

Most of the women, including one as young as 17, had never been paid, but were promised they would receive money eventually, Nar Azaman said.

The man who held them has been arrested and could be charged with human trafficking, an offense that carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

The women are now at a shelter in an illegal migrant detention center near Kuala Lumpur.

Nearly 2 million foreigners, mostly from poorer regional countries, work in Malaysia’s construction, plantation, manufacturing and service industries. Claims of overwork, unpaid salaries and sometimes even physical abuse are common. - Associated Press.

Source: The Jakarta Globe - July 26, 2010

******

Safi invited us to her house-warming.  

When we reached Safi's house, I could see that Zah was reluctant to leave the car. 

Tears trickled from her eyes. 

I was happy for Safi. 

She got the resale corner-lot house, with mango tree loaded of ready-to-eat, ready-to-pluck fruits.

The house is strategically located not far from Giant Supermarket and other amenities, at a great bargain price, less than RM200,000. 

Wasn't Zah happy for Safi too?  

I had it all wrong, she said. 

She was happy for Safi, but was terribly hurt by the previous owner of the house. 

Zah used to drop by that particular house. 

The previous owner,who owns a maid agency, used to be her good friend for many, many years. 

Naturally, she turned to her this good friend for maids. 

She never failed her, not until the last time, about a year ago. 

After she gave her a deposit of RM3,000 for a new maid, after a three months lapse, she called her, no answer. 

She dropped by her place, nobody at home. 

She did not want to lose a valued friendship at the cost of only RM3,000. 

Now, after slightly more than a year, Zah is still without maid. 

She asked Me to help her getting one in Batam, but I have not the heart to tell her that they will work anytime if it is Singapore.

I asked her to tag with Me along to Batam.

I  promised her I'll get help from friend over there to bring us to the place where maid agency placed their potential house-helpers.  

But Zah would still prefer her good friend where agency is concerned. 

Such a loyal friend! 

She knew her friend is in great difficulties, especially at the time when Indonesian maids' entry to Malaysia is still pending.

When Zah knew that Safi bought the house she used to spend her evenings, her heart thumped aloud. 

The maid agency owner knew Zah is looking for a house very badly. 

And, Zah had umpteenth times told her, should she intended to sell her house, Zah is the first ready buyer.

Instead, she sold it to Zah's other good friend, which she wasn't aware of.

******

Good Help Is Harder To Find 
By JOSEPH LOH  

Malaysians are grousing that hiring foreign maids these days is more costly and time-consuming, and recruitment agencies say the situation may well continue if certain problems in the industry are not addressed.
WHEN work commitments for Tan S.K. and his wife demanded more of their time, it left them less for domestic matters. He then decided to hire a foreign maid to help with chores around the house and to look after his two young children.
He soon discovered that hiring a foreign maid could be a frustrating process. The time needed before they could get the maid was lengthy, not to mention the initial cost involved.

Feeling at home: Although other countries pay better salaries, Indonesian maids are more comfortable working in Malaysia as there is no language barrier and they are free to practise their religion.

“From the time that I approached a maid agency to actually getting one took six months. I also had to fork out about RM7,500 even before I saw her in person.
“Furthermore, the maid was unsuitable and we requested a replacement — and we had to go through the whole process again. Fortunately, it only took about three months the second time,” Tan says.
This meant it took nine months before he had a live-in maid. With all the hassle he had to go through — not to mention the addition of another person to the household — Tan has decided not to hire another when the current contract expires.
“I don’t know how much a maid is going to cost me in future, and with what I have gone through, I don’t feel it is worth the hassle. I will probably look for part-time maid services then.”
Tan’s experience is one that is becoming increasingly common, but this is a situation that has been developing over the last five years.
According to Malaysian Association Of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan, the most obvious reason is there is a shortage of maids from Indonesia, where Malaysia obtains about 95% of its maids.
“We are not only facing a shortage but an acute shortage! It is very serious, and our business has dropped by about 60%,” he says, adding that the situation worsened considerably over the last two years.
Raja Zulkepley informs that maids from other countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines are allowed, but the popular choice is Indonesia mainly because of lower wages lower compared to other countries.
“Malaysians prefer Indonesians as they are very good. They suit the job demands here, and communication is less of a problem,” he says.

"The salary is in line with the cost of living here"- FIONA LOW

Unpopular choice
Potential employers may find difficulty in obtaining a maid, but those facing bigger pressure are the maid agencies themselves. Describes Agensi Pekerjaan Sentosa SB director K.C. Lau, “The last two years were particularly bad, but from the end of 2004, we could feel it was getting difficult. This could be because Hong Kong and Taiwan opened up to hiring foreign maids.
“I have much difficulty meeting my target – it was a lot easier before. I could easily obtain 20 to 30 maids from each supplier back then, but can only get about four or five now.”
Lam*, from a KL-based agency, says her recruitment has reduced by 40%.
“Three years ago, I could obtain 500 maids a month, now it is less than 300,” she says, adding that many smaller agencies have stopped operating or want to sell their licences.
Agensi Pekerjaan Sri Nadin Sdn Bhd general manager Fiona Low, however, believes there is no shortage of potential maids in Indonesia. “People there know how to compare (between countries) and can choose where they want to go, and this affects the volume coming in.”
Raja Zulkepley believes there are many reasons why the supply of maids from Indonesia is dwindling. One is that the maids themselves, and the recruitment agencies, prefer other countries.
It essentially boils down to a matter of dollars and cents. Other countries pay higher salaries than Malaysia, he says. For example, maids in Taiwan are paid about RM2,400 a month; Hong Kong, RM1,700; Singapore and the Middle East, RM800. In Malaysia they are paid about RM600.
But Low believes that this should not be a factor. “The salary is what we (Malaysians) can offer at the moment, and it is in line with the cost of living here. You cannot compare this with other countries.”
She adds, “Not all maids are looking at the prospect of money — it is to do with their comfort level. Malaysia is still one of the nearest countries, has the same religion, and some may also have relatives here.”
Lam disagrees, insisting that the wage disparity cannot be ignored.
“Wages here are very low compared to other countries. If you were a maid, where would you want to go?”
Furthermore, there is a difference in which party has to pay for getting the maid into the country.
Says Lau, “Under the Malaysian system, both employer and maid have to pay (respective agencies) money, but in the Middle East, the employer pays everything. The maids just go there to work. Most have to take a loan to come to Malaysia, but not so for the Middle East.”
Lam adds that for countries like Taiwan, maids are even willing to pay recruiters for the opportunity to work there.
Question of cost
Another point is that maid suppliers in Indonesia are paid higher agency fees by other countries compared to Malaysia, reveals Lau.
“Other countries are giving higher agency fees, so in order to be competitive, we have to give higher fees too. From the year 2005, it has almost doubled. Last time, we paid about RM3,000 for each maid. Now it is about RM5,000 to RM6,000,” he says.
Adds Low, “This is a free market and (trade) depends on a willing buyer and seller. If somebody has a better offer, you will have to pay more than usual.”
A common complaint among employers is the high cost involved in obtaining a maid from Indonesia. Currently, one has to pay at least RM7,500.
“People always put the blame on local maid agencies, and say we are making excess profits, but this is something beyond our control,” says Raja Zulkepley.
The actual cost is significantly less, Low says. “Actually, employers only pay about RM4,500 to get a maid.”
She explains that in most instances, the maid will not have to be paid for the first six months.
“The additional sum is a loan of sorts that employers give to the maid,” she says, adding that this is usually used to pay for miscellaneous expenses such as travel and training received in Indonesia.
Negative perception
Another factor is that Malaysia is perceived by some as a bad country to work in.
“The reputation of Malaysia is very bad,” says Raja Zulkepley. One reason for this is abuse cases in Malaysia are excessively highlighted in the press.
“There are also similar cases of abuse in Singapore, Taiwan, or the Middle East, for example, but they are not played up as much, so they think that Malaysia is not a good country,” he says.
Lam agrees, saying: “In Malaysia, it will be in the news for a few weeks and then we forget about it. But it is different in Indonesia; it can drag on for months!”
This is compounded by the fact that significant numbers of Indonesians are working illegally in the country.
“Because of this they are not protected and many are not treated fairly by employers — ranging from not getting paid to being abused. When these girls go home, they spread the word,” says Raja Zulkepley.
On the time span involved in getting a maid, Raja Zulkeply says it takes a long time to complete the procedure before maids can work in the country.
“Bringing foreign maids into our country will incur a lot of red tape. Sometimes it can take as long as two to three months,” he explains, adding that in this time, suppliers incur the cost of providing for the maids’ board and lodging.
He gives the example of Singapore, where approvals can be obtained within two or three days. For the Middle East, block visas are provided, with specific individual visas given upon arrival.
Lam points out a loophole where employers can send maids home without informing the agency.
“This can give rise to many problems such as abuse, rape or unpaid salaries. The employer can send them home and agencies or the Government won’t know anything about it. If they have to go through the agency there will be better control.”
Raja Zulkepley believes that Papa can play a significant role in streamlining the industry. “In order to become more efficient, all Malaysian maid agencies must be members of Papa. This was actually approved by the Immigration Department in June 2007, but has never been enforced.”
New source countries
One major benefit, he says, is that as a united front, it can get better rates from the suppliers. He says that Papa has also called for the reduction of the minimum age of incoming Indonesian maids from 21 to 18 in addition to calling for new source countries — China in particular.
But until then, local maid agencies have to work within existing constraints.
Says Lau, “Fortunately, our profits are about the same, but capital investment has gone up considerably. We could make one Ringgit for every two spent before, but now we need four! And who wants to raise their prices? This is bad for business! If we keep it low, everyone can afford a maid.”
Low believes the difficulty in obtaining maids will remain as the status quo.
“It is already like this. We hope that people will understand the difficulties and be more tolerant.”
Concludes Lam, “The cost of recruiting maids rose faster than the price of petrol! Many things in the industry are out of our control, and keep in mind that we are dealing with humans, not products. This line of work is very difficult, and I am tired and find it very hard to continue. We may have been able to make good money last time, but not any more.”
* Name has been changed.

Source: The Star - Sunday, January 11, 2009