Malaysians can manage without Indonesian maids, says the Malaysian Maid Employers Association (MAMA).
Responding to a call by Indonesian president Joko Widodo for women to stop going overseas to work as domestic helpers, MAMA president Engku Ahmad Fauzi Engku Muhsein said Malaysian households could survive a potential cut in labour supply.
Speaking to Bernama, Engku Ahmad Fauzi said there were several workarounds to meet the demand —public and private sector employers could set up nurseries at the workplace and the government could initiate training to up the skills of local maids and nannies.
Jokowi had recently revealed that he wanted Indonesian women to stop working as maids abroad. He said: “The practice of Indonesian women going overseas to work as housemaids must stop immediately; we should have some self-esteem and dignity.”
The president had visited Malaysia earlier this month, just as news of an offensive ad for robotic vacuum supplier RoboVac Malaysia — which said “Fire Your Indonesian Maid NOW!” — made headlines and drew angry reactions from the government as well as hackers who defaced the company’s website.
“The idea here is seen as compatible with the current situation as parents can monitor their children as compared to babysitters,” he was quoted as saying.
But in the meantime — with Indonesia turning its back on foreign employment of this kind — Malaysia could still find help from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, Engku Ahmad Fauzi told Bernama.
