Pembantu rumah..

I still have a few food induced memories to share but I was blog hopping just now (since kengkawan ku malasnya nak update blog !!!) and found this seriously funny one. Funny aside, this lady talked about government’s proposal to give maids 1 day off every week (my mom never use the word orang gaji, she always either say maid or pembantu saya... I should learn..) and her opposition to it.

Hmm….. I give my maid 2 days off every week. Saturday morning before I send my kiddies to piano class, I will send her to her aunt’s first, who happened to be my mom’s cook. Taking that into consideration, people would think that I agree with this move.

I don’t actually.

See, I send her away because she has a place to go. My mom’s cook has been with us for 14 years and is of sound character. She is honest, jenis tak bawak mulut and very, very principled. She has been with us for 14 years, so we trust her. We know her. She is one of the family.

Now my maid is her niece, so apart from myself, there is another person to look after her wellbeing. Another person who could lay ground rules for her to follow. Worse come to worse, if anything bad happens, I know where her family lives so I know where to look for her. I trust M and her judgements.

Anyway, when Kak M chose my maid, she did so with care. She looked for somebody that loves children, one who doesn’t talk much, one who is kind and to her wouldn’t give me any problems. She sort of did a match making kind of thingy here lah…

So that is why I trust her enough to go to her aunt’s every week, to get away from it all. To me, if I do not want to see my boss on weekends, then I am quite sure she harbours the same feelings too. She is young by the way and need people to talk to and laugh with. Dengan aku masih macam ayam ngan itik. “Awak tahu Neti semalam si Abang ni blah, blah, blah….” Jawabnya ? “Iya… ponaan saya pun segitu…” and she described something that is totally different from what I said. Pastu kan, ponaan tu kebenda. Sikit-sikit ponaan saya..

Furthermore I do not want her to get bored working with us. Diam aje… offer tv tak nak, nak beli kan radio tak nak. Suruh tengok tv tak nak… Tapi.. ada sekali tu I came home and both Abang and Adik followed me up. Usually it is just Adik so Abang ikut sekali was quite a surprise. Usually he would come and check on me after say an hour …. Anyway, when I looked at them questioningly, Abang said Bibik nak tengok Mr. Bean… That is the only time I heard of her watching telly. Oh.. semalam as I was channel surfing, I stopped kat Spa Q rasanya and she said the series is funny.

I have veered off the subject matter again.

Resuming my musings.. But, if a household takes a maid from an agent, who doesn’t know her from adams, how could you trust her to be out on her own ? You do not know this person. Admitting her in your house is already a risk. To give her access to your house keys, your children, your baju (the bajus will be exposed to heat, which could be dangerous to their wellbeing, okay… This is heavy stuffs..) to this virtual stranger yang baru lepaih turun kapal. You have no M to tell her off and warn her from doing stupid stuffs like I have (M once asked me to stop sending my maid to her as my maid banyak balik malam keluar ngan my mom's other cooks. So sebulan lebih pembantu ku itu (he heh) melawat aunty nya yang lagi satu at my mom's house. Yeap, my mom's pembantu is another of M's very efficient relatives)

Your maid could lie about her name, age and past experiences. She could be anybody, see… inventing a new image as we wouldn’t know really as to whom can we refer her to ? Is she really who she said she was and not some serial killer on the run ? People are afraid of the dark because we cannot see what is around us. Is there anything dangerous lurking somewhere ? The same thing with unknown and strangers, we are suspicious because we do not know who they are. We do not know if they have criminal tendencies. To know is all and everything !

Am I making sense ? Aku membebel apa nih ? Darn …

If we were to give her a day off well…to go where exactly ? If she has no friends here, then where do you send your maid to ? Drive her to KLCC and leave her alone ? Then what ? If she does have friends, then where do they meet ? How is this arranged ? What time will they come home ? And if they don’t then what ?

Before my current maid, I employed Bibik Lina for awhile. Bibik Lina is a relative of M too but she did a runner because her boss hit her. While waiting to process her passage home, she worked with us for awhile.

I let her out the house on weekends as usual and 1 weekend, she came home pregnant. Baguslah tu. She didn’t even know the guy and I suspect she was just a bit gersang. So dengan sapa pun jadik asal kena service… rude I know but that is fact. Husband away and all.

The thing is, household with maids are usually a household with 2 working parents. The kids are at home with this stranger (even after a few years, they can still be a stranger, kay because you still do not know her family and history), in a house with no responsible adults. She is the adult. She is the responsible one. But what is she brings home a man she met during the weekend ? What if that man decided to loot our house clean ?

I am not condoning maids’ abuse but please take under consideration that these people live in our house and have access to our lives. The horror and despair they inflict on us are very much real too. They can because they live with us. I am not saying all these Indonesians are bad but please also take into consideration of those yang memang hobby merampok, mengikat orang, membuat segala macam bentuk kedurjanaan. Cerita itu lagiiiiiiiiiiiii banyak dari cerita amah yang didera.

Last-last, cakap Melayu jugak best.