Cambodian maids: An employer’s delimma

December 6, 2011
LETTER to the Editor
Free Malaysia Today

From Annabelle Wong, via e-mail

I am writing to highlight a theft committed by our Cambodian maid. The reason why I’m going to this trouble is simple. The bad publicity given to Malaysian employers recently is so hyped up, I’m sure it sickens a great majority of the silent employers like myself.

The truth of the matter is for every abused maid, there are a hundreds who are dysfunctional to a lesser or greater degree. In many cases with Cambodian maids, there is a trait which many share, they are dirty by nature and in a lot of cases they steal.

Depending on the circumstances, many times there is great tolerance on the part of the employers, bearing in mind the life they left behind temporarily. In life, there are many shades to everything, from people to circumstances to likes and dislikes. Therefore, it annoys me when a generalisation is implied, in this case of Malaysian employers.

In our experience, there were tell tale signs from the beginning which we chose to ignore, and in hindsight we probably should not have. Firstly, the maid was actually a reject from the first employer for reasons unknown to us. We tried her out and my mom patiently trained her. We had caught her sneaking out of the house in the wee hours of the morning several times.

She would climb through the bay window like a common thief. Tell-tale sign number 1 [Khmerization: why would the maid climb over the window to get out like a common thief? She would rather leave through the door, unless she is locked up like a prisoner]. We took her back to the agent for a telling off and took her back again [Khmerization: If she is a thief then why take her back? It doesn't make sense]. To cut a long story short, we caught her again, and this time she could actually unhooked a key inside the house using a long branch with a rubber band tied to the end. Tell tale sign number 2. [Khmerization: This is a sign that the maid is abused, locked up like a prisoner, that's why she unhooked a key to escape. No proof of the maid stealing is provided here. Why would the maid want to terminate the contract? It is because she is unhappy, maybe from abuses, maltreatment or forced to overwork].

However, she was stubborn and just basically shut off advice given by us and the agent. This was a very trying month for me. She would sulk and one day she just burst out crying and refused to work! [Khmerization: Why advise her to stay if she is dirty, steals and a bad maid? The fact that she shut off your advice means she is not happy to be your maid because of overwork, abuses or maltreatment].

The day before I took her back to the agent, I checked my locked drawer and found it empty. All my cash and rings were gone. I had local and foreign currency and some jewellery. All were missing and I knew she took everything. The drawer was locked and there were only three of us in the house.

It had to be someone who had the time in the world to search for the key. We searched her bag the following morning and found nothing. The agent searched and again found nothing. She of course denied stealing. We left her at the agent’s and went home thinking maybe she hid the stuff in the house.

I sent her back on a Saturday and I knew without a doubt that she stole although I had no evidence. I called the agent up on Monday and told her I wanted to search her bag again. On Monday I went to the agent’s house where her bags were and of the two bags, the backpack was locked. The agent’s helper and I broke open the bag and I found all the foreign currency.

The Malaysian ringgit was not there though. (She later admitted that she spent RM1,000 on prepaid top ups). And I found the jewellery sewn into the back padding of the backpack. I was shocked to find my mother’s jewellery among the items found as my mom did not even know that her jewellery was missing as all her stuff is locked in her drawer and she locks her room when she’s out.

This was obviously not a one day job. She had been stealing bit by bit and painstakingly wrapped each ring and gold chain with cloth to avoid detection and hid these in the padding. The agent was shocked when I came over to show them what I found. This is the first time they had encountered such a big steal. [Khmerization: Proof is dodgy and this is a one-sided story. We need to hear the maid's side of the story to believe this claim. She is not here to defend herself].

Yes there had been thefts in the past but not to this degree in terms of the quantity. This girl was so cunning she hid the money in the agent’s kitchen the day we took her back to the agent’s to avoid detection. That was why we did not find anything even though three people searched her bag and also a body search was done.

The annoying part is her work had always been shoddy and now I know why. Instead of cleaning, etc. she was going through all our stuff when we were not around. What kind of a person does this if not a thief? She was probably doing this in the streets in Phnom Penh before coming here. So my question is how is the Cambodian government going to tackle this sort of common problem?

You impose a ban with uncommon occurrences such as maid abuse, so pray tell how are you tackling a common issue? The ban that your government has imposed is hurting your people more than us. To put it bluntly, they need the money more than we need a thief or a runaway. If I am going to have to deal this kind of headache, I would rather have part time help than hire a Cambodian. We would appreciate that fair reportings be made to your government by your goodselves. You are not sending in angels to this country. [Khmerization: Well, if all the Cambodian maids are dirty, bad and steal, why are you whinging when the Cambodian government imposed a ban?]

Everyone works for a living. We are no different. The agency fee increase (from year to year) is ridiculous to say the least. And almost always, we are the ones who lose out, monetary wise. They run away, the agency fee is lost. They demand to go back, the fee is lost.

Do you think we have money trees growing in our backyards?

I have made a police report without pressing charges. I made it very clear that I wanted to highlight this issue to the Cambodian embassy and the intention is not to put her in lock-up. Many people have said, why so silly? We have only uncovered what she has stolen now. She would definitely have stolen more. Our bags are always in the open. Who knows how many 10 ringgit notes she had taken periodically?

I am attaching a signed confession of the theft, witnessed by the agent and a photograph of the stolen items with the maid, taken at the agent’s office. In future, before you paint a picture of Malaysian employers being abusive, consider that it takes two to tango. There is no excuse for physical abuse. [Khmerization: Confession can be extracted by force or coercion as has been claimed by many Cambodian maids. Many said they were abused and even raped, but they said they were forced to sign a paper to retract the allegations in exchange for them to return back to Cambodia or for a small compensation].

But are you sending out the message that it is ok for employer abuse? Or is your view that monetary and personal loss is inevitable and therefore employers should just live with that? Keep the ban or lift the ban, that’s your prerogative. I know of a few people who are imposing a personal ban on Cambodians. Ironic isn’t it? They would rather hire Indonesians despite the many runaway cases. [Khmerization: Well, why the Indonesian government imposed a ban in the first place? They banned their maids from working in Malaysia because of abuses against them, some suffered horrific burns, scarred for life and some were killed. Indonesia banned their maids from working in Malaysia, that's why you are turning to Cambodian maids . Watch a shocking video of Malaysian employers' brutality against Indonesian maid here].