EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

 

 

Towards maidless living

AT its 100th International Labour Conference which began on Wednesday and that will go on until Friday the 17th, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will be considering a grave labour matter that has been in discussion for 63 years. And that is, whether or not to adopt and establish a Convention for Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The convention will ensure that international labour standards are applied to domestic workers, and that domestic workers get the same basic rights and protection that are given to workers under national labour legislation. However, passing the resolution to adopt this convention will not be easy, as different countries have different perspectives on the domestic worker issue.

In this supposedly enlightened world, it is hard to believe that some people do not look upon domestic workers in the same way as they look upon other workers. But just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has had 63 years to form, but still faces difficulty in getting parties to recognise certain rights and enforce the protection of these rights through their own national laws, so it is with the labour and human rights issues of domestic workers.

Here on the homefront, Malaysia and Indonesia have been discussing the Indonesian migrant domestic labour issue for at least two years. And even though a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has reportedly been signed, much of its contents have yet to be revealed, and much seems to still need to be discussed. Whether what has been agreed upon will be applied retroactively to existing employers of Indonesian maids, and whether the MoU will satisfy the Indonesian government enough for it to retract its two-year-old moratorium banning the export of Indonesian maids to Malaysia, remains to be seen. If an agreement can be reached in which the rights of both the worker and the employer will be respected, protected, and fulfilled, then, we might just come out slightly ahead of the ILO.

But in trying to break this deadlock on the sluice gates that have reduced to a trickle the supply of Indonesian maids to Malaysia, we are missing the opportunity to redirect ourselves to a self-sufficient life. Instead of running around trying to get an Indonesian maid or an alternative from another country, it is time that Malaysians adjusted their lives to a life without maids altogether. At a time when the cost of living is speedily going up, learning the almost-lost skill of domestic survival will save families the need to outsource help, give greater urgency to the need for a work-life balance, and a lived meaning to "domestic life". Many families in developed countries survive very well without maids; we should direct ourselves towards that end, too.