Last week, Ambika MA Shan was acquitted of murder by the High Court after the prosecution requested a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
Ambika had been charged with murdering her Indonesian maid, 21-year-old Adelina Lisao.
A post-mortem last year revealed that Adelina was anaemic and had died of multiple organ failure. For two months before her death, she was reportedly made to sleep on the porch beside the family pet, a Rottweiler. There were also reports that she had been denied medical treatment and withheld payment for two years.
We know that the wheels of justice move slowly, but for them to grind to a halt is not acceptable.
Is the life of a maid not worth fighting for? Was Adelina’s death worth nothing? Will the ordeal of a maid attract only a few days of media attention before lapsing into obscurity? Adelina’s family has no resources and are ill-equipped on how to fight for justice on her behalf.
The majority of domestic workers who come to Malaysia live a life of isolation as soon as they cross the threshold and the front door is shut behind them. Although it is illegal for employers to retain the passports of their maids, many of them do, as “insurance” to prevent the maids from running away.
Sometimes, employers threaten their maids and say that the police will arrest them and send them to detention camps if they attempt to run away. The maids are also fearful of being deported and do not wish to return home without any money to show for their years of service.
Why the lack of outrage over Adelina’s death? The answer is simple: many Malaysians do not care. Many employers care only about the money they pay to the agency to procure a maid. The maid herself is just a commodity, perhaps even a throwaway commodity.
Ambika’s acquittal might give prospective employers free rein to abuse their maids because they know they will not be punished.
Neither the human resources minister, the women, family and community development minister, nor the Indonesian ambassador have condemned this issue. Indonesia should stop sending their citizens as domestic workers to Malaysia until we pass a law to protect their rights.
Adelina’s family has a right to justice, but we have failed her, as we failed many other foreign maids in the past.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.