Singapore Sling The little voice of maids By Rennie Loh	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
メイドの届かぬ声 前回の｢シンガポールスリング」は、メイドに頼りっきりの生活を送っているシンガポールの若者の話題でしたが、今回は、メイドたちにスポットを当てます。フィリピンやインドネシアから出稼ぎにやってきて低賃金で働くメイドたちの中には、過酷な労働を強いられたり、雇い主からの虐待に遭う人も多いようです。

Some have it better as they have the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to speak up for them. The SPCA does a great job of educating and informing pet owners of animal abuse cases, taking errant owners to task and implementing measures to stop abuse. It has a loyal following of volunteers and a big voice in this society.

But the some 140,000 voiceless maids in Singapore homes, who will speak up for them? They can either turn to their respective employment agencies, embassies or when matters have turned to the worst, the judicial courts. It is indeed a shame that the courts have to lend a voice to the plight of those maids who have been taken advantage of because of their inferior position in Singapore homes.

Maids in Singapore come from neighboring countries, especially from the Philippines and Indonesia. The population of maids has gone up from just 100,000 in 1990 to more than 140,000 despite the economic slowdown. It is no longer just the rich who can afford having a live-in domestic helper.

Today, about one-in-seven households have a maid to do the family's every bidding. As the Ministry of Manpower does not stipulate any minimum wage for maids, maids are generally paid a market rate from as low as Singapore $230 (¥16,000) to Singapore $350 (¥24,300) per month above the monthly levy of Singapore $345 (¥55,630) paid by their employers. Despite their meager salary, Singapore employers expect their maids to be their cook, butler, nanny, chambermaid, housekeeper, governess, gardener and sometimes illegally, their shopkeeper.

Maid abuse cases stemming from employers' frustrations are prevalent. Flipping through the home news sections in the local dailies, we get grabbing headlines like: "Housewife jailed for harsh battering of slow maid, " "Housewife jailed for punching her maid after finding fish bones in her daughter's porridge," "Jail for hurting maid who bought wrong bread" and "Businesswoman jailed for scalding act."These transgressions are appalling and mind-blowing.

Shouldn't there then be a body to police employers before it becomes too late for the maids, or ensure that a maid leads a humane life rather than slogging like a machine from dusk till dawn?

The challenge is for fellow Singaporeans to practice self-regulation and to learn how to behave in this domestic subordinate-superior relationship. But educating employers on the responsibilities of a maid and their responsibility to her is difficult. How do you tell employers, who are mostly tempted to get their money's worth, that they should not squeeze every bit of time and ounce of energy from their maids?

So far, no civic-minded persons nor nongovernmental organizations have taken up this cause to fight for the rights of maids in Singapore.

The blighted fate of maids brought to my mind a highly sensational case that involved a Filipino domestic helper, Flor Contemplacion. Like many Filipinos who go overseas in search for better employment opportunities, former washerwoman Contemplacion came to Singapore in 1988 to be a maid. She kept long working hours, oversaw the chores of two households and looked after her employer's child.

It was believed that her adverse working conditions made her snap. According to her confession to the police, she was enraged when Delia Maga, a fellow maid, refused to help her take luggage back to the Philippines. Contemplacion killed her in a fit of anger and then drowned Maga's 4-year-old ward in a red plastic pail.

Rosie, a Filipino maid said, "I do not know if Flor Contemplacion was innocent or not, but her employers might not have treated her well. So she got very angry easily and that drove her to kill people."

To many Filipinos, Contemplacion never committed the two murders she confessed to. It was believed that she pleaded guilty to the killings on the advice of her court-appointed lawyer as part of a plea plan to win clemency when the case finally reached the Supreme Court.

There were also accusations that Contemplacion was stripped of her dignity by her interrogators and tortured into making a confession. But, amid these allegations, no one could prove her innocence. And she never denied she committed the murders. She was hanged on March 17, 1995.

Public sympathy was with her because of the treatment these poor and barely educated Filipino migrant workers are subjected to in overseas countries. Some are looked down on as little more than modern-day slaves, others are treated with dignity. However, all are where they are because they have yet to benefit from Asia's growing wealth and have no one to speak up for their rights.

Shukan ST: June 28, 2002

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