Today, no words can express my outrage and disgust to learn of an incident that happened to my dad. The incident took place on 21st April (this past Fri night) and I only got to know of it through several online postings and after watching the video. (For my peeps on the other side of the globe, you can read about it in the link I’ve posted below. Now that it has gone viral, even YouTube has the video..oh geez…ikr.. it’s pretty shameful but it happens….)
What I find unbelievable is for the entire 2 days, my dad never for once mentioned a word of it. When I ask him why hasn’t he made it known to us? Why hasn’t he made a report? In his own words, he tells me he didn’t think anything will come out of it, will the police even act on it? ..does it make sense to pursue it?.. Furthermore, will anyone even going to believe him? It will be just his words …So what can he do? He figured he will have to just brush it off, and move on..so no point mentioning……I was stumped for a moment, only then it dawned on me that there are folks out there, like my dad, who fell victims to similar unruly behaviors, and yet do not think they have a voice or view that any appropriate action will be taken for all it’s worth… what my dad didn’t know (since he is not exactly the most tech savy person) is the whole incident was captured and recorded on video…over the course of 2 days, multiple eye witnesses have stepped forward and filed police reports …and for that, I am forever grateful to Manny who posted the video and the ones who brought to light of this incident and also for those (like Janice ,Trish and the netizens) who righteously have the courage to stand up, to speak up, and to take action against the bullying.
Our hawker and food centres are public places. Seatings are first come first serve basis. While I understand it’s common practice for many of us (including myself) to leave an artifact to reserve seats while queuing for food, since when does this equate to entitlement or ownership of these public items? To get in depth with Singapore’s infamous “chope seat” system will require a whole separate discussion, which I am not about to get into here ….Bottom line is (doesn’t matter who is there first) , my dad only wanted to share the table, there were only 2 of them (the couple) and their food wasn’t even ready….Will it kill them just to share the seats??! I mean ..seriously??!! Not only the woman was uncouth with her hurling of abusive profanities, her companion just had to despicably ram my dad from behind, trying to knock him off his feet!
Last but not least, thank you all for the heart warming support, the vigilantes who keep a watchful eye on the wrongdoings, and took care to lookout for those who are vulnerable. The culprits are still Scot free. If any of you can kindly identify them or have someone in mind, (please NO cyber posting of names or bullying). .. just notify the police at 1800 -255 -0000 at your own discretion…the police will verify the identities of the culprits first in any case, so that we don’t falsely accuse the innocents.
to the ugly couple who did this to my dad, you know who you are..what goes around comes around.. even if we don’t find you.. God sees everything.
An 11-year-old pupil from a private religious school in Kota Tinggi here has had both of his legs amputated after he was allegedly beaten with a water hose by an assistant warden.
The boy’s mother Felda Wani Ahmad, 40, claimed that her son Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gadaffi was beaten several times on both of his legs during incidents that happened in March.
She said the incidents came to light when her son begged her to take him home as he could not bear it any more.
“On March 31, I came to visit my son and decided to bring him home here in Johor Baru as he was looking very weak and worried,” she told reporters when met at Sultan Ismail Hospital (HSI) on Saturday.
She added that her son had suffered from fever since his return and both of his legs swelled due to blood clots.
“I took my son to HSI for treatment on April 19, and he has been hospitalised until today,” said Felda Wani, adding that her son’s legs were amputated during an operation on Friday.
Meanwhile Johor Health, Environment, Education and Information committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said in a statement that the boy’s condition was still critical.
“The hospital will carry out further investigation to find out if the boy is suffering from another illness which contributed to his condition,” he said.
When contacted, Kota Tinggi OCPD Supt Rahmat Othman confirmed the case and said that the police were still waiting for a full medical report from the hospital.
“We will investigate the matter by calling the warden assistant in for questioning,” he said without elaborating further.
Here is a look at past cases of high-profile maid abuse.
Husband and wife jailed over years of maid abuse
Husband Tay Wee Kiat faced 12 charges involving the couple’s two maids, while Chia Yun Ling was convicted of hitting one of them. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A 14-day trial revealed the numerous ways that former regional information technology manager Tay Wee Kiat, 39, and his wife Chia Yun Ling, 41, had assaulted their Indonesian maid for almost two years.
Tay was on March 11 sentenced to two years and four months in jail after he was convicted of all 12 charges.
Nine of the charges were for causing hurt to Ms Fitriyah, 34, with the other three for making his maid from Myanmar, Ms Moe Moe Than, slap Ms Fitriyah on the face; offering to pay Ms Fitriyah and send her home in exchange for not reporting his abuse; and instructing Ms Fitriyah to lie to the police that he did not abuse Ms Than.
Chia, meanwhile, got two months’ jail for slapping Ms Fitriyah some time between June and December 2012 and punching her on the forehead on Dec 7 that year.
Over a two-week period, Zinnerah Abdul Majeed also hit domestic helper May Thu Phyo with a bamboo pole, a belt buckle and even a bicycle lock, leaving her with multiple injuries. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
All she did was break a cup while washing utensils in the kitchen. But that was enough reason for the domestic helper’s employer, Zinnerah Abdul Majeed, to press a heated metal spoon on her arms around the last week of August 2015.
The helper, Ms May Thu Phyo, 23, had been working for the family for only about a month when the abuse started.
That was not the only punishment Ms May had to endure over a two-week period, a district court heard. Zinnerah had hit her with a bamboo pole, a belt buckle and even a bicycle lock, leaving her with multiple injuries.
On Nov 2, 2016, Zinnerah was jailed 20 months after pleading guilty to three counts of maid abuse at her home in Yishun Avenue 4.
Mother-daughter pair jailed for abusing maid, leaving her with permanent disability
Jayasheela Jayaraman (left) and her mother, Anpalaki Muniandy Marimuthu were sentenced 12 months and 16 months’ jail respectively for hurting the former’s maid. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Housewife Anpalaki Muniandy Marimuthu, 65, and her daughter, warehouse supervisor Jayasheela Jayaraman, 43, were on Sept 23, 2016, jailed 16 months and 12 months respectively for hurting the latter’s maid.
Ms Sriyatun, 27, was left with a permanent disability in her left ear from the abuse.
Among the instances of abuse she was subjected to included being slapped for not carrying Jayasheela’s shoes into the family’s Bendemeer flat, having her swollen ear pinched before it healed and having her breast squeezed and twisted for being slow in her work.
Anapalaki also hurt Ms Sriyatun with household objects on a few occasions.
Maid ‘hit with hammer’ for not cleaning toilet properly
Ms Khanifah (above) had been working for Zariah Mohd Ali and Mohamad Dahlan for about six months when the alleged abuses took place. She told the court she was hit on the head with a hammer at least five times.ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Indonesian domestic worker Khanifah, 35, allegedly suffered various abuses at the hands of her female employer, who is accused of using an array of weapons to injure her.
These included a hammer, bamboo pole and pounder that knocked out or broke her teeth, leaving her with head wounds that are still visible, Ms Khanifah told a district court on April 18, 2016.
The employer, Zariah Mohd Ali, 54, is being tried on 12 of 28 maid abuse charges. Zariah’s husband, Mohamad Dahlan, 56, is also accused of hitting Ms Khanifah with the cover of a frying pan.
The alleged offences occurred at the couple’s home in Woodlands Street 31 between June and December 2012, after Ms Khanifah had been working for them for about six months.
Rosman Anwar (left) and his wife Khairani Abdul Rahman had their jail terms increased for the prolonged abuse of their Indonesian maid. ST PHOTOS: WONG KWAI CHOW
A couple who routinely slapped their Indonesian maid and even threatened to send her to work in the sex trade in Batam had their jail terms increased after the prosecution won its appeal on Sept 25, 2015.
Khairani Abdul Rahman, a 42-year-old customer service officer, had her four-week jail term doubled to eight. Her 47-year-old husband, senior logistics officer Rosman Anwar, had his jail term tripled from two weeks to six.
In allowing the prosecution’s appeal, Judicial Commissioner See Kee Oon said the original sentences were manifestly inadequate for the prolonged nature of the abuse and the psychological and emotional toll on the maid.
In an earlier trial, the couple had been found guilty of causing hurt to Ms Solichah, 28. Khairani was convicted of three charges – two for slapping the maid and one for hitting her with a plastic stool. The husband was convicted on two charges – slapping the maid and pulling her hair.
Woman jailed for joining mother in attack on maid; locking her in apartment
Chua committed both offences while under a mandatory treatment order for paranoid schizophrenia. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Chua Siew Peng, 44, was on May 5, 2016, sentenced to two months’ jail for assaulting her Filipino domestic helper Jonna Memeje Muegue and keeping her locked in her sister’s Bukit Timah condo on Oct 30, 2012.
Chua’s 75-year-old mother Lum Wai Lui had assaulted Ms Muegue for eating salmon not meant for her. Chua then entered the toilet and joined in by pulling the maid’s hair and slapping her repeatedly.
Ms Muegue escaped escaped the following day by climbing out of the sixth-floor window, scaling the ledge and jumping onto the rooftop of the floor below – breaking her feet in the process.
Ms Muegue testified that Lum abused her between March/April 2012 and October that year by punching, slapping, kicking and hitting her head against a wall and pouring bleach on her hands and arms. She also said she was underfed and lost 10kg.
Lum, a retired radiograph and medicine technician, was given 21 months’ probation after being convicted of maid abuse in 2015.
Tutor Low Gek Hong, 37, repeatedly scratched the Myanmar maid on the face, arms and ears for being inefficient, and used a pair of scissors to poke the victim’s left shoulder in February 2012. PHOTO: ST FILE
Tutor Low Gek Hong, 37, repeatedly abused her mother’s 17-year-old maid over three months from December 2011 to February 2012, three months into the maid’s employment at her mother’s Tampines flat.
She repeatedly scratched the Myanmar maid on the face, arms and ears for being inefficient, and used a pair of scissors to poke the victim’s left shoulder in February 2012 because the maid could not find a pillowcase that Low wanted changed. Low also punished the maid by kicking her, biting her, and hitting her with a metal hanger, including once pouring a mug of hot water onto the victim’s back for falling asleep in the toilet.
Low, whose claim that she was suffering from depression when she abused the maid was rejected, was sentenced to nine months jail on April 29, 2015, and ordered to pay the maid $5,000 compensation.
3 more months’ jail for ‘relentless tormentor’ of maid
Chan Huey Fern’s case was said to be one of the most distressing maid-abuse cases. PHOTO: ST FILE
Chan Huey Fern, 33, was on Sept 10, 2014, given three additional months’ jail on top of her 21-month jail sentence for hitting the back of her Indonesian maid with a foldable chair.
She had initially been convicted in 2013 of abusing Ms Juwarti, then 22, at her Buangkok flat between June and September 2010.
Chan, who punched Ms Juwarti in the eye and chest, kicked her in the groin until the latter bled and stamped on her body on separate occasions, had her case labelled as “probably one of the most distressing domestic maid-abuse cases in Singapore” by trial judge Low Wee Ping.
Indonesia said Monday (March 20) it would continue to send domestic helpers overseas, in an about-turn welcomed by campaigners who said it would help prevent women falling prey to human trafficking.
Thousands of Indonesian women travel to places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia every year to become maids, attracted by promises of higher salaries despite reports of widespread abuses and near slave-like living conditions.
Jakarta had previously said it would stop sending maids overseas from this year, on the grounds of protecting the women, sparking concerns it would push more poor Indonesians desperate for jobs into illegal migration.
However a senior official at the Manpower Ministry told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Jakarta would not go ahead with the ban but it has been in talks with countries to ensure Indonesian maids are treated in a “humane” way.
“We are not stopping Indonesians going overseas to become domestic workers but we want better protection for them,” said Mr Soes Hindharno, director for the protection and placement of Indonesian migrant workers abroad.
He said this includes preventing what he called “multi-tasking work” by Indonesian maids to reduce exploitation.
“If they are housekeepers, they are housekeepers – they clean, cook and iron. If they are babysitters, they are babysitters – you can’t ask a babysitter to bathe your dog.”
Currently, Indonesian women who work as maids abroad are required to stay at the home of their employer, handling tasks from cleaning to looking after children or the elderly – a rule activists say making them vulnerable to abuse.
Migrant activists welcomed the decision, but said more needed to be done to combat human trafficking including ensuring women aware of their rights when leaving for work overseas.
“It is a basic right to go abroad to work. If the government stops this, we will only see more human trafficking cases,” said Mr Mulyadi, a co-founder of rights group Migrant Care, who like many Indonesian goes by one name.
Indonesia since 2015 has banned women from going to 21 Middle Eastern countries following a series of abuse cases but high-demand for maids has encouraged traffickers to find ways around the curbs.
Mr Hindharno said the Middle East ban would stay in place.
Domestic helpers make up more than a third of the six million Indonesian working abroad.
A post by Chan revealed that she was shocked to see her confinement lady that she engaged doing this.
This is her story:
This confinement lady that we engaged totally don’t have humanity, ‘shake’ my baby this way!! I treat her very well and let my maid to do all the works, she only like chef cooking and take care my baby. I thought she will appreciate and take good care of my baby. This is my return! Her name is Lee Sock Kim, stay at Kedah, Pokok Sena.
