KUALA LUMPUR – A politician has been accused of brutally abusing his Indonesian domestic worker.
According to reports in Malaysiakini, the politician is a former PKR division youth chief.
The worker is now being sheltered by the Indonesian consulate and a report was lodged with the Ampang Jaya police last month.
Apparently, the politician had asked the worker to strip before scalding her with hot water as punishment for leaving the front gate open.
He also allegedly did not pay her salary for the four years she worked with him as well as verbally abused her.
It was confirmed that an investigation is ongoing under Section 324 of the Penal Code.
PKR’s chief organising secretary Zahir Hassan confirmed that the politician is still a party member but no longer holds any position.
Reports said that the politician with a Datuk title threatened to beat the worker if she did not remove her clothes.
In another incident, she said he made her splay her hands on the floor and threw a flower pot on her hands.
“This broke my little finger and permanently disfigured it,” said the 57-year-old worker, who began working for the politician in 2018.
She alleged that she had also been kicked and stomped on, grabbed by her hair and slammed onto a wall, as well as hit on the head with various objects.
He had also tried to drown her, she alleged.
Recalling the torment she endured for four years, the worker described other forms of punishment like having her hands and legs bound to be left in the drain, being left in a graveyard with her hands bound, and being forced to eat 20 chillies stuffed into her mouth.
The politician lives in a three-storey mansion with his wife and young children.
The domestic worker also alleged that, in addition to the large home and nine vehicles she had to clean, she also had to care for 400 chickens and two cats.
The worker said the other three domestic workers ran away last year and she was managing the household and cooking.
She claimed she slept at 3am and woke up at 4am every day.
Presently under the protection of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, she is eager to return home in time for her only child’s nuptials but said she was willing to wait to claim her unpaid wages that have accumulated to RM78,000.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, who goes by a single name, said he will include the politician on the list of 95 names recommended to the Indonesian Immigration Department to be barred from entering the country. – The Vibes, September 4, 2023
