At your service, ibu
How ironic. While we import their countrymen into our country as manual skilled workforce, Indonesia too so it appears import our fellow countrymen to their country to help toil their land. To be more specific, our young teenaged girls!
In the past 2 weeks alone, a local Malay tabloid had been highlighting at least 2 cases of families reporting “losing” their daughters to men from our neighbouring country. Both cases involved teenaged daughters, one only twelve while the other 17 (when she followed her “man” three years ago) and men far older then them – one man in his twenties and the other in his forties. And both men are from Lombok, which is in a remote and quite backward area in Indonesia.
They had their identities changed; faked passports and identification cards made and were taken out of the country illegally, by sea. Once in Indonesia, they had to master their “men’s” mother tongue to perfection, were then married off to these men and left with their in-laws to be dutiful daughters of the respective houses.
While back home in Malaysia, they would probably balk at the idea of doing housework at such ages, now in Indonesia they form part of the daily workforce that keeps the household going. Up at the break of dawn and off to the padi fields to manually plant and or harvest, depending on the season, until the sun’s rays hit their backs.
From the padi fields, they returned home not to home-cooked food but to cook food for the home before taking a break for noon prayers. Soon after, it’s off again to the fields for more back breaking chores until late evening. Then, back home, to put food on the table for the family. Once all the chores are done, they have some time to relax before calling it a night. Relax means going to friends houses to watch t.v. (their own homes do not have any) or to just chat the tiredness away.
Thankfully one of the girls, the one aged twelve, was found and returned to her family about six months later. Her family, in particular, her father wouldn’t give up on her. Unfortunately, the seventeen year old is now twenty, had become a mother (her child died when he was one year three months old) and is still there.
When the case of the twelve year old came to light, the twenty year old decided that she too wanted to come home to Malaysia. That she was sorry for doing what she did. That she had missed her mum….yup, now she remembered that she has a mother, a frail old woman left to fend on her own when her daughter walked out to follow her heart’s desire. Only she doesn’t have the means to do so, financial or otherwise.
In both these cases, there were strong speculation that these girls were charmed into falling for these men and following their every wish. If true, then this is not the first that we have been “warned” of such incidences. But that does not excuse the girls and the men involved for acting in the way they did. What is it about foreign men that so attracts our local girls to behave in such manner? Running away to be with the men is one thing; what about those who would “sell their souls” to become drug runners for these men?
We have got to do something about this before our country becomes known for providing a new service to the world, the corrupted one. And on hind sight, how did these girls get through our Customs & Immigrations at exit point?
In the past 2 weeks alone, a local Malay tabloid had been highlighting at least 2 cases of families reporting “losing” their daughters to men from our neighbouring country. Both cases involved teenaged daughters, one only twelve while the other 17 (when she followed her “man” three years ago) and men far older then them – one man in his twenties and the other in his forties. And both men are from Lombok, which is in a remote and quite backward area in Indonesia.
They had their identities changed; faked passports and identification cards made and were taken out of the country illegally, by sea. Once in Indonesia, they had to master their “men’s” mother tongue to perfection, were then married off to these men and left with their in-laws to be dutiful daughters of the respective houses.
While back home in Malaysia, they would probably balk at the idea of doing housework at such ages, now in Indonesia they form part of the daily workforce that keeps the household going. Up at the break of dawn and off to the padi fields to manually plant and or harvest, depending on the season, until the sun’s rays hit their backs.
From the padi fields, they returned home not to home-cooked food but to cook food for the home before taking a break for noon prayers. Soon after, it’s off again to the fields for more back breaking chores until late evening. Then, back home, to put food on the table for the family. Once all the chores are done, they have some time to relax before calling it a night. Relax means going to friends houses to watch t.v. (their own homes do not have any) or to just chat the tiredness away.
Thankfully one of the girls, the one aged twelve, was found and returned to her family about six months later. Her family, in particular, her father wouldn’t give up on her. Unfortunately, the seventeen year old is now twenty, had become a mother (her child died when he was one year three months old) and is still there.
When the case of the twelve year old came to light, the twenty year old decided that she too wanted to come home to Malaysia. That she was sorry for doing what she did. That she had missed her mum….yup, now she remembered that she has a mother, a frail old woman left to fend on her own when her daughter walked out to follow her heart’s desire. Only she doesn’t have the means to do so, financial or otherwise.
In both these cases, there were strong speculation that these girls were charmed into falling for these men and following their every wish. If true, then this is not the first that we have been “warned” of such incidences. But that does not excuse the girls and the men involved for acting in the way they did. What is it about foreign men that so attracts our local girls to behave in such manner? Running away to be with the men is one thing; what about those who would “sell their souls” to become drug runners for these men?
We have got to do something about this before our country becomes known for providing a new service to the world, the corrupted one. And on hind sight, how did these girls get through our Customs & Immigrations at exit point?
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