PETALING JAYA: A firm’s banner advertisement for a robot vacuum cleaner which urged consumers to sack their Indonesian maids in no way reflects public sentiment in Malaysia, said the country’s ambassador to Jakarta.
Ambassador Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim said he was confident that the advertisement, which went viral two days before the arrival of Indonesian president Joko Widodo to Malaysia, would not affect bilateral relations.
“We need and appreciate Indonesian domestic helpers, so there is no reason why Malaysians would look down upon or belittle them.
“I believe that this is the view of nearly everyone in Malaysia and we consider this advertisement as being in very bad taste,” he said when contacted.
The advertisement showed a man sitting on a couch beneath the exhortation: “Fire your Indonesian maid now!” The word “Indonesian” was underlined, apparently for effect.
An Indonesian reportedly spotted the banner on Tuesday and posted photos of it online.
Indonesian leaders, including Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and Manpower and Transmigration Minister M. Hanif Dhakiri, were among those who reportedly expressed their unhappiness.
Zahrain said Indonesia had issued a diplomatic note to protest the advertisement but said Malaysia believed that the incident was isolated.
He does not think the bilateral relationship would be soured as it was “too important for us for this little thing to come between us.”
The ambassador said he found it strange that the issue suddenly emerged close to the Indonesian president’s arrival in Malaysia.
Indonesian television station Metro TV quoted the Indonesian Foreign Ministry as saying yesterday that it had been informed that the offensive banner had been removed from the company’s website.
Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir added: “We in turn informed that the company must issue a public apology in three Malaysian newspapers, failing which legal action will be taken.”
The company is reported to have shut down after the incident. Phone calls to it went unanswered.
The company’s website was apparently hacked yesterday, with visitors to the page getting messages which among others read:
“Please be nice to our sisters, they have family, they have kids... Don’t forget we are Indonesian people will protect them. Your advertisement is not very funny at all.”
A similar incident took place in 2012 following the discovery of a flyer purportedly advertising Indonesian maids “for sale”.
An A4-sized flyer found in the Chow Kit area in Kuala Lumpur became a hot issue when it was tweeted by an Indonesian after which it was reported by Indonesian TV stations.
Malaysia’s then ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Syed Munshe Afdzaruddin Syed Hassan was summoned by Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry, where he explained that the flyer was an illegal advertisement.
Syed Munshe Afdzaruddin also explained that Kuala Lumpur City Hall would take action against the culprit and carry out routine operations to tear down illegal posters and seize illegal flyers but that there would be some that the authorities could inadvertently miss.
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