MP and maid in nude shots

A MEMBER of Parliament is under investigation by police after his wife complained to police about photographs she found of him at the couple's home of her husband and their Indonesian maid, both naked, it was reported yesterday.  

Doreen Chia, 31, alleged her husband Steve Chia, 34, had outraged the maid's modesty, The Straits Times said. 

The wife, pregnant with the couple's first child, reported the matter to the police at the end of last month shortly after their seventh wedding anniversary. 

The maid, in her early 20s, told police officers she had not been forced into posing for the pictures, according to the newspaper.  

Steve Chia: Secretary general of the National Solidarity Party

Police are investigating the circumstances to determine whether she was forced or not. 

Both Chia, the secretary general of the National Solidarity Party, and the maid, were said to be smiling in the photos. 

Doreen Chia confirmed she had made the police report, but would not explain why. 

It is “a problem between husband and wife to be sorted out”, Chia said in a message to the newspaper. 

The Indonesian woman, who had been working for the Chias for a year, is believed to be staying at a haven for maids who run into problems with their employers. 

Foreign maids in Singapore are often the victims of abuse by employers.  

A group sympathetic to their plight plans to lobby for new laws aimed at establishing clear rules for hiring foreign maids. 

There are about 140,000 foreign maids here, primarily from Indonesia and the Philippines.  

The Chias met on trip to climb Mt Ophir while they were both studying at the National University of Singapore in the early 1990s.  

Chia was given a seat in Parliament as a non-constituency MP after the 2001 general election for garnering the most votes among the Opposition members who lost. 

His party declined comment when asked how the matter would affect his position in the party of Parliament. – Agencies