The ‘maid’ joke was on me

AFTER waiting for months, border and pandemic restrictions were relaxed in both Malaysia and Indonesia and my maid could finally go on home leave.

It was early May and when I checked the travel guidelines and requirements by both governments, it seemed all I had to do was to upload the MySejahtera app as well as its Indonesian equivalent, Pedulilindungi, on her mobile phone. And she had to take the PCR test 48 hours before departure.

With that, Wiji and I agreed she would fly home on May 28 and return on June 25, and I booked her flight tickets to Surabaya, Java.

Even though I thought I had covered all bases, I felt a certain uneasiness.

Wiji had gone on home visits many times in the past without a hitch since she is a legally hired domestic worker.

But because Covid-19 had upturned everything, I had that niggling worry. So, a week before her flight, I called my maid agent who has been helping with the renewal of Wiji’s work permit for the past 13 years.

That was when da bomb dropped. My agent said there would be no complications if Wiji was going home for good.

But for her to return, there was a lot of paperwork required by the Indonesian embassy.

This included an 11-page work contract Wiji and I had to sign (the previous contract was only four pages) and a form that her family in Java had to fill and certify that they were agreeable to her working for a year in Malaysia.

I had to provide proof that she was registered with Socso, copies of her passport, work permit and her Indonesian version of our MyKad.

I had to email the family agreement form to Wiji’s daughter Tia and explain to her over a WhatsApp video call what she needed to do. Wiji’s husband, a stroke patient, was not able to sign the document.

Tia also needed to find her mother’s Kartu Tanda Penduduk (identity card) and WhatsApp a photo of it to me. I needed her 16-digit Nomor Induk Kependudukan for the forms as well.

But time was not on my side. I had to register myself and Wiji with Socso as well. That was a most tedious process, even with the patient and polite guidance over the phone from Socso officers.

As I was going through the procedures, Wiji asked if it was really necessary as she had heard that Indonesian maids in the neighbourhood had gone home and returned without any fuss or extra paperwork.

But with the uncertainties and changes brought about by the pandemic and the still rather frosty relations between Malaysia and Indonesia over the workers’ issue, I didn’t want to take any chances of her getting on the wrong side of either government.

Once I had all the forms and documents ready, I couriered the lot to my agent, who submitted them to the embassy.

As it would take at least two weeks to process and approve, I had to reschedule her flights to June 18 and July 16 and pay the penalty.

My expenses were ballooning. I also had to pay my agent RM1,600 to handle the documentation with the embassy. The only good thing about the delay was that the PCR test was no longer required.

Meanwhile, uploading the MySejahtera app on Wiji’s phone was another challenge I had to overcome. This was because she was already registered as my dependent on my phone, together with her vaccination certificates.

Another complication was that she had renewed her passport in December, so the details registered on MySejahtera were from the old one. According to the instructions, I had to delete her name from my app first, but when I did that, to my horror, her vaccination records disappeared too.

I sent frantic emails to the MySejahtera helpdesk about my predicament and waited impatiently for their response. Luckily, I got back her vaccination certs.

Next was filling in the details on the Pedulilingungi app and converting her vaccination certs to a format required by the app, which took several attempts.

Since Wiji is not tech savvy, I printed everything and put them in a plastic folder for her, just in case.

The Indonesian embassy proved to be quite efficient and my agent got the approvals after two weeks. Yay!

Her flight was at 9.05am and we got to KLIA2 by 6.15am.

But the queue for bag drop was already very long and moved at a snail’s pace. It took us two hours to finally reach the counter.

We thought all was well as we saw Wiji’s bag being tagged and sent off. It was about 8.20am when we walked her to the departure hall and saw her clear immigration. And then my son and I drove home.

Just as we reached the house, my phone rang. My heart dropped when I saw it was Wiji. The time was 9.20am. She was in tears because the plane had flown off without her.

In total dismay, we headed back to KLIA2. We found her at the arrival hall with another passenger who also missed the Surabaya flight.

Looking back, the female counter staff must have realised we were late in dropping the bag as she made a phone call. I couldn’t hear her clearly, but I did catch her saying something to effect that it would be very tight.

I hold the airline responsible for what happened. Despite the long queue, they did not open more counters. Also, from my experience, airline staff will call out to passengers whose flight is close to boarding and allow them to jump the queue.

None of that happened. There was no announcement calling for passengers who had not boarded. My suspicion is that they never even loaded her bag as checking-in had probably closed by the time we reached the bag drop counter.

I rebooked Wiji’s flight for the next day at the same time. It cost me a whopping RM2,029.

This time, we arrived at KLIA2 by 5.30am. We got into the queue early and were at the counter in half an hour. I kept calling her until I was sure she was sitting in the departure gate lounge.

Wiji had a good family reunion. Her husband was stable and slowly improving and she settled all the outstanding affairs with her family.

The week before her flight back, my stress level went up again when the Indonesian government announced a temporary suspension of the entry of Indonesian workers into Malaysia due to confusion that arose in the mechanism of hiring Indonesian domestic workers.

Even though we had gone through the proper channels and that Wiji was not a new worker, I worried that she might face stringent checks on the Indonesian side.

On top of that, I had to guide her daughter via WhatsApp to fill up the information on the MySejahtera Traveller form.

Then there was the anxiety of her getting to Surabaya airport on time. But she did, and she flew back safe and sound.

But the last laugh was on me. After all my diligent efforts to fulfil both governments’ requirements, Wiji’s intel from her fellow maids was correct. On her arrival at Surabaya airport, no one asked to see her Pedulilingungi app nor checked her vaccination status. She never used the app in the month she was at home.

On her return trip on July 16, no one on the Indonesian side checked her work documents. And when she landed in KLIA2, no one asked to see her or other passengers’ MySejahtera app.

All she had to show was her passport like in pre-Covid 19 times.

Can I be righteously rude and show the proverbial finger to two governments and an airline? The views expressed here are the writer’s own.