KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - The women's wing of one of Malaysia's ruling parties has urged the government to rethink a plan to recruit domestic helpers from China, arguing they could seduce local married men, state press reported Sunday.
Ng Yen Yen, head of the women's wing of the Malaysian Chinese Association, said wives have complained that Chinese women are wrecking families by having affairs with their husband, the state Bernama news agency said.
After talks with the foreign ministry, she called for it "to halt this plan for the moment.
"We do not want the problem of these 'little dragon ladies' to escalate," Bernama quoted her as saying. "These women are enticing local married men into having affairs with them and are causing family disharmony."
The Malaysian Chinese Association is the second largest political party in Malaysia representing the minority ethnic Chinese and is a part of the ruling coalition.
Ng said that while she did not mean to disparage Chinese women, she had to look into the claims of local women who had complained to the party.
Malaysia's home affairs minister said Friday the government was considering importing maids from China and India to curb a shortage from Indonesia and the Philippines.
The move was criticized by a women's rights group, which said authorities must first tackle the problem of foreign helpers shunning Malaysia because of low pay and other issues.
"We must first address the issue of why foreign domestic workers are not keen to work in Malaysia," Ivy Josiah, executive director of the Women's Aid Organisation, told the Star daily Sunday.
"We have low labor standards, there are no compulsory days off, wages are low and workers are not properly protected," she added.
Malaysia employs 350,000 foreign maids, 95 percent of whom are Indonesian, but the 20,000 Filipino maids are paid almost three times the average because of their English language abilities. - Agence France-Presse - Inquirer.net, May 27, 2007
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