Surely, there are anecdotes of wonderful maids and bosses, but it's the horror stories that grab headlines.
Names like Nirmala Bonat are familiar to many, including journalists like myself who read newspapers for breakfast.
Still, I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw when I arrived at Seremban Hospital recently to interview a maid who had claimed abuse.
This timid 25-year-old from Central Java had so many bruises on her that she looked like someone who had been tortured and beaten by several people.
But she had claimed in her police report that the damage was done by only one person -- her 33-year-old woman employer.
The victim, identified only as Kamirah, said she started working for the woman in June and was tortured relentlessly until she could take it no longer and fled the house in Nilai.
She met a good Samaritan who took her to the police station, and was later warded at Seremban Hospital.
The doctor who treated the victim said she had been burnt on the lips with a candle, while her throat was scalded as she had allegedly been forced to drink hot water through a straw.
Kamirah could not even open her mouth for two days.
Several other bruises and wounds, some of which had healed, were found on other parts of her body.
How could anyone inflict so many injuries on a defenseless person? Where was the woman's husband in all of this?
The police promptly picked up the woman employer for questioning.
Perhaps, answers to the many questions people had of this alleged maid abuse case would be forthcoming. But no, the incident took a sudden turn. Kamirah "withdrew" her police report.
Her employer had reportedly contacted the maid's agent, who arranged a meeting between them.
Several hours later, police told the press that the maid had withdrawn her report.
No prizes for guessing what could have transpired at the meeting.
If some kind of "settlement" had been offered, Kamirah could have been forced by circumstances to accept the terms, including a sizeable sum perhaps.
Going to court in a foreign country even for the educated and street-wise is no walk in the park. For a maid from a remote area in a developing country, it could be more than scary.
The police gave an assurance that investigations into the maid's claims would continue and the deputy public prosecutor's office would decide if there was a case against the maid's employer.
Assuming that the DPP decides there is a case, will the employer be brought before the court?
This is unlikely as by now, the complainant would probably be back in Indonesia. Why would she want to hang around after such abuse?
The police need to explain why they did not place the complainant under protective custody or in a safe place such as a shelter for abused women and children.
Pushing her back to her agent is as good as washing their hands off the case because even if the police find enough evidence to prosecute, they may not have a witness -- the victim herself.
It's a black mark on the country when abusers escape punishment by paying off their victims.
