[Photo: Siti Hajar (right) escaped from her employer with the help of a taxi driver. Her employer (left) is seen being arrested outside the Indonesian embassy.]

By : Fadhal A. Ghani

KUALA LUMPUR - Abused Indonesian maid Siti Hajar had tried to escape from her employer several times in the past three years.

However, each attempt was thwarted by her employer, who then assaulted and abused her further.

Her employer, a 43-year-old agent dealing with foreign maids, was arrested on Monday and remanded for five days to facilitate investigations.

Siti, who was warded at the University Malaya Medical Centre here, said she could not bear the torture any longer after she was scalded on Sunday.

"I am usually the target when my employer has problems.
"She is a divorcee with a 11-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter," she said.

"Despite the abuse I underwent, I never took it out on her children.

"I, too, am a divorcee with two children. My children are being taken care of by my parents in Garut, West Java."

Siti alleged she only slept three hours daily and breakfast and dinner usually consisted of plain rice and water.

She said she was assaulted for stealing vegetables several times after she could not stomach the plain rice.

"She would somehow find out I stole the vegetables and for that I would be beaten up."

Seated in a wheelchair, Siti then broke down and said all she wanted now was to go home and hug her children.

"Maybe I will return to Malaysia later to work. I know not all employers are like my former boss," she said.

Siti escaped from her employer's Lanai Kiara Condominium in Mont Kiara and hid in some bushes. At sunrise, she boarded a taxi to the Indonesian Embassy.

After hearing her story, embassy officials contacted Siti's employer who turned up with a friend. She was then handed over to the police.

Meanwhile, an Indonesian embassy official said Siti's family in West Java had been informed and they had requested that the matter be settled quickly.