She's like family

The NewPaper, Thursday 30th march 2006

An Indonesian maid was on such good terms with her employers that she was considered part of the family. However one day, the maid alledgedly snapped and stabbed her employer for no apparent reason. I was quite taken aback when i read this article, I am shocked that such a thing could happen at the very place we call home. The maid just lost it and stabbed her employer out of the blue, and it really scares me to know that such a thing actually happened. I myself have a maid at home and i shudder to think of the outcome if all maids suddenly snapped like that indonesian maid and do such a scary thing. Recently over the past few years, they have been quite a few cases of maids murdering and attacking their employers and i believe that this is starting to become a more serious problem. Many of such cases are attributed to the maids, who unable to tolerate the strict scoldings, try to kill their employers to seek revenge. In my opinion, maids are humans too and have their own rights. Though they come to Singapore to work as maids, we should not treat them like slaves but instead appreciate them and give them some space of their own. I am not sure what exactly caused the indonesian maid to snap and to want to stab her employer but her actions have caused distress to the victim's family and i believe she does deserve punishment as nothing can justify what she did. No matter how angry or uncontrollable our emotions are, we should not think of violence and hatred, but insead we should learn self control. I hope that the employer is alright and that she will be able to find out the reason behind their maid's behaviour, a maid that they trusted and treated like family. This incident shows me how unpredictable life is and it makes me wonder whether maids can truely be trusted and whether they deserve to be treated as part of the family as u never know if they will turn on you just like the indonesian maid mentioned in this article. Maids afterall are outsiders.