Mazen Baleelah Al-Madinah The crisis of the Indonesian housemaids has resulted in the Labor Ministry speaking Indonesian. The lingua franca of the National Recruitment Committee is Indonesian. Almost every home in the Kingdom speaks the language. In our meetings we communicate in Bahasa Indonesia. Our rules and regulations have mounted the love wave for the Indonesian language. The Shoura Council has discussed a draft agreement between the Kingdom and Indonesia regulating the recruitment of Indonesian manpower. The agreement consists of nine articles aimed at creating an effective mechanism for importing Indonesian labor to work as housemaids and drivers. The agreement is aimed at preserving the rights of both the employee and employer. The agreement included a unified work contract that specifies the working hours, salary, weekends, vacation and other benefits for such labor. It also stipulated the duties and responsibilities of the employer toward his employees. What does the council have to do with the recruitment of the Indonesian housemaids? What does it have to do with their work contracts? The specialties of the council are very well known. It will set up a system or amend an existing one. It will also approve international agreements. Is the contract of the Indonesian housemaid an international diplomatic agreement that requires endorsement by the Shoura Council? Is the draft agreement an important legislation for which the council will dedicate its time and effort? Will the draft agreement also be discussed by the Indonesian parliament? Three years have passed and the Labor Ministry is still puzzled by the ongoing negotiations about the recruitment of Indonesian housemaids. Whenever there is news that the Indonesian side is about to sign the agreement, Saudi negotiators become overjoyed. They immediately convey to us the good news in the local media. They will tell us that the agreement will soon be signed and the Indonesian housemaids will soon flood the Saudi market. Our happiness is, however, short-lived. The Indonesian negotiators will come up with new terms and conditions that will further delay the signing of the agreement. According to some sources, the Indonesian conditions include the release of an Indonesian housemaid who had killed a young Saudi girl in Yanbu. They also said the Indonesians have made it a condition to eliminate the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, commonly known as coronavirus, before Indonesian housemaids set foot in the Kingdom. When the agreement is finally signed and endorsed, the Indonesian side will ask for a public referendum on it. The agreement will not be signed before a law is passed to make it a commitment for Saudi people to speak Bahasa.
