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Roundup: Indonesia irked by vacuum clearer advert in Malaysia

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesia is now irked by the ad of a vacuum cleaner product RoboVac published in Malaysia containing a line says "Fire Your Indonesian Maid". The country now demands an apology and threats to stop sending migrant workers to Malaysia.

In his reaction to the publication of the American-made product distributed by a Malaysia distributor in that country, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that there must be an apology upon the publication of the advertisement.

"That was an advertisement but it was unethical. There has to be an apology," Jusuf said here on Wednesday.

According to the vice president, Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur has filed in a protesting note to Malaysian foreign affairs ministry regarding the advertisement.

Jusuf said that further firm move will be applied by Indonesian government should the harassing advert is not revoked from circulation.

The incident happened just as Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived here Thursday on a three-day state visit to Malaysia.

The advertisement suggests that the vacuum cleaner is capable to replace the jobs of maids in Malaysia who are mostly come from Indonesia.

Jusuf said that government may impose another moratorium in the sending of migrant workers to that neighboring country.

An Indonesian legislator from the Commission I for foreign policy affairs Prananda Paloh said that such an advertisement was insensitive and directly hurt Indonesia.

"It was an unnecessary senseless act, moreover it was purposed to gain popularity. I, as a legislator, condemn this act of poor linguistic manner," he said on Thursday.

He urged government to take strong response to protest the circulation of the advertisement in Malaysia.

"Government must ask explanation from Malaysia, thus demand concrete measures to preserve good relations between the two nations and prevent it from occurring again in the future," he said.

Indonesia had initially applied the moratorium in 2009 after frequent reports on physical abuses against Indonesian domestic workers conducted by their Malaysian employers.

The sending was resumed two years later following an agreement to provide domestic workers better protection and conditions. About 400,000 foreign domestic workers are now employed in Malaysia, with Indonesians constituting a significant part of them. Endi