Maid rape: Maid said Rais didn't do it after Rais said he didn't do it to maid

Maid denies rape by Malaysian minister

UPDATED @ 07:13:49 AM 08-01-2011

January 07, 2011

JAKARTA, Jan 7 — An Indonesian maid who once worked for Datuk Seri Rais Yatim denied that the Information, Communication and Culture Minister had ever raped her in the eight years of service with him, a news portal reported today.

The detik.com website reported that the woman denied the allegations in a statement to four officials from the Indonesian Workers Protection and Placement Centre (BP3TKI) in Semarang near here.

“I worked for eight years in Datuk’s house. I was treated well, there were no problems and definitely no rough or undesirable treatment towards me,” she said in a statement.

National Protection and Placement of Indonesian Workers Authority (BNP2TKI) head Jumhur Hidayat told detikcom that the meeting with the woman was based on a report by BP3TKI, state news agency Bernama reported.

Bernama is under Rais’s ministry. The minister denied on Wednesday the allegations raised by political foes and bloggers.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also raised doubts about the claims today, noting the alleged incident had reportedly happened in 2007 but only raised recently.

In today’s report, Jumhur stressed that the alleged rape of the maid had never happened.

“There is testimony from the maid and also a written statement from her that she was never raped while working for Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim’s (picture) family in Malaysia, including any undesirable behaviour,” Jumhur said in a statement to detik.com.

He said the four BP3TKI officials had met the maid and her husband where the woman related that she worked in Malaysia from 1999 to 2007 at Rais’s house before returning to her Central Java village.

“I have reported her statement to the Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar,” said Jumhur.

He asked all quarters to be cautious when making allegations of Indonesian maids

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being raped by Malaysian ministers.

“This involves the reputation of the maid and her family’s life in the village,” he said.

Rais’s denials came after several weeks of a whispering campaign that the claims were in US diplomatic cables leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

However, no such documents were found on the WikiLeaks website.

Rais has been under pressure from some bloggers in the past few months, particularly over claims that his ministry abused a RM1 billion fund for netbooks meant for poor students.

But the allegations have been cleared.

The veteran minister has been in government since 1974, having served in his Negri Sembilan home state and previously as foreign minister.

I'm not surprised if the maid has denied rape out of fear. After all, who is not afraid of Malaysian Ministers, particularly Cabinet Minsters, who may blow you to smithereens if they want to hide their crimes?

Malaysiakini has the story:

Alleged rape victim fears minister's reach