Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa
Nov 18th, 2010, in Featured, News, by Patung
The press release put out by the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding the torture of 23 year old Indonesian domestic worker Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa by her employer’s wife, Khalid Saleh Mohammad Al Hamimi, and children in Saudi Arabia; Sumiati was repeatedly abused, having her lips cut with scissors, among much else, and is currently in hospital; her abuser is said to be undergoing “processing” by the Saudi police: deplu
1. On November 8, 2010, the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah has received reports that a citizen, named Sumiati binti Mustapa Salan, age 23 years, from Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara, was taken to King Fahd Hospital in Medina, Saudi Arabia. She was badly abused by her employer and his wife, suffering serious physical injuries and in very poor condition.
2. The Government of Indonesia strongly condemns the inhumane actions against Sumiati and will ensure that responsible parties be subject to applicable law.
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken steps in order to protect citizens and especially the handling of this case are as follows:
a. Immediately after obtaining information of this case, on November 9, 2010, the Consulate General in Jeddah visited Ms. Sumiati at King Fahd Hospital to provide assistance and ensure that she obtained necessary medical care. In addition, the consulate asked for a doctor to specifically monitor the condition in question.
b. the Secretary of State has spoken directly with victims’ families to provide information on measures undertaken by the GoI relating to the incident and its handling. In particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will facilitate the representative of the family, accompanied by Foreign Ministry officials, to Medina to provide support to Ms. Sumiati.
c. legal steps have also been carried out by the Consulate in Jeddah in reporting the case to the police in Medina in order to ensure there is legal action against the perpetrators. In addition, the Consulate has prepared lawyers for the subsequent legal process.
d. diplomatic steps taken by the foreign ministry summoned the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Jakarta to the Foreign Ministry to convey the attitude of the Indonesian government, which condemned the ill-treatment of Ms. Sumiati. It stressed also that the Government of Saudi Arabia will need to ensure that victims receive all necessary medical services and especially for those responsible to be brought to justice.
4. Government of Indonesia in this regard the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to ensure effective measures for the protection of citizens abroad.
69 Comments on “Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa”
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ET says:
I wonder if there is any provision in sharia law to deal with this kind of attitude towards servants. Or does the rule of ‘what your right hand possesses’ also apply in cases like this?
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I don’t think much is known about the perpetrator/s Angel, other than the name Khalid Saleh Mohammad Al Hamimi, I suppose the Saudi police are not the type of police force to give news conferences about crime investigations or that sort of thing.
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Hans says:
Birger Jarl instituted. sanctity of the home, women’s safety. peace in court. and peace for the church 800 years ago. how can a sane human being believe that Islam would enrich us?
The Danish Police Force said bluntly that immigrant is mentally deficient, in the nearest village idiot, impulse-driven, inconsistent discretion, has serious learning difficulties, hard to feel the guilt and empathy, and therefore not contactable, can not even bring a disskution, and have a great fascination for fire and pyro-mania. – The reason is the generation of genetic degeneration by cousins marrying each other and have done so for hundreds of years. – This according to professionals, doctors and psychologists.
Arabs are singled out as the problem.What is it that sees the world as through a small hole in a tank. Through loop-hole, they believe that only random parts of reality. The limited field of view allows them to exaggerate the malice of those who represent other perspectives than they are.
Soon it’s Christmas, Christmas decorations begin to appear around town. Wonder who will be crowned Lucia this year, there is only a week or so left before the Lucia celebration, On my son’s kindergarten, they have ther own Lucia procession, the boy will be one of the star boys. We have already had snow and today it is minus four degrees, we are now hoping for a nice cold white Christmas, with much snow so Santa Claus and his helpers have it easy to get around, we must not forget to put out Christmas porridge. we have already Mulled wine (first time to day), gingerbread, Christmas decorations, Christmas gifts (a lot of Lego this year.). Have not had a real celebration of Christmas in several years, has been in Lawang (Java Timur) the last five years.
this is quality of life, progress, providing a sound and long life. Have a great day wherever you are. I Love u -
@ Hans
Have not had a real celebration of Christmas in several years, has been in Lawang (Java Timur) the last five years.
this is quality of life, progress, providing a sound and long life. Have a great day wherever you are. I Love uSame to you. After reading the article under topic it must be a relief to get away – even for a while – from places where misery like this has become for many like bread and butter and celebrate Christmas in an atmosphere of ‘Peace on earth for all people of good intent’.
May the poor woman Sumiati quickly and completely recover from her injuries, physical as well as mental.
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realest says:
List of possible reasons:
1. Rape victim
2. Willing ‘rape’ victim
3. Petty thief
And no the Indonesian Consulate wouldn’t have done shit unless there is a media spotlight on this thing. Indonesian Consulates everywhere had/is/will always be incompetent. -
How did the saudis become so evil? Tanya kenapa.
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diego Says:
How did the saudis become so evil? Tanya kenapa.I wouldn’t say it’s evil. If you rape a woman in Indonesia, you either go to jail or marry her. In saudi, you can kick her out and ship her ass back – which solves all your problems. Even if you did get into a saudi court, the male chauvinist judge would probably rule in favor of males citing reasons of female temptress.
Question for men: Do you have someone in mind you would like to rape and, best of all, get away with it?
PS: We can all do the ‘right’ thing and call me a psycho ^o^
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Exactly. That’s what’s evil about saudi arabia: their society, that lets this kind of thing to happen without any harsh consequences for the guilties. I guess it’s in their gene, or their ideology, or the deadly cocktail of both.
I wish soon their gene will be removed from our (human) gene pool. I’m concerned that their (anti)contribution to our evolution will do us harm in the future. Look at them in their current form: inflated trunk, skinny leg, and rat-like face, with oversized and skewed nose (not to mention what’s inside their body, a slimy dark heart and mind). Horrendous, horrendous race. In the meantime, labeling them as phariah in our globalized society will do the trick. I mean, this will shun people of other races from marrying / having coitus with those saudis.
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Realest, you forgot to mention: in this Sumiati case, the guilty one (mainly) is a WOMAN (the wife of that Khalid lalala whatever guy). See…, no matter what the sex is, it’s the race that matters (they’re saudis).
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Oigal says:
I wonder if there will be a bunch of Indonesian Activists hitching a ride on a “Peace Boat” to protest the inhumane and ongoing abusive treatment of their own citizens, it could even stop off at Papua on the way.. Ya I know..just dreaming that would take a modicum of self reflection and honour…
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Oing, have you got your grinch custome ready for this christmas?
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A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals if they are willing to damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment for a cleaver attack that left a 22-year-old paralyzed. The victim, Abdul-Aziz al Mutairi, became paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago.
Saudi Arabia is not our ally. It is our enemy – our sworn, yet cunning enemy.The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader,” the report to the Defense Policy Board stated. “Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies.
only three nations maintained diplomatic relations with Afghanistan’s terror sponsors. Saudi Arabia was one. The Saudis poured money into the madrassas in Pakistan that inspired the Taliban and created its leadership. The Saudis directly sponsor suicide-bomb terrorism against Israel by, in effect, providing life-insurance policies for martyrs.
way did USA stop Iraq to free Saudi Arabia, could it be worse* not think so*
And to day this impulse-driven village idiot tried to get ther hands on weapons of mass destruction from China.
Merry Christmas wherever you are: Love u and the Christmas gifts! -
Please join the ANTI SAUDI ARABIA group on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=14827824490
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Om Swastiastu,
Here’s another recent case of torture: http://us.surabaya.detik.com/read/2010/11/18/231044/1497241/466/tki-asal-blitar-disiksa-majikan-hingga-buta
A maid from east java was tortured, till she’s blind, by her SAUDI ARABIAN “employer”.
After doing my daily Puja Trisandhya, I asked to Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, that Saudi Arabian be wiped off the planet. Israelis can do the job, right?
Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Om.
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Is there any keyword in twitter that clearly suggests Saudi Arabians are Perverts (torturing domestic worker) ? Please let everybody now, and let’s make it twitter top trending topic !!!
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Twitter keyword for this is #sumiati (I hope this will be top trending keyword, I hope this will be used for any tweet regarding domestic worker abuse in saudi arabia, not just for indonesian women, but women from all country).
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Hmm… Since we cannot control other countries’ (and their people’s) behaviour, rules, regulations, etc, why not try to control our own country and people? Advise other Sumiatis not to go find work in Saudi Arabia for the apparent risks and that no matter how big the potential earning is, it is simply not worth it. Indonesia perhaps need to run campaigns in order to educate all Sumiatis that once they sign the paperwork to go work in Saudi Arabia, they are also accepting the risk of being abused, physically and mentally. Instead of creating an anti-Saudi group on facebook, why not create a facebook group to warn people not to work in Saudi Arabia? Perhaps what we need is a different perspective of looking at it.
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Plus, imagine what the Saudis would do once they find out that those hate groups are created and moderated by Indonesians, or that Indonesians are involved in some ways in these groups, wouldn’t they want to torture their Indonesian maids more? If I was the one with the mental issues and liked torturing my maids, once I found out about these hate groups, I’d torture my Indo maids even more harshly. Just my $0.2.
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Aprianti says:
Good point, Angel. But sadly,
For every failure story of TKWs that got beaten up in Saudi Arabia, there are some success stories of TKWs who come home with money and build big houses that create economic jealousy among the neighbours in their villages. These poor women with poor education and information are more exposed to this kind of thing than the information about sickening cases about the treatment to TKWs in Arab Saudi. That’s why every year there are still more and more prospective TKWs willing to take a risk, even if they have to put their life at stake, especially when they have nothing to lose here in their country.
And if we know how much the TKW agents get for each TKW they send (or sell) abroad, it won’t be surprising if they never stop lurking around kampung-kampung in Indonesia to encourage poor girls (who do not have access to internet or FB, of course) to be TKW. These agents, IMO, should be the target of strict regulation, otherwise just close them all down.
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Hi Aprianti,
I am well aware of those aspects as well, but, what I was saying was that any energy that we had might be better if directed towards promoting the risks of working in Saudi Arabia, instead of trashing the Saudis (as people) like a lot of the comments above portray.
And it does not have to start from the Indonesian government (too complexed); it could start from us, right here, and spread. Tell the nearest Sumiati you can find about the horrifying stories, and who knows, that Sumiati might share the same stories to other Sumiatis. This way, the stories could become more ‘human’ and real (hence more believable) rather than just another news on TV. -
And you’re right about internet/social media access, those ‘poor girls’ do not even have access to the internet or facebook, so, we shouldn’t even be spending time trashing the Saudis on these media as the message wouldn’t even be delivered to the (right) target audience, yes?
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Indeedio, Angel. I’d rather use internet to make fun of people like Gayus, actually. 😉
Or, alternatively, we can do the work of mouth to increase people’s care toward the unfortunate women like Sumiati by giving them alternative jobs here in Indonesia. Just like what people have done with the “Pray for Indonesia” action. -
Plus, imagine what the Saudis would do once they find out that those hate groups are created and moderated by Indonesians, or that Indonesians are involved in some ways in these groups, wouldn’t they want to torture their Indonesian maids more? If I was the one with the mental issues and liked torturing my maids, once I found out about these hate groups, I’d torture my Indo maids even more harshly.
This attitude of shutting up for fear of retaliation against other possible victims is the surest way to maintain impunity for those arrogant SOB’s.
I’d say let the world know what’s going on in places like that and launch a campaign to isolate them. We finally have the tools like internet with all its graphic possibilities, so let’s use it. And for those who don’t have internet access there are other media like TV which now reaches even the most remote areas. Silence only feeds ignorance and ignorance is a killer. -
timdog says:
It does seem that people in Malaysia and Singapore (often of a certain ethnicity, it has to be said), have a passable track record in brutalising Indonesian maids too. Are we going to unleash a similar campaign against them too? Ah, I thought not…
While the people who did this are obviously unhinged psychopaths, the lower level, more general abuse of foreign domestic staff is symptomatic of a economic situation which allows for the development of an institutionalised foreign workforce at the bottom end of the jobs market (as exists in to a greater or lesser degree almost everywhere)…
If there is a job that you, as a “native” would never do because it’s below your dignity (not to mention too poorly paid), and that none of your friends or family would ever do, because it would be embarrassing, dehumanising (and poorly paid), then how are you going to view someone who is prepared to do it?
That’s right – as some kind of lesser being. If no Saudi (or Singaporean, or American) would ever willingly clean your toilet and iron your socks for less money a month than you spent on lunch yesterday, then what kind of pitiful semi-barbarian must this monkey-like Indonesian/Filipina/Bangladeshi be? How pathetic! Imagine what kind of ape would be willing to do that!In a lesser extreme this always exists (any of you lot who’ve got maids, tell me honestly that you’re not a bit patronising when you think about their life). Do a gaggle of drunk Englishmen stumbling into a kebab house at 3am view the Turk dishing up their donner as their equal? Honestly?
And then take a place like Saudi where this immigrant economy has been pushed to its most extreme conclusion, where nothing is done by the locals anywhere below the level of management (or state apparatus), and where even the skilled stuff at the top is done by hired talent, then it’s inevitable that the attitude towards the pitiable foreign labourers will slip from patronising to sneering, from sneering to utter dehumanising contempt and a total absence of empathy. And if you’re contemptuous of someone, if you view them as less than wholly human, and you happen to have psychotic or sociopathic tendencies, then it will be all too easy for you to do something like this (the people in this case were clearly out of the ordinary, but they would still unlikely have done that to a fellow citizen).
After all, if they are somehow less than human on your level (and how could they be, if they do an undignified job like that?) then they are surely also less capable of suffering…Saudi Arabia (and all the Gulf States, though a certain cosmopolitanism probably mitigates things in the others) is a sick society, and the definitive proof that shipping in cheap foreigners to do the dirty jobs dehumanises not them, but YOU, because it erodes YOUR capacity for empathy. A legitimate way to create a healthy society is this: if you want someone to iron your socks and clean your toilet, you must be willing to pay a respectable living wage for it, a wage that will make it a job that some fellow-citizen might consider doing. If you’re not willing to do that, and if you don’t have enough money to pay such a wage, then you don’t yet have enough money to have a maid. So go and do some more work you lazy idiot.
This lesson should apply everywhere, and every country that uses foreign labour because it’s cheaper should look long and hard at Saudi Arabia, because that’s the final destination you’re heading for – a nation of skill-less sociopaths, incapable of building a house, cooking in a restaurant, being a doctor or a nurse, a truck driver or a pilot, let alone empathising with another human being…
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timdog wrote
In a lesser extreme this always exists (any of you lot who’ve got maids, tell me honestly that you’re not a bit patronising when you think about their life).
Definitely not me. Nobody who makes or wants to make him/herself useful should be patronized. With every single person who has worked for me and for some reason had to leave I am still in contact, not as some superior benefactor but as a fellow human being with shared memories. This is because I – and I’m sure a lot like me – come from a background where someone’s status in life isn’t believed to be determined by the supernatural or by takdir but by circumstances that can be changed for the better.
However the frequency and impunity by which this denigrating and brutally offensive attitude continues to occur in places like Saudi Arabia is a clear indication of a defective culture and paradigm and it should be treated as such. -
ET, is every Chinese Malaysian who throws an Indonesian pembantu off a balcony or burns her with an iron, and every American who rapes the Mexican nanny symptomatic of “a defective culture and paradigm”?
There is something very, very wrong with Saudi Arabia. I explained exactly what above.
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ET, is every Chinese Malaysian who throws an Indonesian pembantu off a balcony or burns her with an iron, and every American who rapes the Mexican nanny symptomatic of “a defective culture and paradigm”?
If it happens with the same regularity and obvious impunity I would say yes.
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If it happens with the same regularity and obvious impunity I would say yes.
Are Malaysia and America mono-ethnicities with a tiny population that went from developmental zero to untold weath virtually overnight and where the business of having all – absolutely all, 100% – of the “dirty jobs” done by cheap, shipped in foreigners utterly entrenched?
And even though they are not, there is an unmistakable pattern, a recognisable phenomenom of violence and abuse perpetrated against migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Malaysia, so, quite seriously, no get-out “ifs”, is there “a defective culture and paradigm” there – and what’s “takdir” in Chinese?
Lairedion Comment on “Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa”.
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No description whatsoever of the bad guys? Really?
While the government of Indonesia ‘continues to ensure effective measures for the protection of citizens abroad’, why not name and shame the bad guys? At least others who decide to abuse their maids will think twice before doing it, given there is at least an immediate consequence (no matter how small) of doing so.