Rizana and Sri Lanka’s wakeup call

Seven years ago, the world came to know details about the death of an infant in the care of a Sri Lankan juvenile when she was still 17 years. We knew her as Rizana Nafeek, who needs no introduction. She is our relative. Our sister. Our daughter. A daughter of our motherland who represented a social group struck by abject poverty, leading to misfortunes and under-privileges.

A long struggle by multiple organisations, pressure groups, the Government of Sri Lanka and people in high places like Prince Charles of Great Britain, all came to a futile and abrupt end with the news of Rizana’s brutal beheading by the Saudi Kingdom reaching Colombo on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon (9 January), hot on the heels of the brutal Delhi rape and murder of a young woman.

Global condemnation

It was not only Lankans who sympathised for her and her innocent family, everyone who followed Rizana’s plight very closely with interest was overwhelmed by grief, shock, and fury over the cruel and horrific end to her young life. Everything was put down to ‘Sharia’ law in a country with the practice of an absolute monarchy.

The talk about paying ‘blood money’ for the release of the victim seemed to have failed. There was a ray of hope with a last minute appeal made to the Saudi King by President Rajapaksa, which was also to no avail.

There was an outpouring of condemnation from international organisations like the UN, Human Rights Watch, Asian Human Rights Commission, European Union, Amnesty International, ILO, etc. Apparently Saudi authorities have admitted Rizana’s case was flawed. On multiple scores, the authorities (Saudi) too failed. It’s clear now that Rizana didn’t get a fair hearing.

We shall consciously avoid boarding the blame-game bandwagon, because it is now of no use. In the aftermath, let’s take a more pragmatic and a mature view.

The reasons that drew Rizana’s poverty stricken family to send her for employment as a maid/nanny are details that are only too familiar to us. So many things in this equation weren’t right. She was below the legal age to work. The fraudulent travel documents (passport, etc.) put young Rizana at much risk, probably which not only her but her family also was oblivious to.

If poverty was the under-pinner, there are lessons to take us forward as a nation, followed by regulations to address, legal issues, diplomatic issues, and along the way lies employment creation within the country on a priority basis. Holistically, it is more important to avoid a similar catastrophe. Having a solid system to support the underprivileged groups of our society has not been more important than this day.

Wakeup call

Rizana is not the first victim. If we don’t act now, and act intelligently, one thing is for sure: She won’t be the last one either. Do we really have a count of women who slave as maids and nannies in West Asia (the Middle East) who have been through all sorts of abuse – psychological, physical, and sexual?

Some return in coffins and some either on a stretcher or a wheelchair. Others, like Rizana, may never return. There may be scores of Rizanas who never made it to the news. Countless numbers go unreported, unnoticed and/or unrecorded due to numerous reasons. Worse is the psychological trauma that these women are subject to.

Are we doing enough to shift this trend?

They may be the biggest earner of foreign exchange, but are we morally right by them when as a nation we have failed to protect our women? We will only be stupid and short-sighted as a nation if we can’t promulgate to a different paradigm of economic earnings for this strata of employees.

We must stop seeing through the thin veil of an ‘opportunist nation’ for openings for our women slaving in the oil rich Gulf. Enough is more than enough. This must end.

Bring our mothers, sisters, and daughters back

For years, over this issue, we have argued, debated, reasoned, and spoken. The situation won’t remedy the countless Rizanas we have lost. There is not only socio-cultural erosion but moral and ethical landslide of things heavily stacked not only against females going to the Middle East for such menial jobs, but their families, and us all, as society.

We know so well how families get destroyed or scattered when a mother departs. This is typical for Asian families, which gravitate around a mother. The Government statistics say, to date approximately a million local women are employed in the Middle East. As a dire priority, it is time we brought them back home. There are more socioeconomic impediments than the myopic economic gains one may see for these women employees.

We must, without having to depend entirely on the Government, create job opportunities for this segment of our work force as responsible Sri Lankans. Going by the numbers, it will only take a million persons to employ these females. And that I am sure is not a tough task.

Local labour market

If these women are instilled with necessary employable skill/s, they would surely make an economically very useful and attractive contribution to a fast-shrinking local labour market and the growing economy.

I recently wrote that sooner than we realise, our biggest foreign exchange outlay will come in the form of expatriates working here. Food for thought, we may be able to reverse this. With an increasing number of organisations struggling to source the right talent, high skill jobs that are in short supply could be potentially filled by this segment.

Take an industry like gems; can’t we train these women to cut and polish gems? Take the hospitality industry; train them as housekeeping personnel, room service, chefs, tour assistants, etc. We may even train them to become hairdressers, beauticians, caregivers, nurses, data entry operators, and a number of jobs across industries towards self-employment.

The Vocational Training Authority, Vocational University, National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA), private institutions, and individuals may well play a role that is of paramount importance and relevant in skill development. This must become a national priority.

Foreign policy

“President Rajapaksa and the Government of Sri Lanka deplore the execution of Miss Rizana Nafeek despite all efforts at the highest level of the Government and the outcry of the people locally and internationally over the death sentence of a juvenile housemaid,” noted the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry statement.

Also, in protest the Government of Sri Lanka recalled its Ambassador for Saudi Arabia. This was required and was done swiftly. That alone is inadequate. Every country must have law and order. No two words. But innocent people who are still not adults at the time of an alleged crime cannot be victimised in a barbaric manner. This is a fundamental human right to which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has subscribed, by ratifying the UN Convention for the rights of the child.

Taking a cue, the next step is for Sri Lanka’s officials and UN representatives to take this up at the highest level possible in making the beheading heard in the UN quarters, which may also help bring a more aggressive lobbying for human rights.

Criminals must be tried. But through a due process that must be just, transparent, and fair. The Government also must review its foreign employment policy as a diplomatic priority with the KSA, and take the Ambassador for KSA in Colombo to task.

There must be a loud and persistent movement over this, similar to what Delhi is doing over the rape victim, continuing the pressure on the Indian Government to act. Our case may be made stronger, by including all those women, dead or alive, who brutally suffered at the hands of their employers.

The ILO laws for the protection of the domestic work force is another important piece of the law that the Government should pay attention to and address. As a Government we will only remain weak if countries like the KSA take us for a ride and surprise us by Rizana style executions, which leave our people utterly vulnerable.

Social security net

A robust social security net must be laid to protect the ‘rice winner’ of a family when he/she becomes unproductive or destitute. In order to take care of such families, Samurdhi and Divi Neguma should be able to rise to the occasion.

An important aspect is that the grant provided must commensurate with the real cost of living and be able to manage an average family of four to five members, which otherwise might defeat the objective, pushing us back to square one.

The abovementioned funds may be repositioned so that the general public and organisations too may contribute by way of donations. If done properly at this crucial juncture of our history, the inflows would continue and construct a national initiative, uniting a nation for the right reason.

Regulations

Now’s the time the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to step in with necessary regulations, even de-regulation for that matter. This would require revisiting the mandate of the Foreign Employment Bureau itself, the regulations governing job agencies and their activities, checks and balances in the system, and strict controls at exit points such as ports and the airport, all aimed at putting a stop to our females going for maid and nanny jobs.

The SLBFE, in the immediate term, must play a proactive role in understanding the environments and their dynamics both locally and in the Middle East. They must act expeditiously in bringing back home the maids who are in distress or in ill-health and provide the necessary legal and any other necessary support to those who are languishing in prisons without much or any defence.

Export of knowledge work vs. semi/unskilled work

As long as we produce knowledge workers (who use their knowledge to work, i.e. engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, managers, etc.), whose service could be exported, we should be able to cover the earnings that our housemaid population of a million number of women make by slaving.

It will continue to be a dangerous proposition to see semi or unskilled women workers toil in misery in places like the Middle East.

Rizana – at the cost of your life, you have awoken a nation

The utmost respect we could afford her would be to ensure we move forward positively through the lessons taught by and through the life and times of Rizana Nafeek. Let Rizana’s legend live on.

(The writer is a business consultant, HR specialist, trainer, lecturer, international researcher, and Founder Director/Chief Executive Officer of Target Resource Pvt. Ltd. She is a consultant for the Ministry of Public Management Reforms. She can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].)