I refer to the letter Only Muslim maids allowed . I commend on the writer for his stand on the right to hire a maid of his own choice of nationality or religion.

My experience with Indonesian maids and with one of the country's top maid agencies has been a horrendous one to say the least. I left her alone at home for 31 days with my semi-invalid mother and she chalked up phone bills close to RM1,000.

She then ran away with three Indonesian men in a Malaysian registered taxi in broad daylight leaving a helpless old woman tied to a wheelchair. Bizarre but true.

Since her escape, I have had Indonesian women with no passports approaching me to hire them, telling me that I need not worry because the long arm of the law will let them be with merely a RM10 or RM20 payoff if questioned.

My neighbour's maid went back to Indonesia for a one-month Hari Raya holiday, returned to her employer and bolted just hours after her plane touched down at KLIA. She then had the audacity to call and speak to my current maid, having found a restaurant job. How can this be made so easily possible?

I tried to hire a maid from India where my mother was originally from but I failed simply because of government regulations to hire maids only from certain countries and of certain nationalities. This makes our lives in our homes intensely stressful and miserable.

The government has done little to see to family needs and yet they promote healthy family living. Where are the professionally established child-minding nurseries, nursing homes and medical care and benefits for the young and the aged?

As working-class citizens contributing to the success of a nation heading for industrialisation, we have to work to earn a decent living, tend to our own needs, our family's (children and aging parents) and for our very own future needs.

Government polices, particularly in relation to maids, which prevent us form having a peaceful and conducive home life are certainly not helping us.