COMMENT By agreeing that recruitment agents should be given the power to resolve the deep-rooted issues surrounding the recruitment of domestic workers, the  governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, led by PM Najib Abdul Razak and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono respectively, have demonstrated that they believe that the lives, dignity and rights of Indonesian women should be placed in the clutches of agents and recruitment companies whose main purpose is to maximise the amount of profit they can make through the trade of women’s labour.