Malaysia is launching a study into the impact of Indonesian maids on the children they care for, including whether they change the youngsters' "cultural values", a report said today.

"We need to find out whether Indonesian maids bring positive values or otherwise," Women, Family and Community Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said according to the Star daily.

Shahrizat said Indonesian maids accounted for 90 percent of the 400,000 foreign domestic workers in Malaysia, and were increasingly employed for childcare because more mothers were going out to work.

"Somehow there must be an impact on Malaysian families," she said.

Home Affairs Minister Mohamad Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said after a meeting with Shahrizat that Malaysians could no longer leave their children in the care of extended families or relatives.

Very dependent

"They are now very dependent on their Indonesian maids and leave everything to them, to the extent that our children are now speaking like Indonesians," he said according to The Star.

"That is why we need to have a study to find out whether having maids is good or bad for us."

Shahrizat said the investigation would look at the education level of maids, their cultural values, their knowledge of Malaysian culture, and their health.

"The study will cover all aspects to tackle any future problems," she said.

Indonesian maids are popular in Malaysia because their wages average only RM300-400 ringgit per month and because the majority share the religion and language of the country's dominant Muslim Malay community.