Defending the Defenceless

Fr Peter O'Neill SSC tells the story of Siti-Aniyah Tugiman who came for help to the Columban's
HOPE WORKERS' CENTRE, Taipei.

The tragic story of Siti-Aniyah Tugiman’s past four years began when she arrived in Taiwan from her home country of Indonesia in June 2000. She came as a foreign domestic worker hired to care for a young couple╒s two-year old twins who suffer from polio.

Siti-Aniyah’s dream was to earn money and better her family╒s future in the rich country of Taiwan. In tears, she left behind her newborn son in her mother╒s care. Her husband, meanwhile, continued to earn a meagre wage in the Indonesian rice fields so the family could survive on one meal a day.

At first, Siti-Aniyah’s employers were kind, and she enjoyed her work. But three months into her employment, the wife began to inflict continual physical abuse on Siti-Aniyah. For nine months, she was physically and mentally tortured by the woman.

One year after she began her employment she was rescued from her living hell and brought to our Columban-run Hope Workers’ Centre (HWC) by the Taipei county Migrant Workers’ Counselling Centre.

The image of Siti-Aniyah’s battered and bruised body will remain etched in my memory for life. Her body was black and blue; the rawness of her scars expressed the intolerable pain she endured for nine months. She wore a patch over her right eye, which the wife had poked in a fit of sheer rage. Today, Siti-Aniyah is nearly blind in that eye.

Siti-Aniyah’s right forearm bore the scar from a hot pan the wife used to deliberately burn her. Her feet were still swollen and bruised from continual beatings the wife inflicted with the blunt edge of a large chopping knife. The woman broke three umbrellas beating Siti-Aniyah’s body.

Twenty-eight months later Siti-Aniyah is still at the HWC shelter, still waiting for a judge to hand down a verdict in her legal case against her employer. Her flicker of hope is waning.

Taiwan╒s legal system is based upon an outdated inquisitorial German system that dates back to the 1850s. Under this system, judges are not bound by any rules and are not very concerned about individual rights. There is no step-by-step sequence as in the United States and British judicial systems. This is why Siti-Aniyah╒s case has languished for so long.

After several negotiations chaired by a government representative, the wife still denied Siti-Aniyah’s physical abuse, saying that she had fallen down repeatedly.

Siti-Aniyah’s only avenue for justice was to sue her employer. In August 2001, she filed a criminal case against her employer for her injuries. Within 10 days, Siti-Aniyah had her first court hearing with her prosecutor present, but there was no judge.

The next month, she returned to court two times with no judge present. Then the usual long wait began. For seven months, we continued to inquire about the status of the next court hearing. Siti-Aniyah╒s case was going nowhere fast.

In November 2002, 14 months after Siti-Aniyah filed her case, the prosecutor filed a formal indictment. It took the prosecutor all this time to conclude that her employer had indeed physically abused Siti-Aniyah. If found guilty, the woman would be sentenced from five to 13 years in prison.

If the woman is found guilty on the most serious of the two charges (causing “serious injury”), she can appeal the sentence to a higher court. This will take at least another year. If the court upholds the verdict, she can appeal the sentence to the Taiwanese Supreme Court. This will take another year. Only after the criminal case has been settled can the civil case for compensation begin. Siti-Aniyah may need to wait another two years before she receives compensation from her abusive employer.

Her son is now four years old. She longs to return home to feel his embrace. Siti-Aniyah has languished in Taiwan for more than three years now.

This gentle woman of immense courage has inspired me to hold onto my own flicker of hope as I journey with the migrant workers who are used and abused as cheap labour in Taiwan.

My hope is in my God as proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 42:3): "He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame."