Employers pay for maid's driving lessons, let her drive their Mercedes-Benz

The New Paper
April 16,2022

It would take a high level of trust for most people to hand a friend the keys to their Mercedes. 

One family in Singapore, though, had enough faith in their domestic helper to do just that. 

They even funded her driving lessons. 

In a Facebook post on Wednesday (April 13), Ms Merna Astinar, a domestic helper from Indonesia, expressed her gratitude to her employers – Mr Ong Thiam Huat and Mrs Er Shu Qian – for funding her driving lessons and letting her drive the family car.

"It's been four years [since I started] driving," she wrote. "Even by (saying) 'thank you' a thousand times to them, it's still not enough to express my gratitude to my employers."

She uploaded images of the couple as well as a short video clip of her cruising in what appears to be a Mercedes-Benz.

Her rather unique privilege left many netizens impressed. 

"Upskilling. Now this helper is not just any ordinary helper but even more than that."

“They smart, no need Pay for chauffeur.”

Ms Astinar is not the first domestic helper to get her driver's licence here. In 2012, an Indonesian maid with a valid Singapore driving licence got into a road traffic accident while driving her boss around.

She was verbally abused by the other driver, and her employer who hit the man while defending her, was sentenced to a month's jail.