Prejudice Against Our Foreign Workers
The ugly truth about Malaysians
Prejudice is thinly veiled in Malaysia, a country that internationally espouses values of tolerance and an all-embracing culture. On the surface, certainly we seem to greet each other with warm smiles (especially if we are conditioned to think that those Malaysia Airlines advertisements are an accurate depiction of how we behave in society) and greetings of “Apa Khabar?”, or “Chia Pa Liao?”, an example the Prime Minister recently used to describe our overwhelmingly friendly nature.
All it takes is some deeper digging to uncover some unfortunate, ugly truths about ourselves: that we are a problematic prejudiced society and this needs to change. The most blatant forms of prejudice have taken place against foreign workers. Yes, we are the sweetest things on earth when catering to tourists’ needs (and again, not all tourists receive equal treatment), but we turn sour when dealing with foreign labour.
One reason foreign workers are treated so poorly is the perception that most foreign workers come from less developed countries than ours and are psychologically associated to be of a lower class.
Indonesia-Malaysia relations took a turn for the worse in 2007, when an Indonesian karate coach was beaten up by Malaysian police. This followed a long series of consistently mistreated domestic workers in recent years, where employers have used physically abused them. Police hunting down illegal immigrants has not helped either.
More ridiculous was the detaining of an Indonesian Embassy official’s wife at a market district, accused of being an illegal worker without a valid working permit. In fact, she had her diplomatic identity card with her, but this was not recognized. The audacity! These incidents led to massive protests outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, and burning Malaysian flags, a situation largely reported in the Indonesian dailies but hardly mentioned in the Malaysian papers.
Malaysian officials reported from Indonesia that it was an incredibly trying time in their efforts to maintain good public relations with locals on the ground itself. While on international bilateral platforms both governments have had a good relationship, local Indonesians were seeing the true side of the Malaysian face – that simply put, Indonesians were looked down upon.
Lack of economic development is hardly a reasonable justification for mistreatment.
A second reason is the automatic association between foreign workers and the types of jobs they assume in Malaysia. True enough, most of them work within industries that are, again, falsely conceived as belonging to lower-level functions – construction, physical and menial labour, domestic help, amongst other more gritty jobs. Jobs such as these are so crucial to a country’s economy, yet they are attributed the poorest levels of dignity.
I have heard of many Malaysians who have traveled abroad and were surprised at the highly sophisticated intellectuals they met from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Burma. Because most people from these countries work at demeaning jobs in Malaysia, society has falsely associated this with nationality.
That they were surprised to meet well-established professionals from these nations is telling of the inherent prejudices Malaysians have had for far too long.
Further, Malaysia does not have a very comprehensive foreign labour policy, and what it does have is sullied with corrupt officials and a sophisticated bribery system. Migrant workers receive one of the worst treatments in the country (go home and Youtube “Bangladesh workers in Malaysia” and watch the videos for yourself). Dare we treat their American and European counterparts similarly? Now tell me that we don’t live in a prejudiced nation.
If we are to pride ourselves on being an open, inclusive, just and fair society, one truth has to be pointed out – and stressed on unendingly.
Each human being is born equal, and is deserving of dignity. This does not depend on which socioeconomic class one comes from; neither does it depend on the job function one is associated with. Our Indonesian toilet cleaners in offices and shopping complexes are accorded the same human worth as the CEO of the largest IT company in town. Our Cambodian domestic workers are to be treated with the same levels of respect due to them as the children in homes they tirelessly care for.
How we treat our neighbours on this soil is reflective of all we stand for as a country. A nation’s values – Islam Hadhari, “Asian values” or otherwise – are put to a test when sufficient human dignity is not recognized. Before addressing physical mistreatment of foreign workers, we must first reflect deeply upon the philosophical levels of worth we accord to our friends from less developed countries. The next time you interact with the local Afghan or Bangladeshi gardener, or Filipino or Laotian domestic helper, be sure to lift up that individual as equal to yourself, in your mind’s eye.
After all, some day and in some way, you might end up as the actual foreign worker from a less developed country – elsewhere.
Tricia Yeoh is Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies. She accords equal human dignity and worth to all, regardless of socioeconomic standing or job function. Contact her at tricia_yeoh@cpps.org.my
This was published in the Malaysian Today free paper
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