The story of what happened to Zakir Hossain, the
Bangladeshi worker whose work pass was not renewed has reignited the usual
storm on who are the foreigners that living and working in Singapore. Mr.
Hossain is regarded in some camps as someone who has worked hard in the jobs
that Singaporeans were simply not willing to do. However, there are a group who
think that Mr. Hossain is an ungrateful SOB who had the audacity to complain
about not wanting to live in a place where the Minister of Manpower was only
willing to enter if he was in a hazmat suite.
So, given that the topic has ignited a few interesting
views, I thought it might be worth asking ourselves who these chaps are. It’s a
question that needs to be asked because as
with passionate debates, both sides become so focused on the debate and their
point of view, that they forget that what you’re talking about is a human being.
It’s easy to blame your problems on a group when you label them as “illegals”
or “criminals,” especially when that group has less than you. However, when you
fall into that trap, you lose something important – your basic humanity.
I look at the
issue of “foreign labour,” from the sad reality of being a “loser” in the capitalist
system. Didn’t get a foothold to build a corporate career in a field that I
would excel in. When I freelanced, I had a few lucky breaks but couldn’t quite
build on it. So, at the age of 38, I ended up waiting tables so that I could
pay basic bills and you could say that I should have become the prime target
for unscrupulous snake oil salesmen wanting political power (graduate member of
the ethnic majority needing to take subsistence job to survive).
I didn’t go
down the dark path for a simple reason. When I became a “loser” in the economic
system, I became a “winner” as a human being. My fellow waiters for Pinoys and the
chefs were primarily Tamil chaps from India and Malaysia. These guys became my
work mates and I got to know them as people who had things like families. The
guy from that period of my life that comes to mind is Rafey, the Pinoy chap who
did all the “real” work at the Bistrot for seven-years. He became invaluable to
me. I was the one that customer liked but I could only be liked because Rafey
did the work. Poor guy had only one problem – he was a bloke and when a little
Minx got hired, he suddenly found himself surrounded by rumours that he had made
attempts to molest her (which were not true) and he was eventually fired after
seven years of loyal service.
Working in a
restaurant was an eye opener and I remember there were people in Singapore who
thought that Trump’s rhetoric in Mexicans was great. For me, I couldn’t
understand it because in the Singapore context, it was like saying people like
Rafey had “stolen” jobs from me and from my experiences with the guys – this line
of thought, simply did not make sense. The guys I worked with, saw an opportunity
to earn a bit of money to give their families a better life.
The Pinoy and
Indian chaps I worked with in the restaurant were just ordinary guys trying to
make a living just like me.
Then I went to
work in the insolvency trade and saw that the “screwing” of the downtrodden
wasn’t a text book exercise. If anything, it was perfectly legal and, in many
cases, encouraged. One of my early cases was a construction company which had
30 over workers who hadn’t been paid for over five months. As the Company had
been liquidated, we had to fire them.
A few of the
Tremeritus crowd get very upset with me for being “pro-Indian” and “anti-Chinese.”
The truth is, I’m particularly pro or anti anybody but the fact remains, many
of the people who have blessed me, have inevitably been Indian (and in many
cases, Muslim). I’ve mentioned that I was lucky to be on the receiving end of guys
in the IIT and IIM Alumni associations. However, you could say that what
transpired between myself and the guys with corporate jobs was part of my “good”
fortune.
My real
blessing was dealing with the workers that I sacked and couldn’t help get money
that they had worked for but could not claim. These guys have every reason to
hate me. I was the public face of the end of their livelihood. Every time they
called me to ask for the money they were promised, I was the one with the
story. I didn’t believe me half the time, yet the listened to my “excuses.”
I did encourage
them to harass me. I did tell them they had the right to attend creditor
meetings. I did extend loans from personal funds to a few. This last point in particular
is “controversial,” in as much as I was violating professional rules of favouring
creditors and as a colleague kept saying “You know you can’t trust Bangladeshi
Workers,” (her judgement was based on working in a law firm that had to defend workers
whom she believed were screwing insurance companies.)
It wasn’t easy.
I got calls at the most in appropriate moments on a regular basis I had to psychologically
write off the pennies I was giving out. Thankfully, humanity won the day. When
we finally paid the workers what was due to them, I got most of what I had lent
out.
Here is a message
from Bangladeshi Worker I had lent some money to during that period:
It’s like this, these guys were just trying to make a living. They were willing to clean our crap because it pays better than the professional jobs available back home. They’re willing to put up with a lot of crap so that they can get that opportunity to provide for their families (I still get text from these guys asking if I can help find jobs in Singapore).
They are, what
you would call just acting out like how normal people would react in certain
situations. They aren’t passive victims nor are they active criminals. They are
merely human beings trying to earn a living and if you look at the instances
where they have “rebelled” and “complained” about, its inevitably been in
situations where most of us would probably act in that particular way. Think
about it, in 2013, when they went riot, they did so because the police seemed more
interested in protecting the guy who killed their friend than in solving the
problem. The latest instant with Mr. Hossain, is merely a case of a human being
stating that he' doesn’t think people should live in a place that causes
disease (a fact which the minister in his hazmat suite confirmed). The start of
any policy towards our foreign workers should be based on remembering that they’re
humans like us who were in a certain situation and will behave accordingly.
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