AS SEEN ON TV
My Malaysian vignettes
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Loraine Fong has been a domestic helper overseas for 25 years. She left the Philippines to give her children a better future. At the start of her long years of working for different families in Europe, the Middle East and now, Malaysia, Loraine wished to settle down in her hometown of Baguio City as soon as her children finished college.
But now that her children are already working, Loraine’s dream of retiring is still far from “reached”. She is still slaving for a new employer in Kuala Lumpur. Life is still hard in the Philippines where progress, she said, is hampered by corruption.
“Naiiyak ako sa sitwasyon ng mga kababayan natin”, Loraine said (tearfully). “Kung nababalitaan ko ang corruption at yung ekonomiya lumalala, nawawalan din ako ng pagasa. Hindi ka pwedeng umuwi. Anong klaseng buhay ang dadatnan ko sa Pilipinas?” she added.
About 30,000 Filipinos work legally in Malaysia. Most of them are domestic helpers, some are office professionals and the rest are in the technical and service sectors. The Philippine embassy considers the figure conservative as more Filipinos illegally enter Malaysia’s fringes via Mindanao for both illegal work and undocumented residency. It’s ironic that in search for better opportunities many Filipinos come to a country which just decades earlier — was just as third world as their own.
I can see why.
Malaysia has boomed. The economy is favorable (1 US dollar is to 3 Malaysian Ringgit, go figure) and the opportunity for self improvement abounds, through jobs. Malaysia may not be a first world country but basic infrastructure and public services are efficient enough. It’s a country where one can work and live not as quite as recklessly as in the Philippines where the future is bleak or uncertain.
At the pre-departure area at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, a Malaysian boarding gate attendant takes my boarding pass and hands me what appeared to be a tract with the face of a beaming President Gloria Arroyo. If I didn’t know she was a foreigner I would have accused her of electioneering.
“Yu need dis wen yu awive in yow cuntwy serh (you need this when you arrive in your country sir),” she quipped with her heavy Chino-British accent.
It turned out to be the cover of the official disembarkation card which is usually filled up by passengers and collected by immigration and customs official as one enters the country.
As I left the Philippines for Malaysia 5 days earlier, I also filled out the Malaysian disembarkation card which was bare, formal (very official) as should any important, respectable government document. It was quite unlike the Philippine disembarkation card which even contained the logo of a giant telecommunications company, and a stub offering a 50-peso discount at the Manila Ocean Park. If one didn’t read closely, the RP disembarkation card would be mistaken for a value meal flyer and could easily make its way into the trash bin.
In contrast the Malaysian disembarkation document was a clean white card (like those class cards back in college) with boxes that one fills out with his name, passport number and all other important travel details. It had no fancy designs or advertisements. The back contained a stern warning that drug trafficking is punishable by death in Malaysia, sending chills across my spine knowing just how serious these countries are with their system of justice.
Aside from brand logos, an Ocean Park discount stub and President Arroyo’s welcoming face on the face of the Philippine disembarkation and customs forms, there are warnings that abuse and exploitation of women and children, human and drug trafficking are prohibited.
Not to be left out is the Department of Tourism’s trademark shell logo and an appeal that says, “Child Sex Tourists, don’t turn away, turn them in”. And then there’s a telephone number where one may “report suspicious behavior”.
To put all that on the disembarkation card just tells us what kind of travel destination our country has become.
While taking a taxi from the Berjaya Times Square to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, I asked the cab driver what I should look out for in the streets.
“Just snatchers maybe—make sure your valuables are secured. But generally in Kuala Lumpur, you’re safe,” said my Malaysian-Indian driver.
“Crime is not a big problem here,” he said.
Capital punishment is taken seriously by the public and implemented without fear or favor by authorities. I have not seen a single policeman patrolling the streets but there seems to be vehicular and pedestrian traffic order everywhere.
“What about robbery? What are the chances of me being held up at gun point?” I asked.
To which my cab driver responded, “You can’t carry a gun in Malaysia, it’s punishable by death. Besides, if I had a gun I’d rob a bank. Why would I risk death penalty just for your cell phone, wallet and camera?”
“My friend, there are such places in the world where you’d get held up for peanuts,” I said half jokingly.
Come to the Philippines.
