These Bangladeshis in Malaysia should be the role models for us who actually are contributing to
alleviate poverty by feeding their families in villages while also polishing our national economic profile. Where else could you find such �real local heroes� ?
Our real local heroes
Farzana Nahid
Heroes remind us of a personality attributed by dignity, robustness, courageous with physical strength and determination as achievers in their lives. Where we could find such heroes in real life? In fact, heroes are valued from perceptual narratives that are preferential and defined in many ways. Fortunately I have encountered many of them living in Malaysia.
Obviously, I must have met them before without actually realizing it, or without having to define it properly in my own narratives. These heroes are my own Bangladeshi natives . Since I left my country back in 2012, my homesickness gradually diminished exponentially by interacting with these local heroes as I began to explore and to know a lot from them by asking about how they are contextualizing in their own ambient alienation from desh; and how they are contributing to the business and economic activities in Malaysia.
These young and brave Bangladeshi natives are contributing to Malaysian as well as to Bangladesh economy constructively being salesmen, cook, cleaners and so on. Each one has unique story to share, which literally started to construct my definition of the real and local hero, while exposing me to this new world of unknown and uncertainty where these heroes are the realities. Sometimes, while listening to their experiences, my tears become my only companion. From that point, I started realizing how fortunate I am having all luxuries of life, but yet to get satisfaction from the same. I truly admire them due to the reasons that their truthfulness inspires me while their personalities nourish my strength to continue my own journey in this territory. I would share their stories here, so that many others would find them eye openers that they are the true assets we should recognize and redefine them as real heroes.
Bangladeshis in Malaysia
These heroes began their journey as non affluent yet ambitious Bangladeshis who were lured to this new and strange world by manpower agents engaged in fraudulent means to process their job applications and their travel to the unknown territorial maze to get them lost in many cases.
However, as I mentioned that they are defined as real heroes. I would stress that they have managed to survive and began to emerge out of the webs of uncertainty by virtue of their dignity and courageous mindset.
They work here from dawn to dusk, eat minimum, live in large groups in small rooms and even then are very happy with life as they say they can earn enough to feed their families back home. Despite their immense struggle, their smile never diminishes over a small piece of bread, rice or potatoes on their plates. I wonder, how they possess this strength despite their extreme struggle and loneliness.
I salute these heroes who live in clouds of uncertainty, while pondering their sparkling rainbows back home to render the needed color on their familys life. They are destined to overcome their poverty by living in such misery while having smiles in their faces.
In their daily life they get humiliated by the society they are surrounded by; face tremendous difficulties communicating with foreigners; and still holding strong and tight their only strength of hopes and dignity. They are real achievers as they are sacrificing and compromising all comforts and happiness they could have in their hometowns and by disengaging from their loving families, but yet are not giving up the dream to help their families to climb up the ladder of solvency and prosperity.
More surprisingly some of them, although they started working as waiters or cleaners or cooks in restaurants, eventually were promoted to cashiers or even managers by their promising contributions. A few even became restaurant owners where they employ only Bangladeshis to strengthen their businesses while as companions during their bad times. They even mastered the local and international languages just by practicing regularly despite any institutional support or qualification.
This is what the usual scenario as you would wander around in some of the exotic places in Malaysia, where most of the Malay, Chinese or Indian restaurants are filled up with Bangladeshi workers. Just out of my curiosity, I asked the owners the reasons for choosing Bangladeshi boys. The answers gave me another reason to feel proud about these Bangladeshi workers as being regarded by the owners as reliable, honest and extremely hard working.
I got another blow on my self-esteem when few of them told me that they very often help other Bangladeshis with money, food and shelter; even help some to get return tickets to Bangladesh when these job seekers lose job or lack sufficient money. How on earth these people can have such great and remarkable heart and mind, whereas we, having no difficulties even abroad, rarely think of helping others?
Does crisis make them act so strong? Or it is the culture we embrace as Bangladeshis with which we are adaptable to any situation? But how many of us could act similarly even though living with a degree of lavishness?
Most of us feel uncomfortable whenever, by any chance, we get the next seat with these great heroes in fights, talking to them smilingly is beyond our thinking. Yes, they have a very low profile as they cannot talk or walk like us, but can we show the same kind of courage they possess ? Commonly, we call these people less educated workers . But they have proved themselves much better than many of our so called well educated people. Shall we reconcile what we do in our societies home and abroad? I must stop by stating that: these people deserve to be our heroes who are striving to set a new ideology of socio-cultural
norms .
I feel ashamed of being a member of that educated and cultured society that under values these people who tend not to leave their family alone in crisis even when they are incapable of earning for even themselves. They dont need education, car, house or other amenities of a luxurious life . They preserve their precious smiles for their families while keeping sorrow and agony in their hearts.
We do feel accomplished by having all facets of a luxurious lifestyle, but could we contribute anything worthy to society and to our motherland in need? At least these Bangladeshis working outside are contributing to the nation by their painstaking and hard earning remittance, which is one of the major elements of our economic improvement.
Now the moot question is : Are we really acting as members of the elite who can be defined as real educated and socially responsible people while nurturing in our minds mainly materialistic ambitions?
These Bangladeshis in Malaysia should be the role models for us who actually are contributing to alleviate poverty by feeding their families in villages while also polishing our national economic profile. Where else could you find such real local heroes ?
The writer is PhD researcher, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
