today i went to a refugee settlement which is situated in the jungles at the periphery of Putrajaya, our nation's administrative capital. the ride there was comfortable and the view of Putrajaya beautiful. along the highway, you either see beautiful administrative buildings, construction sites or green hills. but when the four wheel drive entered the jungle and went over the hills, what i saw was just simply shocking.
Just bloody shocking.
what i saw reminded me of the people i noticed on my journey from manipal to udupi. those of you are from manipal would know that im refering to the people who were living by the dumpsite. while there is no dumpsite at this settlement but the living conditions arent any better.
there are no houses. just make shift huts, if you can call them that, or tents tightly packed one after another. the wooden structure is just 30cm from the ground with no walls or nets and the roof is made up of plastic canvas or whatever waste material they could salvage from the construction sites. such living condition made them very vulnerable to dengue fever and malaria. and please bare in mind the fact that they have been living like tat for more than 5-6 years.
up to a year ago, there was no clean water supply, electricity or basic sanitation. needless to say, diarrhoea was a common thing then. only recently the NGO digged them a well and helped built a small water catchment area. since then the incidence of diarhoea among the community has decreased significantly. much can be done to keep the place cleaner. but without a proper waste disposal system, you can understand why the place is littered with plastics, papers and rubbish.
during our lunch break i had a chat with some of them. those who have been here for some time could speak fluent malay or english. their stories are the same as i've heard over the past week. they ran away from their homeland because of prosecution and financial diffulty. and then i got the usual story of policemen coming over to the settlement on a monthly basis asking stupid questions like "mana passport?" when they fully well know that these people are refugees. and the reason why the cops paid them the visit.........MONEY. and we are not talking about rm100-200 here. we are talking by the thousands. and each time they come, they not only solicit bribes from them but in some instances physically abuse them. and if they dont pay up they will be arrested and thrown into detention centers and deported back to their country. the people i talked to claimed that the community got so fed up with the constant harassment that their community leaders made a pact with the police superiors that they will pay a monthly fee to them and in return the police will not come and harass them in their settlement. so each member of the community have to surrender RM15 a month for 'protection.'
but the 'protection' is valid only if they stay within the settlement, which is of course impossible. they have to go out to work at the various constrution sites all over putrajaya. and work is from 9am till 10pm. if they were to be stopped by the police or other law enforcement agEncy, they would have to pay between RM1000-2000 per person. even you and me dont carry that much cash let alone a poor refugee. they told me there were cases (4 in total) where refugees were so desprate to evade capture by police that they tried to escape by jumping over a bridge resulting in their death. and this claim was substantiated by a press release i read over the internet by the International Secretariat of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
despite all the hardship and financial constraint the community, who are mainly Baptist, managed to pull their resources together to built a small simple wooden chapel that could fit at least 40-50 people where they have their weekly mass. the chapel also double up as a community center and a place where volunteer doctors examine and treat sick members of the community.
what i admire most about these guys are their spiritual strength may they be catholics, protestants, buddhists, hindus or muslims. i seriously believe if most of us were to be in the same boat as them, it will be hard not to have blamed God for all the difficulties. but these people are just SIMPLY AMAZING. there seems to be an undying glow of faith and trust in god. once i had lunch with them. me being the pig that i am, started pushing food into my mouth the moment the plate touced the table. but these people all took time to pray and gave thanks to god before eating. i felt really embaress bout it that i started to give thanks as well. they all started laughing when they saw me praying with half a chicken wing sticking out of my mouth.
their community spirit is so strong and inspiring. for example, not all members of the community will be employed. so those who are employed will do their part and support them financially until they receive employment. and if any one of the members is taken seriously ill, two or three will take leave from work to bring their sick friend to the NGO for medical treatment. it might look like a small thing to you and me but we are talking about forfeiting a day's wage which is alot for them. and also these guys are risking their own safety cause they run the risk of being arrested by the police and deported back to their country to face a certain doom.
they are just amazing. there is just so much we can learn from them.
1 comment:
thanks for bringing the third world to the first.
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