Recognizing Our Privilege By Understanding Those Who Don’t Have It

by Najiha Puteri

---

As you may have heard from Humanitarian Wing, “Project Meraki” is a student-initiated overseas project where volunteers go overseas to Kuala Lumpur to visit three Refugee Schools for volunteer work. As accommodation and meal expenses are heavily covered by generous grants by the university and our own fundraising efforts around campus, it is a great opportunity for us to understand first-hand about the situation of the community- as we get to experience for ourselves interacting with a community where they are not granted citizenship and rights that come with it.

POLITICAL : One of the most persecuted refugees in the world are the Rohingyas. These are minority groups originated from predominantly Buddhist, Myanmar, and the state’s mistreatment has led them to forms of genocide, killings or even persecution. Because of this, Rohingyas are generally being taken in by Southeast Asian countries nearby, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. As humanitarian as it is to take in stranded Rohingyas on a boat as they were removed off their own home, we cannot be very certain that these states are willing to take them in in the long run. In Thailand, their border would be heavily protected by insurgents. They watch over the new arrivals of these refugees, almost as if there is a reluctance in bringing them in.

EXPERIENCE: As I used to be part of the Humanitarian Wing, some of my team members and I visited the three Myanmar Refugee schools for Project Meraki. We spent most of our weekdays interacting with the kids ages from 5-18, a very huge range of kids. On Saturdays we brought them outdoors games to introduce them to Robotics for the pre-teens. We also taught them basic hygiene such as brushing their teeth for all, and like any other stereotypical Singaporean teacher would do – reinforce rules and set instructions on what to do and what not to do in a classroom environment (picture of poster)
It was a great to see the energy we see in the kids whenever we came over. As a tutor, there was a certain deference they paid to me simply because of the age gap, and being a tutor person at Primary level math, science and English it was definitely helpful. It was great working closely with my team and with the kids, their parents and the whole community even for a short period of time.
My job as a translator for the team and kids was the most challenging. However, it really did give me the chance to understand where these refugees were coming from knowing that they spoke Malay like I do. I think some students that caught my attention the most was the way they talked down on some of the girls, and teenage boys would ask some of us how old we are, and some follow up questions relating to marriage.

CULTURAL : There’s not enough empathy on both sides of the community – to appreciate their own womenfolk even whilst being domesticated and financially dependent, and there are also many factors to consider when it comes to my observations – it is limited to what I have seen, what I have heard from Rohingyan women and the general impression that I have… Personal trips with them by taking them out to the mall, eating at cafe and watching Spidermovie – there were some instances where even the sight of the boys walking in to store invited a lot of glares and stares from the workers there. One time, two of my colleagues, went out with two of the refugee boys we used to teach – 18 and 13 respectively.
Across all three schools that I visited – I notice there is a strong tendency to use the rattan cane as a physical form of punishment for the kids. Bad behavior is usually corrected by the headteacher (regardless of gender). That was quite unsettling – after hearing my team members describing how they witnessed it while they were tutoring them in class.

PERSONAL:
In summary, I find it quite difficult to understand the situation with the Rohingyan community – the cultural side of things, especially where it aligns their women differently from men and the domestication of women to stay in their homes (safety are exceptional cases). I know of that issue by the refugees I visited are likely going through a lot of problems in their community, from domestic abuse, to children not attending school and early child marriages. In one of the schools I visited, the head teacher always told me that sometimes even parents think that education shouldn’t be much of a priority, because they are in-transit. This means that they know that they are living in Malaysia temporarily, hence once they resettled they would have to give up their studies. So therefore they don’t wish to spend on something that won’t be followed up in the coming years.
I remembered in one kindergarten school, where the headteacher, who runs the school on her own with girls, once they have reached puberty, marked by their first menstruation would mean they would have to be removed from school and get themselves married off. It was very telling in terms of their attitudes towards their womenfolk, and the questions I was asked by the teenagers’ boys in class about my marital status at 22 years of age already spoke volumes about how they’ve seen me.
As they are Muslims themselves, a part of me resonated with them – as if we do belong in the same community – though I would say I am privileged, in a way where communities are generally supported by government, we have self-funding organizations that support young children with mentors, awards for doing well in and outside of school, and giving recognition to minorities despite the systematic limitations that comes from being a minority. It’s not perfect, but in comparison to another Rohingyan refugee who’s 23 like, because of her status of lack of citizenship it puts her in a different type of situation – where such opportunities may be limited. However, this can change by several ideas that could be a way to start things off.
1) Teaching the basic fundamentals – English
2) Using English to learn the Internet, Google Translate
3) Freelance jobs to work from home using Wifi
4) Successful business likes PichaEats as a great way for refugee women to make food and earn an income through consumer purchases

Whatever is mentioned here are some of my own personal observations throughout the Meraki trip with other Humanitarian Wing team members this year and last year. I think the issues within the community that I visited had their own set of problems, which are complex in nature, because their refugee status and their culture is like an ecosystem that’s hard to really figure it out. Fortunately, there have been generous donors who are providing monthly contributions to the 3 main schools we visited, in order to pay their bills. My personal stand on this is that there are many people out there who needs our helps in providing solutions to a list of problems they face. Money can solve a lot of problems, but sometimes, as a person who is enjoying a lot of priveleges from simply being Singaporean, we can also offer practical help when in need – we just need to recognize them as people deserving of citizenships like you and me, and offer them a way to make their lives easier and smoother while they are waiting for a new country to call it their homes.

Some links:
https://www.facebook.com/AlIkhlasHopeSociety/
https://www.facebook.com/SfTomorrowKL/
http://e-lluminate.my/blog/projects/matu-social-organisation-mso-school/