Resource contributed by: Alfian Sa’at

Alfian Sa’at, Cook A Pot of Curry, W!LD RICE, 2013

“It’s not win-win for everyone,” Jolovan, 30, Social Worker

My family, we’re a typical middle class family
Got maid at home one lah.
So my mum is the sort that cannot live without a maid.
And ever since I was young, primary one until now
I’ve always had a domestic worker in the house.
And it used to bother me when
Say when my mum decides that my domestic worker
Deserves to have one day off a month
And then her friends will complain
They say wah lao, why you spoil market?
Because it’s a very simple equation.
If I don’t want to go to school every day
Why would I expect someone to work for us every day?

And sometimes the maids will get into arguments with my mum
About wanting to switch employers.
And sometimes my mum would get very angry, saying
No I won’t let you go, I will send you back.
So she will just threaten, and I used to get affected by that.
How come you got so much power ah?
To decide whether this woman can work in Singapore or not?
And I will tell my mum don’t do that, don’t send her back.
Don’t be so mean.

It was only when I started doing social work
That I got down and dirty.
And what I discovered truly shocked me lah.
Because being kind of like middle class Chinese
You kind of understand poverty exists
But you only understand it at an intellectual level.
You know these migrant workers come here
They’re probably not treated very well
But the reality of that treatment doesn’t sink in
Until you really talk to them
And journey with them through these struggles.

But when they started telling me their stories
And when I started accompanying them to meet employers
To meet agents, government officials
The kinds of obstacles and walls they run into
As they try to solve their problems
Made me very outraged lah.
Because you meet employers and agents
Who are damn fucking racist
And treated them like shit.

The first case that I took was this Bangladeshi worker
Who had only worked a couple of weeks and was then sent back
And I found out that he had paid 9000 dollars to come here.
And for somebody who had just come out of school
I don’t even have that in my bank account.
And this is someone from a third world country
Who has sold his possessions to come here
And now has this huge debt.
And I was thinking what is wrong with the society,
How do we allow such a thing to happen?

Why we’re so addicted to cheap labour?
It’s because we’re very happy to exploit people
For GDP growth.
Because we have very lax labour laws.
I’ve seen Bangladeshi workers
Doing work in the shipyard, in construction
Who are paid 1.50 an hour.
You always see the rankings where
Singapore is supposedly one of the most
Business friendly countries in the world.
But it’s really nothing to be proud of
When business-friendly means such
Gross exploitation.

We have a huge productivity crisis.
In fact, the construction industry has one of the worst productivity levels.
And it’s not surprising that construction is also
Where some of the worst forms of exploitation take place.
So there is a link between productivity and exploitation.
For me it’s common sense.
You treat your workers like shit,
Then of course they won’t be motivated.
It’ll be like army style lah.
Just do the minimum.

Although I work with migrant workers
I am not in favour of this temporary migration strategy
Why?

Firstly because it can tear families apart.
Reintegration becomes a problem.
I’ve seen domestic workers who’ve worked here so long
And when they go back the children don’t recognize them.
I don’t think that’s healthy.
And it also becomes an excuse
For the governments of the sending country not to develop
A sustainable economic policy for their own people.
That’s what countries like the Philippines
And Bangladesh are doing.
They are addicted to the labour export regime,
While Singapore is addicted to the labour import regime.
It’s two drug addicts
Locked in what they like to call
A win-win situation.

But it’s not win-win for everyone.
Because the people who stand to lose
Are the workers.