Skip to main content

Modern day slavery



During my service as a Labour Officer in Alor Setar, I encountered the complex problem of Kaki Bukit.


Kaki Bukit is a small town at the foothills of the border between Thailand and Malaysia. There is a small stretch of land between these borders which is commonly known as “No man’s land”. This is the route the smugglers used to bring in smuggled loot. The smugglers are usually pillion riders who pay a small fee to be passed to the border patrols on both states to enable them to carry out smuggling activities unhindered. From the Malaysian side one can access this land by going through hills and caves. 


On this piece of land some entrepreneurs had planted rubber trees. They engaged Thai and Malaysian workers to tap the produce. As it was in no man’s land, it appeared that the labour laws of both countries did not apply. Employees there were thus exploited to the fullest. They lived in temporary shacks erected by their employers and provided with sparse meals and illicit drinks instead of wages. The workers were generally in a stupor and did not realise that they were being exploited. They worked all days of the week except on rainy days when tapping was not possible. 


Most of the employees there were Tamils of Indian origin who did not possess any documents and were stateless. The Thai workers on the other hand were villagers living on the fringes of the estate who commuted to the smallholdings on motorbikes, completed their tasks and returned to their villages in the evenings.They were usually under the control of a local supervisor who was their employer. Their wages were handed down to the local supervisor who would exact a small amount for his efforts and hand over the balance as wages to them.


We advised the employers to be fair and pay the workers proper wages, but this advice went unheeded by the ruthless employers. Since it was no man’s land, we could not do much to help the workers there. 


Sadly most of them were in such a state of drunkenness that they could not understand they were being exploited.


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


Images are for illustrative purposes only, and are sourced from the web. Please drop us a note if you are the owner and wish to be credited.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first car

  After my Higher School Certificate examination, I was appointed as a labour officer. This job paid well enough that I could finally afford a car for work. It involved a fair amount of travelling, the allowances for which could well cover my petrol bills. This first car was a second hand Volkswagen 1200, reg. AF 1085 in white. However I had just learnt driving and was not confident in taking out the car for my duties. So for the first few weeks, a friend of mine agreed to be a co-driver while I learnt to drive in my neighbourhood.  Once I gained confidence, I told my friend that I was confident and he need not assist me while I drove around. The first day of independent driving, I reversed into a child’s tricycle. Fortunately the child had abandoned the bike in my driveway and went away to look for other pursuits that drew her attention. There was a dent to the rear of my vehicle    that would require some money to have it fixed back into its original shape.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pigeons always look for variety

One of my female pigeons left her nest and moved over to my neighbors pigeon Coop where she had taken a fancy for a male pigeon. I spoke to my neighbor and told him I shall trap my pigeon later that evening. But my neighbor like a budding lawyer told me “possession is 9/10th” of the law and since the pigeon was in his coop it is rightfully his. Now when I feed my pigeons I usually give a loud whistle for them to attend to their food. I told my brother to spray some green peas on the ground. My house was about 5 houses away from my neighbors where my pigeon had sought refuge with her boyfriend. When I gave a whistle my pigeon with 3 other pigeons left my neighbors coop to peck food at my coop. The neighbor was stunned seeing his 3 pigeons heading to my house. He mellowed and asked me to allow him to go over to my coop later in the evening to trap his birds. I used his same words and turned down his pleas despite his apologies. In the evening when the birds got into the coop I caught hol...
Post a Comment
Read more

SENIOR CITIZENS AND THE QR CODE

Age is certainly catching up for me and my friends of my generation. Technology is moving fast and I find we are no longer able to fit into the fast paced modern age. The other day Ben, my friend and I set out to Bukit Damansara to meet up with an Investment banker. Both of us are retirees. I am in the 80's while Ben is a lot younger. We have been residents of KL for a long time, used to Pusat Bandar Damansara area as we had worked in that area many years ago. We decided to take a Grab to go to Bukit Damansara. As we got into the car and buckled up with the safety belt, the driver told us to scan the QR code a small piece of plastic stuck to each side of the window. It took some effort as the sticker was slightly bigger than a postage stamp while we are used to a big placard attached to the back of the front seat. It was quite a challenge to scan it as the car was in motion through some humps and bumps. To our surprise Pusat Bandar Damansara wasn't the place we knew. Our office...
1 comment
Read more