‘Lu India, dia Cina, saya Bangla. Kita semua orang Malaysia’

Enterprising Bangladeshis are finding interesting ways to set up businesses in Malaysia and make a success of their lives far away from home.

COMMENT

I went to my usual marketplace yesterday to get some Loh Hon Go for my son’s chronic cough. When I got to the stall, the owner was busy with other customers, and summoned his stall assistant, a Bangladeshi, to attend to me.

“Ya kakak, apa mau?” he asked.

“Bagi Loh Hon Go 6 biji,” I said.

As he packed my order, I decided to grab some other things to fill my fridge with.

“Ini sepaket berapa?” I asked, pointing at a packet of Holland Peas.

“RM4.50. Ini dari China.”

“Cauliflower?”

“Ini sudah siap potong. RM6.90. Dari Malaysia punya.”

As I smiled at his replies, the stall assistant continued, “Ini jagung banyak manis. Dari Malaysia juga. Itu mushroom dari China. You pula dari India. Boss pula dari China.”

“Dia punya datuk nenek dari China. Saya punya datuk nenek dari India. Tapi sekarang kami semua orang Malaysia, kan boss?” the stall owner smiled and nodded after what I had said.

“Betul. Betul. You India. Dia Cina. Saya Bangladeshi. Tapi kita semua orang Malaysia.”

Err…what? Did he just claim to be a Malaysian? Not really knowing how to respond to that, I simply smiled, paid for my Loh Hon Go and made a move. However, the Bangladeshi’s statement kept playing on my mind.

While driving home, I remembered an incident not too long ago when I had to drive around town looking for fresh halal chicken. I ended up at a shop owned by a Bangladeshi man. While waiting at his shop for the freshly slaughtered chicken, we ended up chatting.

Curious as to how a foreigner could own a shop, I asked tonnes of questions and was delighted to have him answer them all quite openly.

According to him, his shop was registered under the name of a friend’s wife. His friend, a Bangladeshi had married a local Malay woman – together, they decided to ‘help’ other Bangladeshis struggling to make a living in the city. So this friend’s wife registers businesses on behalf of other Bangladeshi men. To repay her ‘kindness’, the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs make monthly contributions to her. And with these contributions, she and her husband in turn make a good living.

This is how many Bangladeshis end up owning restaurants, clothing shops, DVD shops and grocery shops in Malaysia.

With this background information I just remembered, I guess the stall assistant at the market did have a point when he said he, too, would be a Malaysian some day soon. Perhaps one day he would be able to open his own vegetable stall using the permit derived from some Malaysian citizen, rent a flat, purchase a motorbike, dress up nice like a Bollywood star and ‘ushar’ some local gals – and finally settle down as a spouse to a local woman.

And if his wife is agreeable, maybe he too can ‘help’ his countrymen secure businesses using her name and enjoy life making a monthly stipend while shaking his legs.

Ahh…Malaysia is surely Bolehland, even to the Bangladeshis!