Janak Raj Sapkota: Those who exchange hearts in Malaysia

Those who exchange hearts in Malaysia

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Janak Raj Sapkota∕ Kuala Lumpur

17 September

When the sky is clear, Rajan Thapa, 37, stares towards Kula Lumpur from Genting Highlands, which is about 30 kilometers away from the Malaysian capital. For him, the mega towers of Kuala Lumpur are dwarfed by his own towering struggles. Rapid economic growth and neon-lights lit nights of the proud and prosperous city fails to illuminates his life.

Born in Gulmi of Nepal, Thapa has spent half of his youth in the highlands, shrouded in difficulties and misery. He has been working as a laborer in a small hill of Genting since the past 15 years. He misses his motherland and mother, of course, but the love for his mistress is strong enough to make him stay behind. He does not even have legal documents to return home even if he wants to.

Resigned to the confined life, he often does not have free time to wander off his mind. Like the roads in the hill, his life too is full of twists and turns – each road telling the story of betrayal, fraud and humiliation that he faced.

Thapa was only 21 when he entered Malaysia in 2002 with work visa. A few months after he started working, he failed the medical tests taken by his employer. But how could he fail the test in Malaysia which he passed in Nepal? He did not understand it, but he knew that he would be deported for failing the test.

And one night, he ran away from the company that was preparing to deport him. By taking the decision, he gave up his legal documents and identity the company had in its possession and became a target for the country’s law enforcement authorities.

After stranding around for a few days, he found a job as a security guard in a casino. However, he felt insecure as he constantly feared arrest by police due to his status as illegal immigrant. And so he set forth to a hill in Genting highlands where he rented two hectors land from a Chinese. He then built a small temporary bamboo hut wrapped with flex prints.

Thapa pays annual rent of 5,000 Malaysian Ringgit or about Nrs. 150,000 and grows seasonal vegetables like beans and chiliin the rented land. However, through bitter experiences, he has found that growing vegetables is risky and not always a reliable source of income.

Sharing an incident, he said he had a loss of about 3,000 Ringgit just a few days ago as heavy rainfalls completely destroyed the ripe beans. The profit and loss, however, does not get inside his head as much as the yearning to return home when his mother asks through telephone, “When are you returning home, son?”

He sometimes wonders how his village might have changed in the decade of his absence.“I do not know whether my mother’s face has wrinkled already. Even the memory of my dad is fading slowly,” Thapa shared. His father had passed away some years ago after he arrived in Malaysia. The pain of being unable to attend his funeral still makes him restless today.

His only solace is the love for an Indonesian girl, with whom he is in relationship since the past five years. Being alone made him yearn for companionship and that is where the girl, Dinda, comes in. “I’m always busy in farm from morning to evening. It made me wish that someone would help me. And when she came, I didn’t realize when I gave her my heart.”

He had just gotten married when he set for Malaysia 15 years ago, carrying big dreams and aspirations. Back home, his wife waited years for him. But two years after Thapa got in relationship with the Indonesian woman, she too left her in-laws’ home.

His mother tells him that he can bring home a woman of any nationality when he returns. She says she will accept her. However, Dinda does not want to go Nepal. And Thapa’s love for her has made him stuck in Genting highlands of the foreign country.

“Here, I earn about NRs 20,000 – NRs. 25,000 a month. What can I do if I return in Nepal? Even if I want, I do not have proper legal documents,” he sighed.

Thapa is not the only Nepali in Genting with such dilemma. Tika Ram Nepali, who has been living in Genting and rents over 50,000 lands for vegetable farming, said there are at least a dozen of Nepalese living in Genting, settled with Indonesian women. Majority of such people, however, do not plan to have babies.

Kintang Gale, who is originally from Nuwakot of Nepal, is another character – a victim of the similar circumstance. He entered Malaysia in 2005 after handing NRs. 150,000 to an ‘agent’ who promised him a good pay in a reputed furniture company in Malaysia. But after not getting the agreed amount of money in salary, he ran away from the company and ended up in many places of the country before settling down in Genting.

Gale has leased three hectors of land for farming and lives with an Indonesian woman. His family in Nepal does not know about his affairs. Back home, his wife is raising two children all by herself. He sends home money almost every month and calls his wife on alternate days. “We won’t earn this much money in the village. And how can we raise the children and send them to school without money?”

Many of those people do not use contraceptive. They fear going to the city to purchase contraceptives as they risk being arrested due to their illegal immigrant status. When women becomes pregnant, they have no choice but to abort, that too with the help of ‘agents’ who takes hefty commission for the service. They have to spend about 5,000 Ringgit in one abortion.

A Nepali, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said his Indonesian mistress aborted four times already. “Not only do I have to spend a huge amount of money, I also won’t be able to work for a few days to take care of the mistress after abortion.”

Genting highland is a home to many Nepalese living as illegal immigrant. Some of them shared dreams and aspirations of better life while others shared compulsion and regrets. But the shared twist of fate had led them there together. One Nepali’s story of how he got in Gentingis hardly any different from the one shared by others.

According to Nepali Embassy in Malaysia, as many as 485,000 Nepalese are working in the country. However, the number can easily reach up to around 7000,000 if those employees working illegally in Malaysia are added, informed the embassy.

Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, has recorded NRs 68.61 billion in remittance from Nepalese working in Malaysia during the fiscal year of 2016/017. The country is largely dependent on people like Thapa, whose sweat, pain and struggles of thrives the very economy of the country.

If asked when they plan to return home, their answer is the same: “If my expectations are met.” But none of them knows when their expectations would be met. The embassy occasionally brings programs to aid illegal immigrants to return to the home country. However, the information hardly reaches Nepalese living in remote parts of Genting. Even if it does, many cannot conjure the necessary documents.

Note: This reporting was originally published in Nepali language in Kantipur daily (https://www.kantipurdaily.com/news/2017/09/17/20170916203959.html)

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Janak Raj Sapkota

Those who exchange hearts in Malaysia

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