In the viral case of Safiudeen Pakkeer Mohamed, who arrived in Malaysia last year from Tamil Nadu to work as cook, just to find himself homeless and abused outside of an AmBank branch in Taman Maluri, public anger focused on two dramatic moments — the sheer cruelty of a man being kicked and splashed with water, and the moral contrast of him later being rescued by Uncle Tony. But almost no one asked the most important question: how did he become homeless in the first place?
The answer, as revealed in his own words, is painfully simple. His passport and wages were withheld by his employer — a fact he himself reiterated when he explained that he could not return home because “his employer withheld his passport and wages.”
If he had his passport and a few hundred ringgit, he could have booked a budget airline ticket and returned to his home on his own. It is likely to prevent this possibility that his employers took away his passport and even his wages from him.
This is not an isolated story. It is a systemic and widespread practice in Malaysia, particularly within the migrant labour sector. The next time you walk into a restaurant staffed by foreign workers, ask them a simple question: “Do you have your passport with you?” Chances are, the answer will be “no”.
Why do Malaysian employers do this?
The answer is simple, because, at its core, many Malaysian employers operate with an exploitative mindset. .
By withholding passports, delaying wages, and keeping workers constantly in debt or without documentation, employers engineer a condition where workers have no escape. Without papers, they cannot work elsewhere. Without wages, they cannot survive. Without their passport, they cannot return home. The worker becomes fully dependent — a condition that employers deliberately maintain so that the imbalance of power remains absolute.
This is why Safiudeen, despite paying RM3,500 for a work permit and RM1,200 for healthcare, soon found himself unpaid, undocumented, helpless, and eventually homeless .
He had stopped going to work because he simply could not endure the exploitation anymore — but quitting meant he had no roof, no money, and no way home. His fate could easily have ended in tragedy had his mistreatment not gone viral, eventually leading to the return of his passport and his repatriation.
But Safiudeen’s “happy ending” is the exception.
Thousands — perhaps millions — of foreign workers in Malaysia continue to live under similar exploitative and lopsided conditions, protected only by luck, public sympathy, or the rare intervention of a good Samaritan like Uncle Tony.
His former employer if you notice, was also not penalized, for withholding his passport, although it is probably against the law to withhold the the personal identification document of a person without their consent. Instead, when confronted after the Safiudeen's case became viral, the employer merely returned his passport to him t, and the case has now been considered settled.
And the uncomfortable truth is this:
Exploitation is not confined to foreign workers.
It is woven into the Malaysian mindset.
Exploitation has become so dominant in the Malaysian mindset that it has become normalized, i.e, when we exploit anyone, we don't even think we are exploiting them - instead, we just assume it to be the way things are. Sometimes, we might even go to the extent of justifying it, with such excuses as it is not exploitation because we were treated the same way in the past, or that the exploitation is still worthwhile to the person or persons we exploited, because they are still better of with us exploiting them then they would have been on their own.
The way employers treat migrant workers is simply the most visible symptom of a deeper cultural problem — the belief that holding power entitles one to exploit, control, or extract from the other.
This mentality appears everywhere in our political and social landscape:
1. Party–Lawmaker Relationships
Take the cases where MPs or assemblymen are forced to remain with their party or face punitive fines running into the millions if they leave. This is not loyalty. It is economic blackmail — a one-sided relationship where one party imposes conditions entirely favourable to itself, at the expense of the other’s conscience or autonomy.
2. East Malaysia–West Malaysia Dynamics
For decades, Sabah and Sarawak have complained that their relationship with the federal government is fundamentally exploitative. They contribute resources, land, and labour, but the terms of their partnership remain lopsided. East Malaysian frustrations stem from the feeling that they are perpetually treated as junior partners and exploited in a federation that promises equality but delivers inequity.
3. Racial and Religious Relations
Minority races and faith groups in Malaysia often find themselves forced into a “take it or leave it” social contract — where the terms of coexistence are dictated by one group, and where fairness is always negotiable but obedience is not.
The message is simple: “This is how things are. Accept it, or face consequences.”
A Nation Skilled at Recognising Injustice — but Only When We Are the Victims
Malaysians are acutely aware when they are treated unfairly.
But when the tables turn, the same Malaysians who are very sensitive to injustice and exploitation, will easily become blind to the injustice they inflict on others.
The minority races and religious group in Malaysia for example, are acutely aware that their being treated in an unfair or exploitative manner by a more powerful group simply because they are in a state of disadvantage, but just because they are aware of it, it doesn't mean that they will not inflict the same injustice and exploitation on others when the tables are turned. The same group of people who complain about being treated unjustly and exploitatively by a more powerful group, will often treat a powerless or vulnerable group - like the foreign workers - in the same unjust and exploitative way, when they are in control or in power.
Often, in an absurd and comedic manner, they will even do it simultaneously - they will complain that they are being treated unfairly and exploitatively, while at same time exploiting and treating others unfairly.
This is why exploitation is so deeply rooted in our political, economic, and social systems.
It is not merely a behaviour. It is a mindset.
A mindset that colours our workplaces.
A mindset that shapes our politics.
A mindset that defines the relationship between our races, our states, and our institutions.
And until we admit this, nothing will change.
Two Choices for Malaysians
Once we recognise that exploitation is an integral part of the Malaysian landscape, we face a choice:
Option 1: Accept it cynically.
We can shrug our shoulders and say:
“In Malaysia, sometimes you exploit, and sometimes you get exploited.”
We can normalise it, live with it, and prepare ourselves to do unto others what has been done unto us.
Option 2: Confront it honestly.
We can reflect deeply on the social, political, and economic damage caused by this exploitative mentality, and ask ourselves whether this is the Malaysia we want to inherit — or the Malaysia we want to leave behind.
Because exploitation — whether of a migrant worker sleeping outside a bank, an MP coerced into obedience, a state denied fair treatment, or a minority group forced into submission — breeds only one thing:
Bitterness. Resentment. Division.
Malaysia can be better than this.
But only if we first admit who we are — and who we have allowed ourselves to become.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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