How to help Appois in our midst

It was a quiet beginning: a deafening silence.

I am left to confront the stunning visual of a battered, bruised spirit aged by the grievances of social injustice.

Looking at 12-year-old Appoi’s eyes, one can tell his piercing stare symbolises the sort of defiance that is borne out frustration and anger towards an unfavourable situation.

When Appoi is offered a cigarette, I began to feel a rush of anxiety and thought to myself, “Is he going to take it? Oh please don’t!” but before the answer was revealed, I am taken a few months back to witness the story leading to this moment.

It would appear hyperbolic to say that the movie I was watching left me breathless. But that is what Malaysian director, Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s film, Jagat, is – a compelling account of the plight faced by working-class Indians in Malaysia.

As much as Jagat focuses on the life of a rural poor Indian family, I find myself asking whether the case of poverty in Malaysia is really just an “Indian problem”.

Poverty is indeed a global problem that society is struggling to eradicate.

In a world that only talks about winning and losing, poverty is often known as the unfortunate side-effect of social Darwinism.

It is all about you and me, playing our cards with an animalistic intent in the survival of the fittest.

Such an idea is entrenched so deeply in the values of our society that we often find ourselves blaming the poor for staying poor.

With a heartless dismissal of their lamentations as excuses for not working hard enough and a persisting sense of entitlement, we neglect that it is far more complicated when trying to understand the lack of privilege granted to certain members of our society.

Because of this, those in poverty are often stigmatised as “untouchables” and seen as failures.

In the case of Malaysia, our view about poverty is also based on racial lenses.

It is inevitable for a nation that has taken a slippery slope towards apartheid with the preservation of race-based economics since British Malaya.

In a book by government official C.G. Warnford, this was oft-quoted:

“By nature, the Malay is an idler, the Chinaman is a thief, and the Indian is a drunkard. Yet, each in his special class of work is both cheap and efficient when properly supervised.”

Contemplating further, the tale of broken men in Jagat somewhat exemplifies this colonial narrative.

Buying into this rhetoric misconstrues our understanding of each other and we become less empathetic due to our own ignorance.

Simply because these men are attempting to escape from their suffering.  In the brink of desperation, they find themselves enslaved to ills, such as smoking, alcoholism and worse, gangsterism.

Yet, little do we realise that it is not necessarily cured by individual action. Rather, the way out is prohibited by a strange cyclical process determined by the level of accessibility a person has to improve his own standard of living.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen suggests that poverty needs to be understood from the concept of “capability deprivation”.

Hence, how do we reduce the “capability deprivation” that is experienced by the poor?

Based on what Appoi’s father attempted to prove, education is the ultimate way out of poverty.

However, we end up witnessing the sorry state of a traditionalist and rigid system that does not encourage and elevate a child’s personal sense of creativity and ambition.

Instead, it is morbidly killed through violence and no validation in an effort to keep everyone in line.

Is a reform of our education system enough? Of course, not. What we truly need is a complete overhaul of how we perceive poverty in society.

Starting with (a) stop romanticising poverty and (b) developing policies which are more rehabilitative than criminalising the poor.

Working poor is not a lifestyle choice and it does not take a special kind of genius to figure that out.

To think that being poor has its “benefits” because it is void of the stress of First-World problems and morality is shallow.

To romanticise poverty is to objectify someone based on his or her wealth.

It is to undermine and strip him of any sense of human dignity that observes simplicity from a reductionist point of view.

As much as we proclaim ourselves as a nation that is striving for economic progress, we are still far from addressing homelessness, which often accompanies poverty. Even with housing being reported as “severely affordable” and a growing concern for the rise of cost of living, we still have ministers who are telling us to work two jobs or to plant vegetables in our backyards.

Perhaps we ourselves are to blame, as we focus too much on the trivialities going on in the corridors of power, and so we distract ourselves from making the much-needed difference to problems on the ground.

On several occasions, we do not seem to take into account of having more compassion in the formulation of our public policies on welfare.

We need to introduce ways that are more inclusive and rehabilitative in nature, which would help reintegrate the poor into our society instead of leaving them behind economically and forcing them to resort to other means to survive.

It is no more a matter of colour but a shared belief in preserving individual liberty.

So, how can we stop Appoi from deciding to smoke the cigarette? Will we ever be able to vanquish the hate in his eyes with the promise of love and kindness?

With the New Year approaching, I hope each of one of us makes a resolution to bring awareness to the vicious cycle many go through in their daily lives.

It is not an easy road, but the first step is always the most important where a change in social attitude can set the right path. – December 31, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.