In this Q&A, Pacifist Farooq, a Rohingya poet from Myanmar who now teaches in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, speaks to DVB about education, detention fears, and why Malaysia’s new refugee registration system leaves his community both hopeful and uncertain.
Guest contributor
Seán Donal Barry
DVB: You’re originally from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Could you give us some background on how you came to Kuala Lumpur, and how you ended up working as a teacher at a community-run school in Malaysia?
PF: I came here in October, 2024. For the first few months, it was very hard for me. I didn’t have any documentation, and had no work. It was very hard even to get a room. If you don’t have work, it’s really hard to survive here as a refugee. The pressure of being undocumented is very heavy because you can be arrested at any time.
But I was very fortunate that I got the UNHCR card early. There are so many people from the Rohingya community that have been here for five years, six years, seven years – even ten years. They haven’t yet got their UNHCR card. My case is a little bit different from others.
I got the opportunity to go to school when I was in Myanmar. I can speak English. I got the [UNHCR] card early. Most of my community members didn’t have the opportunity to go to school, or to be able to speak English. For them it’s much harder.
In Myanmar, I taught for one year. When the genocidal operation against the Rohingya happened, I had to flee. I was forced to flee to Bangladesh. There, I began working with NGOs and human rights organizations. I was teaching at the same time at a community-based school.
After I came here, I became a member of PEN Malaysia, because I’m a writer. It’s an association for writers based in Malaysia. PEN Malaysia helped me a lot to get the UNHCR card, and with some other things as well. This is why my life has been a little bit easier because of their help. Otherwise, it would have been much harder.
Because I had the experience in teaching, luckily I got the chance with a local organization which works with refugees. Last year I was teaching part time, but this year I will be teaching full time.
DVB: Why did you decide to get involved in teaching?
PF: Being honest, I don’t like teaching – but teaching loves me. I like other work. But for me here I think this is the best thing that I can do for my community, because education is the backbone of a nation. If I’m not teaching, and if others are also not teaching, then who will? Who will educate them?
DVB: How important are NGO or community-run schools in Malaysia?
PF: In Malaysia, the government doesn’t take any responsibility when it comes to refugees. And they are not taking any responsibility regarding health care and education. So if people like me don’t contribute in this kind of field, then we might have a lost generation of Rohingya.
I believe in education. If we have education, then we can do something to improve our community – to develop our community. Right now, the Myanmar [military] regime doesn’t want us. They don’t want the Rohingya.
But if, individually, we become a doctor, a scientist, an engineer, a writer, then they will be willing to take us. This is also their loss, by prohibiting us for years. Because we can contribute to them, to the economy, to these people. That’s why I’m contributing in the way that I’m capable.
DVB: Were you aware of the legal situation for refugees in Malaysia before you arrived? Did it factor into your decision to leave?
PF: Before I came here, I didn’t know much about Malaysia, but I knew that it’s also hard to survive here. However, I didn’t come here happily, or to get a better life. I came here because I wasn’t safe in the Bangladesh refugee camp. That’s why I had to come here.
One of my friends, Muhammad Faisal, was teaching at the same school as me. He was living in camp four extension. Because of his work, some armed group killed him. He was brutally shot in the head.
I was threatened that I would be killed the same as he was. So I was really scared. I’m happy that I can at least sleep safely now – sleep without any threat or any fear that I will be killed. I’m happy that I’m alive.
DVB: What is your experience of the current political environment in Malaysia towards refugees and asylum seekers?
PF: Here in Malaysia, I think after 2019, we saw xenophobia, especially hatred against the Rohingya. In this case, the media played a huge role – saying immigrants and refugees were spreading coronavirus [COVID-19].
Since then, people are attacking refugees and immigrants. There are so many other refugees here in Malaysia – many thousands from other parts of Myanmar, and other countries as well. But they especially hate Rohingya, maybe because we belong to darker skin. Racism is something which plays into our minds. It is a generational problem.
Also, the immigration raids are happening very often. Even though I’m saying that I can stay safe, I might be arrested at any time. I got arrested, even with the UNHCR card, I have to go to detention for 14 days.
Here, where I stay, I think there’s not a single day that a raid is not happening. Even those who are living here with a refugee card are also in fear. And also, if he’s Rohingya he can end up in a detention center indefinitely.
Regarding work; the employer can abuse the employee because we don’t have the right to work here, and there are only specific job opportunities for the refugees. So in this case, life is very difficult here also. We can say comparatively a little bit better than Bangladesh.
DVB: Do you feel people understand that many Rohingya arriving to Malaysia have fled genocide, or does that context often get lost?
PF: What I’ve realized is that people don’t care whether you come from a genocide, or ethnic cleansing, or conflict. At first, the Malaysian people were very welcoming to the refugees and the Rohingya. But you know, sympathy doesn’t last long. The world works on give and take. I think it’s the same for other countries as well.
If we are given opportunities, then of course we can contribute to so many places. Research has suggested that in one year, if refugees were given the right to work, the Malaysian economy [would] get the benefit of 3 billion Malaysia Ringgit (MYR) per year.
I was born and raised in Myanmar, among a Buddhist society. I felt that, because I’m Muslim, I was persecuted, I was harassed, I was tortured. I thought that if I go to Muslim countries then maybe I might have a better life, or I might be respected.
After I went to Bangladesh, I realized, ah, it’s nothing to do with religion. The world just works on money, the world just works on what we can give and take.
So yeah, Malaysian people, I don’t know what happened – but, right now, they don’t care whether these people come from genocide or ethnic-cleansing, they just want all the refugees to leave Malaysia.
But of course, there are so many good Malaysians who are very supportive. They have supported me, and I’m very grateful to them.
DVB: How important has the UNHCR card been for you, and for Rohingya refugees more broadly?
PF: The UNHCR card is very important. It’s the most important thing for refugees I would say – especially for the Rohingya. If we get arrested, there’s no way to be released from jail. I think there are over 7,000 Rohingya refugees who have been detained for years. Some have been as long as five years, six years, seven years, eight years.
But for other refugees from Myanmar and as well as from other countries, if they get arrested, they can at least go to their home country. But for us, because the [regime] doesn’t accept the Rohingya, and doesn’t recognize us as citizens of Myanmar, we have nowhere to go.
But right now, they cannot provide the UNHCR card. I think it’s due to the shortage of their workers. Currently, there are very few people who are getting the UNHCR card. If we have the UNHCR card then at least we feel like we have a kind of safety. If we don’t even have that card, then it’s very hard.
DVB: What is the general feeling in the Rohingya community about the government’s proposed refugee registration system, the Dokumen Pendaftaran Pelarian?
PF: Generally, I think that especially Rohingya are very welcoming – that maybe whatever the government gives is better than an NGO’s document. If we get arrested right now with the UNHCR card, then they need to check documents, and they have to go through a process, and we have to stay there for one or two weeks.
But then people will not need to go to the detention center or to the police station once they see their document, and they can be released. I think the Rohingya people are very optimistic about something like this.
And as far as I know this card or registration will also give the Rohingya and the refugees some rights, like the right to work, and the right to education. But we will have to see.
We’re optimistic, and we’re also a little bit afraid. They will take all our bio-data and the details of where we will be, where we are staying. Then maybe, if they want, they can raid this place at any time. They would have more accurate information on where these refugees are living.
DVB: There has been renewed attention on dangerous sea journeys and trafficking networks from Bangladesh to Malaysia. From your perspective, how should people understand why these journeys are happening?
PF: I’m really aware of what’s happening to our community and I’m always observing what’s happening. For me, I see things from a different angle.
Before 2019, people were coming. Then it decreased. And after 2024, the number of people coming to Malaysia and Thailand increased again. We cannot always blame the smugglers, or the human traffickers.
We have to see what’s happening on the ground. We have to see what’s happening in [Arakan] and in Bangladesh. Why are these people fleeing?
People are talking and blaming the human traffickers and the smugglers, but no one is putting the blame on what’s happening on the ground by those who are committing the real crime on the ground, in Myanmar, where most of these people are coming from.
DVB: In 2023, you expressed in a poem that you wondered how global attention and sympathy towards Rohingya would materialise into a change in circumstances. Do you still wonder what becomes of global sympathy?
PF: The situation hasn’t changed. When I was young, I was very optimistic – maybe these people will come and do this and that. But now, when I see the situation of the world, I see that the phrase ‘human rights’ is just in their mouth, not in their heart. Human rights is just an illusion. It’s like a ghost – it exists, but it doesn’t.
So I don’t expect anything from anyone. The world just works on money. They don’t care about religion. They don’t care about race. They don’t care about their nation. As long as we can’t give anything to the world, they will not do anything for us.
Seán Donal Barry is an independent journalist covering Myanmar.
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