On May Day, Malaysian police raided homes and arrested hundreds of undocumented migrants in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19. Malaysia is a multicultural and multireligious society and home to more than two million documented migrant workers, between two and four million undocumented migrant workers, and more than 160,000 refugees. Successful governance during a pandemic requires that all residents be accounted for, regardless of their socioeconomic status or citizenship. Covid-19 is testing Malaysia’s governance capability, particularly among marginalized and undocumented migrant and refugee communities.
Foreign workers are arrested by the Malaysian Immigration Department during a raid in Kuala Lumpur in October 2018. (Photo: Hafiz Johari)
The first Covid-19 death in Malaysia, on March 17, was linked to an international tabligh gathering of 16,000 missionary “Jemaah Tabligh” activists. Jemaah Tabligh originates from India and is the largest Muslim missionary group in the world, with followers in more than 80 countries and from all socioeconomic backgrounds. The three-day gathering was held in the large Sri Petaling Jamek Mosque in Kuala Lumpur in late February. For almost a month afterwards, nearly half the cases in the country could be traced back to this event, which contributed to five generations of infections and four subclusters. And they were the ones that were traced and tested—it is likely there were more. The gathering facilitated the spread not only in Malaysia but also elsewhere. Of those attending the tabligh gathering, 1,500 came from other countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Australia, and Canada, causing international spillover. A number of Malaysian attendees continued onwards to Sulawesi and New Delhi to attend similar gatherings, continuing the subsequent spread elsewhere.
Yet there was more to the story. One of the hallmarks of the international tabligh movement is its efforts to recruit marginalized populations—the poor, refugees, and struggling migrant workers. The February gathering was attended by hundreds of Rohingya refugees and migrants, many of whom are undocumented and considered illegal immigrants in Malaysia. Many of the attendees lack access to healthcare or are unlikely to come forward for testing even where it is available, fearing detention or deportation if they do. The government’s inability to trace these attendees for texting and medical care has revealed cracks in Malaysia’s social welfare system.
Malaysia’s four million undocumented migrant workers and refugees have limited access to health or social welfare services. The pandemic is demonstrating the danger of these gaps, not only to these vulnerable communities, but also to the wider population.
Malaysia’s four million undocumented migrant workers and refugees have limited access to health or social welfare services and face additional barriers, including financial costs, if they have access at all. Many are not domiciled permanently; some reside in major cities and many in remote regions. Their living conditions are some of the poorest in the country, often overcrowded and lacking adequate sanitation. These communities are easy prey for misinformation and fear. The pandemic is demonstrating the danger these gaps in access and services pose, not only to these vulnerable communities, but also to the wider population.
Unfortunately, early attempts by the government to reach undocumented residents have resulted in some missteps and communication failures. On March 28, the government put measures in place to distribute food and supplies to poor and vulnerable communities through district collection centers, staffed by members of the People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA), a branch of the army. At the same time they placed a temporary blanket ban on relief NGOs providing food and support to the same communities.
The rationale was to restrict the spread of the virus through more efficient distribution of resources. It was apparent to many in the NGO community, however, that there was a danger of doing quite the opposite. In contrast to local NGOs and civil society organizations that were already working with and had an existing rapport with local, undocumented migrant communities, the presence of the army at distribution points was much more likely to intimidate those fearing arrest or deportation rather than encouraging their uptake of services.
Unfortunately, early attempts by the government to reach undocumented residents have resulted in some missteps and communication failures.
Unsurprisingly, the ban produced confusion and concern in the NGO community, and within a few days the government backtracked. The Welfare Department drew up new guidelines allowing for NGOs to continue distributing food and services to those in need, allowing the important work of more than 120 organizations such as Amal Relief and Kembara Kitchen to continue.
As a result, the government is now in much closer and more productive relationships with local NGOs such as Mercy Malaysia, which supports marginalized groups by providing medical services, and UNHCR, which coordinates with the Ministry of Health to ensure that all refugee and asylum-seeking communities are included in the government’s national response measures.
While the government’s willingness to provide food and basic goods signals a positive direction in its approach to supporting the vast undocumented community, it is yet to go further and facilitate access to health services, which will ultimately be necessary during a pandemic. Malaysia ties health screenings of those without legal status to immigration services. Healthcare professionals are bound by circular 10/2001, which requires doctors to report illegal immigrants seeking health services to the police and immigration authorities. This also gives license to authorities to detain the undocumented, as occurred on Friday. Policy directions that have been tossed around previously, such as a noncitizens’ health act, will take too long.
While the government’s willingness to provide food and basic goods to the vast undocumented community is a positive direction, it is yet to facilitate access to health services, which will ultimately be necessary during a pandemic.
As Malaysia starts to relax its lockdown, the temporary provision of healthcare benefits to migrants without the risk of arrest is urgently needed, even if only as a stop-gap measure for contact tracing. Over the longer term, inclusive, nondiscriminatory strategies and policies, which build on the existing relationships of the nongovernment sector, are essential to finding a sustainable solution for the millions in the community who fall between the cracks of the system.
This article is copublished with the Devpolicy Blog as part of the #Covid-19 and Asia series.
Natalie Shobana Ambrose is a consultant to The Asia Foundation in Malaysia. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Nepal’s 2015 earthquake took 9,000 lives in seconds. But beyond the immediate tragedy, the earthquake treated the economy rather gently. Yes, GDP growth in 2015–16 fell hard, to less than 1 percent, but in the next three years Nepal grew almost 7 percent per year. This year, too, Nepal was poised to exceed 6 percent. Minimum wages were going up, human development indicators were improving, and the incidence of poverty was decreasing. Then Covid-19 happened. The coronavirus has not yet caused any deaths in Nepal, but in less than 45 days the damage to the economy has been deep and growing deeper.
The coronavirus has not yet caused any deaths in Nepal, but in less than 45 days the damage to the economy has been deep and growing deeper.
The government ordered a lockdown, beginning at 6:00 a.m. on March 24, essentially banning all movements of citizens except to purchase food and other essentials. That left more than 4 million daily-wage workers and their employers with a single day to plan their next move. In those 24 hours, close to 200,000 domestic migrant workers left Kathmandu and surrounding areas for their homes elsewhere in Nepal. Weeks into the repeatedly extended lockdown, this movement could not be halted. As late as April 23, newspaper reports of migrant workers walking home were still pouring in from different parts of the country.
There were two main drivers of this exodus. First, fear of the epidemic itself—by the time the lockdown began, television screens and social media were abuzz with images of death and chaos from China, Italy, Spain, and New York City. The government of Nepal, for its part, never mounted an effective public information campaign to explain who was at greater risk and who was not, or how the disease would affect healthy, young adults—the main demographic in the daily-wage workforce. Workers were barraged with calls from their family and friends urging them to come home. Fear of disease and death and longing for the comfort of their families filled the minds of workers, who suddenly dropped what they were doing and started walking.
Fear of disease and death and longing for the comfort of their families filled the minds of workers, who suddenly dropped what they were doing and started walking.
A second driver of the mass exodus was uncertainty about when the epidemic would end. The initial lockdown was for seven days, with no guidance as to what would follow. Some workers nonetheless chose to hang back, even as the lockdown began on March 24. But that very evening, when India announced its own three-week lockdown, it became clear to both workers and their employers that the lockdown might not end soon. Many workers were trapped by this confusion. When they did start to walk home, the government chose to brutally clamp down on the walkers instead of facilitating their safe passage. Harassed by the police, stigmatized by communities along the way, and short of food and water, thousands have now reached the safety of their homes.
Four sectors of the economy generate most of the jobs for Nepal’s 4.4 million daily-wage workers: tourism, transportation, construction, and wholesale and retail. In a recent revision of the national accounts by the Central Bureau of Statistics, all four sectors were judged likely to contract this year, with tourism, in the lead, falling by as much as 16 percent. It is unlikely that Nepal’s tourism sector will pick up steam again before a reliable vaccine comes along. With tourism facing a long-term recession, demand in all other sectors has dipped precipitously. Only the construction sector, with 1.4 million daily-wage workers, can be revived through fiscal stimulus. All other sectors rely heavily on external rather than internal economic drivers. The revival of the construction sector, therefore, is the key to economic stability in Nepal going forward.
Reviving the construction sector will be the key to restoring economic stability in Nepal going forward. (Photo: Oliver Foerstner / Shutterstock.com)
A brand new study by The Asia Foundation for the World Bank in Nepal identified five conditions for the revival of the construction sector. First, the government must be able to contain the pandemic when the lockdown eases—an event currently scheduled for May 18—and international borders reopen for traffic. Second, social restrictions must relax enough to restore the construction supply chain within two to four weeks after the lockdown ends. Third, the government must act decisively to forestall the contractual disputes that will certainly arise from the sudden disruption in construction, so that economic activity in the sector can recover. Fourth, the relief and welfare system must prevent widespread hunger and rural distress. And fifth, the FY 2021 budget must significantly increase allocations to the construction sector.
The uncertainties surrounding the pandemic will make it difficult to meet all five of these challenges in a timely manner, yet failing to do so could completely reverse the gains of the last four years, particularly on the poverty front. For Nepal’s poor, the sudden loss of 1.4 million low-threshold, informal jobs in the construction sector, compounding the losses in tourism, transportation, and wholesale and retail, would be devastating. For the 18 percent of Nepalis who already lived under the poverty line, the post-Covid-19 picture looks particularly grim.
Only the construction sector, with 1.4 million daily-wage workers, can be revived through fiscal stimulus. All other sectors rely heavily on external rather than internal economic drivers.
The report also points to three political developments in Nepal’s Covid-19 response that may have longer-term consequences for the country. First, in response to the crisis, the government has rapidly centralized all decision-making powers. A high-level committee headed by the deputy prime minister with a few senior ministers has now assumed all responsibilities for pandemic response. This has severely undercut the ability of Nepal’s provincial and local governments to address local problems as they arise. This centralized decision-making is bound to create inefficiencies when Nepal begins opening up.
Second, there appears to be a general apathy among decision-makers in Kathmandu towards the plight of the poor. The “one-week” lockdown has now lasted for 50 days and counting, and it has wiped out over 90 percent of informal, daily-wage jobs. Yet even a moderate easing of the lockdown doesn’t seem to be forthcoming, despite the fact that Nepal has had fewer than 100 cases of Covid-19 and has no functioning welfare system to speak of. For the poorest households, informal, daily-wage jobs are a vital source of income during household crises. Women escaping abusive men, farmers seeking some extra cash to buy fertilizer, single mothers working a few days a month to feed their children—all such possibilities have now been shut out. This will drive many more households back into poverty.
Third, the political will to combat the stigma of infection and misinformation has been missing. Newspapers have reported villagers blocking roads and bridges to prevent migrants from returning to their villages. When a cluster of 23 new cases of the disease was identified in the western town of Nepalgunj, small neighborhoods took matters into their own hands and started building barricades and forming vigilante groups. The local administration tried to contain such reactions, but with limited success, and it has become clear that without serious political messaging these tendencies will not be curbed. If fear and stigma spread unchecked, it will be even more difficult to resume economic activities when the pandemic diminishes.
Nepal’s economic woes are not unique among low-income countries, but the nation does have its own social and political context, within which the actions and attitudes of political leadership, the choice of infection-control measures, and the efficiency of the mechanisms of government will have an outsized impact on its progress out of poverty. To all appearances, Nepal has already lost precious ground in its ability to protect the poor. From this point on, each mistake is likely to be costlier than the one before.
Sagar Prasai is a senior advisor to The Asia Foundation and formerly the Foundation’s country representative in India and deputy country representative in Nepal. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Covid-19 is hitting Southeast Asia hard. Women, young people, low-wage workers, and the underemployed have been devastated. Mom-and-pop small businesses, particularly traditional handicrafts and small-scale trading and tourism, were under financial pressures long before Covid-19. As other enterprises move online to survive, can Southeast Asia’s microentrepreneurs compete without digital tools? It will be a challenge.
Economic shocks like this reverberate, and traditional supply chains break. This is especially true for the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that are the lynchpin of Southeast Asia. MSMEs account for 99 percent of businesses in several key sectors, employ 80 percent of the workforce, and contribute 50 percent of the region’s GDP. The tourism sector, with millions working as tour guides, drivers, and handicraft makers, accounts for more than 20 percent of GDP in Thailand and the Philippines. Travel bans, especially from China, the region’s largest source of inbound tourism, have sent this vital industry into free fall.
MSMEs account for 99 percent of businesses in several key sectors, employ 80 percent of the workforce, and contribute 50 percent of the region’s GDP.
As the world’s fifth-largest economy, the ten member states of ASEAN are moving towards greater economic integration yet are severely constrained by a growing digital divide—now more pressing in this global crisis. Easy access to computers, online mobile platforms, and social media and the skills and training needed to use these tools to reach markets and participate in the gig economy are not ubiquitous across the region. While many men in urban hubs are connected, women and youth in rural communities are trapped on the fringes of the digital economy. This divide between the under-connected and the hyper-digitalized will only deepen during the pandemic, exacerbating inequalities and sapping the potential for recovery and growth.
As we confront Covid-19, the only way to ensure an inclusive economic recovery is to rapidly equip these microentrepreneurs and informal workers to secure a foothold in the digital economy. Here are three critical actions so microbusinesses will not just survive, but thrive:
Mobilize digital tools now. Digital technologies can no longer be tools of the elite or those in urban hubs. To weather the coronavirus crisis, small enterprises must expand and gain access to markets beyond their own communities. In a March Covid-19 communique, ASEAN economic ministers called for digital trade and technologies to keep businesses operating, especially MSMEs.
The divide between the under-connected and the hyper-digitalized will only deepen during the pandemic.
In most parts of Southeast Asia, the tools and connections are already there. Smartphone usage is high for the region’s 400 million internet users, and most households have more than one mobile phone, but they use them primarily for entertainment and personal communications. In Cambodia, we surveyed 180 microentrepreneurs; while all had access to the internet and could call or text without assistance, half of those polled needed help to download apps, set up accounts, or use online banking. Now, mobile phones must become tools for doing business, and gaps in digital literacy, access, and training must be addressed.
Deploy civil society. As governments respond to Covid-19 with support for major companies and industries, who is meeting the needs of microbusinesses, women, and underserved populations? In rural Cambodia, for example, a female entrepreneur single-handedly supports her family by selling traditional clothing. Now, as travel restrictions make business more difficult, she needs to connect with customers in new ways to preserve her livelihood and keep her family from destitution.
Local nonprofit organizations, such as STAR Kampuchea in Cambodia, with deep reservoirs of experience working in their communities, can bridge the digital gap and quickly reach microentrepreneurs with training and business-development support in local languages and specific to the needs on the ground. Community-led approaches and nascent online communities will make a real difference in reaching those on the “wrong side” of the digital divide.
With economies temporarily crippled across the globe, digital literacy training can salvage the incredible untapped power and potential of MSMEs.
Activate partnerships and platforms. In Southeast Asia, governments, businesses, and NGOs must pool their resources and experience to shrink the digital divide. For example, in one initiative, Go Digital ASEAN, The Asia Foundation is supported by Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, to train up to 200,000 people in marginalized communities across the region, 60 percent women. Another example of digital collaboration is ThailandLearning.org, supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Embassy in Thailand, which delivers educational tools and resources to Thai students and educators affected by school closures.
Technology has opened so many doors and empowered hundreds of millions of people, and many more are eager and ready to join ASEAN’s digital revolution. With economies temporarily crippled across the globe, digital literacy training can salvage this incredible untapped power and potential of MSMEs. Now is the time to get everyone on the right side of the digital divide.
Meloney Lindberg is The Asia Foundation’s country representative in Cambodia. She can be reached at [email protected]. Eelynn Sim is The Asia Foundation’s director of Global Communications. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Cambodia’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 occurred in late January. With a second case in early March in Siem Reap Province, home of the renowned temples of Angkor Wat, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS), in an abundance of caution, closed the schools until further notice.
Education in Cambodia ground to a halt, or so one might have imagined, but the MoEYS quickly found creative ways to promote learning outside the traditional school setting. The ministry worked with private companies to launch a new e-learning initiative. Lessons for students in grades one through 12 were prerecorded and offered online through the ministry’s Facebook page, YouTube channel, and e-learning website.
Nurturing children’s creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking is just as important as academic lesson plans.
With schools closed, the responsibility for teaching has now shifted from teachers to families. While the online lessons from the MoEYS are vital to keep kids on track during this enforced hiatus, they are not enough: nurturing children’s creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking is just as important as academic lesson plans. The new routines are stressful for both children and parents, but sheltering at home can also be an ideal time to help kids develop positive learning habits.
The MoEYS’s e-learning initiative came just a few days after the national #ReadEveryDay campaign, in which The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read project joined forces with the MoEYS, telecom provider Smart Axiata, and 11 NGOs to promote a weeklong read-aloud event. #ReadEveryDay released 10 videos with tips for reading aloud, to encourage parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians to spend quality time reading with children and students. The campaign, which had hoped for 100,000 participants, succeeded far beyond its expectations, reaching more than 220,000 children throughout Cambodia,
Reading is a cornerstone of critical thinking that encourages curiosity and creativity.
As MoEYS moves to online learning, Let’s Read is pivoting to provide support for reading at home.
Reading is a cornerstone of critical thinking that encourages curiosity and creativity. One study, which relied on functional magnetic resonance imaging, found that reading picture books to young children creates mental connections far more complex than words alone or animated videos. The authors suggested that the combination of spoken words and illustrations allowed children to create a richer image of the story in their own minds, encouraging imagination and creative thinking.
Reading aloud helps children absorb new information, new vocabulary, and new ways of thinking. It helps them develop better comprehension, form bonds with caregivers and teachers, and learn empathy by making sense of other people’s feelings and emotions.
It can also strengthen the bonds between parents and children during this stressful time. Youngsters suddenly stuck at home by the pandemic may find it hard to express the anxiety and unfamiliar emotions that come with these sudden changes to their familiar routines, and reading aloud can create a space for families to start conversations and discuss their fears and concerns.
Let’s Read is now supporting MoEYS’s e-learning initiatives during the pandemic with the #LetsReadAtHome campaign, which provides essential learning materials in Khmer, English, and nearly 30 other languages. The Let’s Read digital library offers books that are relevant to the lives of young Cambodians and that challenge readers to use their imaginations to explore new places and ideas. It will be providing free resources to children, teachers, caregivers, and family members who need children’s storybooks to read aloud.
The pandemic won’t last forever. The Asia Foundation is working to ensure that children can continue to learn and grow while they stay safe and healthy at home.
Sornnimul Khut is senior digital program officer and Chansomey Chheang is a program officer for The Asia Foundation in Cambodia. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Located in the Indian Ocean, to the southwest of Sri Lanka and India, the Maldives is an archipelago that is well known for its beautiful beaches, oceans, and resorts. With a population of less than half a million, the Maldives is the smallest country in Asia and one of the most geographically dispersed.
Connected by a network of ferries, the 200 inhabited islands in the Maldives are spread out over 35,000 square miles, making it an ideal place to promote the use of online reading. (Photo: Joel Jeyanathan / The Asia Foundation)
Although the Maldives has several dialects, Dhivehi, the national language, is spoken throughout the country. As a popular tourist destination, the Maldives attracts many visitors from across the globe, and English has also become a popular medium of communication at resorts and other attractions.
Once considered a minority language, English today is one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. The introduction of English as the primary language in schools played a key role in promoting its use. Currently, all classes in Maldivian schools are taught in English except for Dhivehi-language classes. Immersed in English from a young age, students are mastering the language quickly. While English has become dominant in official places and schools, however, Dhivehi is still used in many Maldivian homes, and elderly people in particular use Dhivehi in their daily lives.
For three decades, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia has provided English-language books and journals to educational and research institutions, community and government libraries, and students at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. With the declining use of Dhivehi, particularly among the younger generation, and the lack of Dhivehi-language reading materials, protecting and preserving the Maldives’ linguistic heritage has come to be seen as a matter of national importance, and the Foundation has received many requests from partners in the Maldives to provide more children’s books in Dhivehi.
The first Let’s Read Translation Event underway at the Maldives National University
In February 2020, Books for Asia introduced the Let’s Read program to the Maldives with the initial aim of translating 60 children’s books into Dhivehi. The first “Let’s Read Dhivehi” translation event, a partnership with the National University of Maldives, the National Institute of Education, and the Dhivehi Academy, was attended by the first lady of the Maldives; the education minister; the minister for arts, culture, and heritage; and a number of state ministers and education leaders. The program has now advanced from donating printed materials to providing free, online access to original children’s books on the Let’s Read platform. These books can be accessed through the Let’s Read website or app.
For the next phase of the program, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the National University of Maldives, will bring together translators and editors to provide high-quality Dhivehi translations of English-language books. The program will also bring together Maldivian authors and illustrators to develop original Dhivehi content, with the aim of publishing original children’s books in Dhivehi in the future.
