There is a peculiar arrogance among Malaysians. We look at the Myanmar refugee, the Filipino domestic helper and the foreign construction worker and somehow convince ourselves that their misfortunes could never become ours.
What makes us so certain that Malaysia cannot suffer the same fate?
Perhaps we should study the histories of Myanmar and the Philippines before congratulating ourselves on how fortunate we are.
In the 1950s, the Philippines was one of Asia's more prosperous developing economies. Its per capita income was higher than South Korea's and Thailand's. Manila was a thriving commercial and cultural centre, with established universities and an educated, English-speaking population.
Burma, as Myanmar was then known, possessed vast agricultural wealth, oil, timber and minerals. Before the Second World War, it was one of the world's leading rice exporters. Rangoon University was among Southeast Asia's most respected institutions, producing distinguished scholars, doctors and political leaders.
Even Arakan, now Rakhine State, once possessed flourishing kingdoms that attracted merchants, scholars and religious thinkers from across Asia. Today, we associate the region with persecution, poverty and desperate refugees.
What happened?
In Burma, General Ne Win's military dictatorship nationalised businesses, destroyed private enterprise and isolated the economy. In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. presided over a system of cronyism, corruption and political patronage that helped cripple the economy.
Two countries with extraordinary potential saw decades of opportunity squandered.
I have spent nearly four decades documenting Myanmar, beginning in 1987. During the years of military rule, I often entered quietly with two small cameras and fifty rolls of film. I listened to elderly Burmese recount the days when Rangoon was a sophisticated city of universities, cinemas, bookshops, hospitals and thriving businesses.
Many had known prosperity. They had watched their country being systematically dismantled by those entrusted with governing it.
The tragedy of Myanmar is not that its people were always poor. It is that generations were impoverished by the decisions of their rulers.
Now look at Malaysia.
We have oil, gas, palm oil, timber and minerals. Yet we behave as though these resources are inexhaustible.
We have normalised corruption to the point where billions can disappear and the public barely raises an eyebrow. The 1MDB scandal alone involved more than US$4.5 billion allegedly misappropriated from a fund intended for national development.
Imagine how many schools, hospitals and public facilities that money could have built.
And 1MDB is hardly our only scandal. Inflated contracts, political patronage, procurement irregularities and the systematic exploitation of our natural resources have become depressingly familiar.
Our forests are disappearing, rivers are polluted, indigenous lands are being taken away, and we continue fighting over race and religion while others quietly accumulate wealth.
A country cannot keep plundering its natural resources, stealing from its people and expect prosperity to last forever.
The Philippines and Myanmar should serve as warnings. Nations do not necessarily become poor overnight. Their decline often begins when corruption becomes acceptable, institutions are weakened and political survival matters more than the welfare of the people.
And when the economy eventually fails, it is seldom the politicians and their wealthy associates who suffer. They have their money, properties and escape routes.
It is ordinary people who pay the price.
Today, millions of Filipinos work abroad as domestic helpers, nurses and labourers. Myanmar nationals toil in factories, restaurants and construction sites across Southeast Asia. Countless others have fled war and persecution.
These are not inferior people. Many come from educated families and communities with proud histories. Circumstances beyond their control have forced them to leave their homeland.
Yet some Malaysians treat them with contempt, as though poverty were a personal failing.
Have we ever considered that one day our own children might be cleaning houses, laying bricks and washing dishes in countries more prosperous than ours?
There is no shame in honest work. The shame lies in allowing a country blessed with enormous wealth and potential to be impoverished by greed, corruption and mismanagement.
I have met enough refugees from Myanmar to understand that nobody willingly abandons their home, family and country unless circumstances have become unbearable.
Before we look down upon them, we should remember that they too once had homes, livelihoods, dreams and a future.
The distance between prosperity and desperation is far shorter than most Malaysians imagine.
If we continue tolerating corruption and allowing our national wealth to be squandered, our children may one day pay a terrible price for our complacency.
And when they find themselves working in foreign lands, separated from their families and treated as second-class human beings, they will have every right to ask why we allowed their inheritance to be stolen.
We have seen what happened to Myanmar. We have seen what happened to the Philippines. We cannot claim we were never warned.
The people we look down upon today could be our own children tomorrow.
SC Shekar
8th October 2026
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