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Migran Juga Manusia (Poem & Annotation)

Updated: Nov 11, 2020

Written by Jane Law


The sky is leaden

Without the freckle of a single star in sight

The one ray of sunshine turns its back

Their lies are too many footsteps to be count


Across the border

Where life is better

Or at least, empty promises

Sealed with pretty kisses on counterfeit tickets


Your existence squeezed with 300 other men

Your back etched with bleeding rashes

Of the blood suckers breathing under hardwood floors

Disconnected from cut telephone lines and time


Water rusts hiding in the drooping pipelines

The air tastes like sewage

No blankets, no privacy

No privacy, no privacy


Bitter tears

A baby’s first word

Crawl out to their mom 

Reaching like vines charting to the other side of the block


On her knees

Mother begs

Coughing sickness

Still, she goes untreated


Father is beaten

Bruised and black

He used to believe in God

But not with his hands tied and stomach fed with kicks


Sister’s eyes saw the last light

Her purple lips trembled

As it touched an ice tray

Her voice was merely a cold-distant whisper


Brother is dirty

He wails, he’s upset

He feels his grip loosening

Day by day in this hole hounded by hounds


Welcome home!

How hungry have you been?

How cold is it?

How have we become like this?


A home is a home

Until the barbed wires come in

Suffocating the life out from their eyes

Its thorns prickled the one thing they prayed-

Freedom.


Art by Syarifah Nadhirah


Annotation:

Migran Juga Manusia, which means ‘Migrants are also Humans’ in Malay- the national language of Malaysia- is a campaign created in response to the cruel inequalities faced by migrants and refugees in Malaysia. This poem is based on this tweet, which shed light on how they are living under inhumane conditions in detention camps. I question, whether as a society, how can we turn our backs and look the other way when injustice is happening right in front of our eyes. Xenophobia is very prevalent in Malaysia. A lot of Malaysians are saying that migrants and refugees need to go back to ‘where they came from’ but they don’t understand that most of them have nowhere else to go. No one chose to be homeless, no one chose to run away from their country if it’s safe in the first place and most importantly, no one should be labelled ‘illegal’. Where is our humanity? Where is our compassion? We can do better. We SHOULD do better.


 

About the Author

Jane Law is a journalism student in Malaysia who is passionate about all things writing, activism, films, and cats. A strong believer in female and youth empowerment, she aspires to be an inspiring change to those around her and she hopes to make a small difference to the world through her writing- be it encouraging the stifled voices to speak up against the wrongs in society or sparking democratic

conversations in the public. If she is not watching Gone Girl

for the fifth time in the row or slurping ramen noodles at the

corner of her room, you can find her reading, painting or

jamming to Hozier and Lorde tunes while bragging how she

have managed to fail in Math even though she’s a certified

Asian.


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