Legal ways of becoming illegal

There are between 400,000 to 1.2 million undocumented migrant workers in Malaysia (according to different sources), which has been a matter of great concern to the government for the past half a year. First, all such workers were allowed to leave the country without any consequences. Nearly one third of foreign workers left. Those who could not, or did not want to leave Malaysia within the so called amnesty program, have become pray to zealous immigration officers and voluntary militia-men, and caused loud public disapproval. Every day, Malaysian media publishes dozens of sweeping articles about generosity and fairness of Malaysian immigration authorities, incompetence of Indonesian state to handle matters, cunning and maliciousness of 'illegals',and sufferings of ordinary Malaysian people.

I took the courage of contributing my opinion to the never-ending discussion, although under a super-secret pseudonym, and surprisingly, my article got published in the only uncensored independent on-line newspaper in the country - Malaysiakini.com. I have to confess that it was mercilessly butchered and lost some of its spiciness and meaning, which is why I'm publishing the original article on my own homepage.

You can see my other articles, stories and pictures here: http://lakhiani.com/kristina/