MAY 18 — I too have been reading endless news articles concerning the Rohingya migrants. The media, both online and print, have been reporting on the issue incessantly the past few weeks. 

But then I thought to myself, ah, once again, the blame game has begun. Wave upon wave of blame push the boats the migrants are on from one country to another. 

So whose fault is it really? Who is to be blamed this time? Of course, countless news articles and opinion pieces have been written and published putting the blame on South-east Asian nations, some of whom profited off these migrants, while others are the tormentors.

Yes, I too have been involuntarily sucked in by the debates concerning issues of morality, ethics and humanitarianism on one hand, and on the other, national sovereignty, national security and national concerns.   

I have been fed a barrage of definitions and discourses conducted by experts, both self-proclaimed and authentic, politicians, and pressure groups about this issue. Words such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, barbaric, humanitarian and help have been flung back and forth in such debates.

Should they have been sent back to sea? Why shouldn’t they have been allowed to dock and given food, shelter and medical treatment? How can we treat fellow human beings as such? No, they are not the problem of Malaysia. No, Malaysia should not meddle in the affairs of other nations. No, this is a tricky situation that has to be handled delicately.

And of course, many everyday Malaysians, like myself, have been given a crash course on who these Rohingya community are, where they are from, the problems they have been facing, and why they have chosen to flee from their own country. 

As such, it wasn’t possible for me to be free from such debates when I am constantly receiving floods of tweets and retweets, posts and reposts, shares and reshares, and emails and forwarded emails on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and emails. Day and night, I am constantly hounded by these digital dispatches that ring on my phone whether I like it or not. 

Even Asean, which just had their Asean Summit not too long ago and the United Nations have not been spared the blame for not taking action on this matter. And the elegant silence from Aung San Suu Kyi about this matter has been criticised. 

So, it is seems that civil society and the free press have taken to pressuring head of states, those in positions of power and rallying on support from the everyday people for the Rohingya migrants

Well, since so much has already been written and debated about whose fault it is, this piece shall not be directing any blame at anyone. 


Instead, while reading about the Rohingya refugees this morning, most strangely, a nursery rhyme and popular children’s song came to mind. No, I did not think of any quotations from great leaders and neither did I manage to come up with any quotations of my own. 

I did actually think of the movies Waterworld and Terminal, of being stranded in a place and fighting for one’s survival with no place to go, no identity and no one you can count on for help. In essence, these films were about a sense of helplessness and survival. 

However, it was this nursery rhyme which came to my mind, and is one that I’m sure is familiar to most of us. 

So for the purpose of furthering this article, please allow me to share it with you here. Remember the nursery rhyme and popular song that goes, “Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream”?.     

I’m sure that the lyrics would’ve evoked many memories from the past, and I’m sure mostly pleasant ones. So what does “row row row your boat” have to do with the Rohingya situation you might ask? Well for one, I am discussing about this song in relevance to the Rohingya without putting blame onto anyone. No, I am not writing this article as a form of criticism towards anyone at all.

I am writing this instead as a reminder about all the beautiful and pleasant things that we have been blessed with here in Malaysia. Despite all that we complain and moan about, at the end of the day, we still have a place to call home. The good life that we have here remains a dream that others too are craving for. And we Malaysians should also be mindful of that.

We are indeed spoilt for choice in this land that is blessed with abundance of food. The only times when we need to fight for our food is when we choose to “battle” for the last or first piece of fried chicken drumstick that everyone else is yearning for.

At home, we lock all our doors and windows with state of the art security systems. Security systems that we have spent a fortune on so that no one may intrude and trespass upon our fortress of solitude. We feel safe, have a sense of security and are often trouble free.

There are even reports of some homes installing electric fences to keep the intruders out. Well, we do what we think we have to do in order to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from harm. 

During the weekends, or whenever we feel a divine obligation to pray, we are free to attend worship of any kind of our choice. Be it at the mosques, churches, temples, in our offices or in any other forms of houses of worships, we may at our own behest, freely and willingly pray to the Supreme Being of our own choice. We can even have our fellowship and gatherings right after worship, just to celebrate the fact that we have worshiped!

So coming back to the nursery rhyme and how does it fit in. Simple. The analogy of being on a boat and having a dream must have been on the minds of the Rohingya as they made preparations perhaps months ahead to come over to our beautiful nation in order to have a better, safer and more fulfilling life. 

Surely it wouldn’t have crossed their minds that their dream on a boat would’ve turned into a nightmare. A nightmare of being stranded at sea for days without end. A nightmare where no boat floats gently down the stream. 

Indeed, they must have been receiving countless tales from their fellow countrymen who have sent home stories about how great the life in this country has been for them. And when comparing Malaysia to what they were having at that given point in time, they surely must’ve braved themselves to make this hazardous journey across seas. 

The irony of it all, at least for most of us who remain ambivalent about this humanitarian crisis that is evolving is, our ancestors travelled to a distant land, and yet we the later generations are nonchalant about the plight of the Rohingyas. 

Perhaps this was what our ancestors too had in mind. Perhaps they too thought about going onto a boat equipped with a dream.

A dream of a better life.

A dream of stability and security.

A dream of having an abundance of food.

A dream of worshipping freely in a new nation.

A dream that is being lived by both you and I.

So merrily, merrily, merrily, is life really but a dream?

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.