Malaysians working in Singapore dream of borders reopening

For nine years, Muhammad Fauzi Muhammad Toha had worked across the border in Singapore as an elevator technician.

Earning Singaporean dollars, he made enough each month to comfortably support the rest of his family.

But that was before Malaysia’s closure of its international borders and the government’s implementation of the movement control order (MCO) in March 2020.

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced Fauzi’s return to his home town in Johor Bahru. Since then, he has been unable to return to the island republic to look for work.

At his lowest point, he was unemployed for seven months in a row.

Desperate for a job, he applied to become a food delivery man and, after three months of waiting, finally found himself gainfully employed again.

Now, he is out of the house by 8am and returns home sometimes as late as 10pm.

“I don’t earn as much as I did in Singapore, but it’s enough to support my family and take care of my financial commitments,” he told MalaysiaNow.

Fauzi said he returned to Malaysia ahead of the border closures because of his four children, three of whom are still at school. The fourth, meanwhile, is still a toddler.

“If I had been forced to stay here throughout the MCO, the company wouldn’t have given any incentives at all,” he said. “We would have to be 100% responsible.”

Fauzi is one of some 100,000 Malaysians who regularly made their way across the causeway to work in Singapore before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today, two years after the pandemic began in Malaysia, international borders remain closed with the exception of travel movements through the Vaccinated Travel Lane.

A hot topic ahead of the Johor state election this month, the reopening of Malaysia’s borders was brought up by National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin in February.

He said then that Malaysia should not lag behind in reopening its borders, citing countries such as Australia which had already welcomed back vaccinated travellers despite having a lower vaccination rate than Malaysia.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, on his recent working visit to Thailand, assured that the borders would be reopened.

This is an announcement eagerly awaited not only by workers waiting to enter Singapore again, but also those who are still employed in the city-state.

Muhammad Syafiq Ahmad, 29, is one of them. Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said he chose to remain in Singapore as he knew it would be difficult to find work again if he returned home to Malaysia.

“I haven’t been home in a long time,” he said. “I wasn’t even able to go back when one of my family members was seriously ill.”

Like many others, Syafiq has commitments that he needs a job in order to settle.

“But even today, I still plan to return to Johor one day,” he said.

Syafiq, who was born in Muar, said many of his friends in Singapore were facing the same dilemma.

He himself works as a frontliner at a hospital in the island republic. He wanted to find a job in Singapore because of the high exchange rate.

When the borders were first closed, he and his colleagues were given accommodation by the government for three months. After that, they were forced to find somewhere to rent.

At the moment, he is involved in the management of health facilities as well as disinfection operations.

But the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak graduate does not intend to spend his entire life working in Singapore.

“Many young people here want to save up enough money to open up a business back home in Malaysia,” he said.

“This is what I want to do as well. I hope the economic situation in Johor improves, but for now, we have to put our dreams on hold because the borders are still closed.”

Fauzi meanwhile is pushing 40. After having spent two years on the road delivering food, he cannot wait to get back to Singapore.

He hopes that the government will reopen the borders soon.

“I can find other work depending on what the government in Singapore decides, seeing as my old company might not take me back,” he said.