Photo credit: Yahoo News
A viral video of a man being kicked and splashed with water while sleeping on a five-foot-way has sparked outrage and highlighted a story of shattered hopes.
Malay Mail reports that for Shfiudeen Pakker Mohamed, this public humiliation was the cruel culmination of a Malaysian dream that had turned into a nightmare.
He said, “If they would have only told me to leave, I would have gone quietly.
“I was very weak, hungry, stressed, and depressed.”
He arrived from Tamil Nadu in March of last year with a simple goal: to earn a living as a cook and lift his wife and two young sons out of poverty. But his dream quickly soured.
He said his employer at a restaurant in Sri Gombak confiscated his passport upon arrival and began withholding his wages, sometimes for months at a time. Unable to send money home, his personal life crumbled.
He said, “My wife refused to believe my tragic circumstances. She even thought I had taken in another wife.”
Trapped without his documents and with his salary allegedly deducted for a work permit he never saw, he was told he would have to pay RM3,000 for an airfare home. He could not afford it, and after some months, he stopped going to work.
With nowhere to go, he started sleeping rough. He said, “I had no food, no roof over my head.
“Some told me that since I still have hands and legs, I could find work. But without a passport, no one wanted to hire me.”
He eventually found a spot outside a bank in Taman Maluri, Cheras, near a restaurant whose kind employees would give him food. It was there that the now-viral incident of him being kicked and splashed with water took place.
Interestingly, the video that led to his humiliation also led to his rescue. Good Samaritan Tony Lian, who runs two shelters for the homeless, saw the clip and immediately took Safiudeen in.
Lian is now working to get Safiucdeen’s passport back and has issued a powerful plea to the public.
However, despite his ordeal, Safiudeen is not asking for retribution.
He said, “I want my passport. I just want to work.”
