Thousands of Sri Lankan women work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They have only one free day a week, which they spend with fellow workers in places like Kowloon Park, along with thousands of domestic workers from other countries.
Several Sri Lankan domestic helpers interviewed last week expressed views that represent the situation of thousands of Hong Kong’s migrant workers. When asked why they came to Hong Kong to work, the typical reply was, “We simply can’t earn enough to make ends meet (in our own country).”
Most of those interviewed were women in their 30s, some in their 20s. Most were married and had sacrificed the comfort of living with their husbands, children and often their parents, to earn enough money to enable their families to meet the most basic needs.
Many had been in Hong Kong for over five years, some more than ten. Everyone interviewed claimed she was happy, despite being separated from her loved ones, because she was contributing to the maintenance of her family.
One couple had managed to come together, the husband working as a driver and the wife as a domestic helper in the same household. They said that both of their fathers were dead; their jobs paid them enough money to send home and support their mothers. They would have been unable to do so in their home country. The woman also expressed satisfaction at being able to contribute to their children’s education.
They all claimed they did not want to go back to their own country unless they could make an adequate living there to support their families. They were quick to recognize that this was unlikely to happen soon. One young girl said, “Yes, I want to go back and marry a boy from my own country, but for that, first, I have to earn enough.”
Living conditions in Sri Lanka are extremely difficult. A journalist working for over 15 years said his monthly earnings were around 19,000 rupees (US$166). Most people earn less. The cost of educating children and the prices of medicine have increased; unlike in the past, people find these are beyond their means. The prices of food and all staples have increased.
Electricity rates in Sri Lanka are the highest in the world, the minister of enterprise, development and investment promotion has admitted. Water bills are also rising; even the minister in charge of the water supply complained that the rates have gone up too rapidly for his own consumption.
One person from a family of eight children said that in the past, his father had been able to maintain the family with only an average job. Now he and his wife both work but are unable to meet the needs of their only child.
The primary function of government is to create an economic environment within which people can make an adequate living. The Sri Lankan government has simply failed in this function. However, people are unable to articulate their grievances or have them heard. Attacks on free speech and expression, for which Sri Lanka has achieved notoriety the world over, are preventing discussion about the living conditions of the people.
People complain about the miseries of their lives in every private conversation. However, there is no public space for people to discuss these matters and develop a consensus toward changing these conditions. The most basic problems of their lives are thus confined to the private sphere.
Some time ago, during elections, the issue of “kitchen conditions” was raised; it was said that women running their kitchens determined the outcome of elections. But this is no longer the case. Politicians do not talk about what people eat, whether they can afford medical care or schooling, how to maintain public transport and public services, or even how to deal with unemployment.
On the contrary, an extremely sophisticated machinery of repression has developed to prevent the kind of political discourse that gives meaning to the adult franchise. In this, the police play a major role. The result of mobilizing the police for the purposes of the ruling regime is a complete collapse of discipline and the transformation of the police into a corrupt and violent force.
Criminal investigations are no longer of much concern. A police force that can frighten the population is essential to electoral politics based on fear. In addition, there are various types of goon squads, private bodyguards and other mysterious forces actively creating an atmosphere of violence everywhere. The police are neither willing, capable or permitted to intervene.
The collapse of the rule of law, which everyone is talking about, is not an accident. It is part of a greater design to prevent the participation of people in political life, making it possible for politicians to win elections without the actual participation of the people.
The people’s sovereignty is not possible without the rule of law. Talk of the people’s sovereignty is a cynical mockery of the people, who have no alternative but to elect the very people who will cause their living conditions to deteriorate. Elections have become the means by which the people consent to lower wages; less food, education, childcare and medical care; and terrible transportation systems.
Yet local and international pressure to improve the rule of law is answered with distain. The same people who preside over this system of repression make sanctimonious proclamations about inquiries into crime, prosecutions and respect for the supremacy of the law.
Adults in Sri Lanka have had the right to vote for 78 years, yet the result is this ruthless, repressive political apparatus that makes a mockery of the people’s sovereignty. No wonder even a domestic helper’s job abroad is seen as a boon by so many people.
Source: Desperation drives Sri Lankans abroad
Filed under: civil society, Depatment of Election, human rights, justice, politics, Sri Lanka
