Hlaing Min, a thirty-something Burmese man is strikingly matter-of-fact as he describes his two-and-a-half-years of virtual enslavement in a fishing fleet plying the waters of Benjina, part of the Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia.
Hailing from the Myanmar town of Myawaddy—right on the Thai border—he is one of hundreds of predominantly Myanmar nationals whose stories were exposed by the Associated Press (AP) in an extraordinary series of articles on slavery and tuna fishing in the Arafura Sea in late-March 2015.
He is also a victim of the failure of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to care for its most vulnerable peoples—just as its much-vaunted ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is kicking into high-gear.
Hlaing Min’s father died when he was four, leaving his mother to support for him and his two sisters.
A weakened Myanmar economy post-the 2007 Saffron Revolution and marriage led him to seek a better livelihood—like so many other Burmese—across the border in Thailand.
After many scrapes and with a baby on the way—Hlaing Min thought he had hit on the perfect opportunity: "These Myanmar guys came to see me and said, 'Hey, you're earning so little here, why don't you come to Malaysia and you'll get more.’ Since I was getting around THB5000 a month then, the amount they offered –THB10000 was very appealing.”
Hlaing Min was promised work in “Pinang”, Malaysia and a THB8000 advance. He gave the money to his wife, saying he would be away for 6 months.
In October, he made his way to the Thai port town of Samut Sakhon.
"I can still remember it was a big yellow-coloured boat. There were seventeen of us, all from Myanmar. It was a very long journey and I began to get suspicious. Thirteen days later, we landed at our destination. Everyone laughed at me when I asked: ‘Is this Malaysia?’ No, they said. This is Indonesia. This is Benjina."
The men ended up as virtual slaves on fishing boats, at the mercy of a group of Thai nationals, backed by Myanmar or Indonesian enforcers.
They were paid sporadically. There was no question of them returning home.
Onshore, the company that ran the operation, Pusaka Benjina Resources, deployed armed patrols to prevent escapes. Those that were caught were brutally beaten and caged.
The isolation helped to facilitate the company's control.
The Aru Islands are actually closer to Darwin than Jakarta, let alone Yangon. "When we were out at sea, we had no idea of the day or the location.”
Fortunately for Hlaing Min, he eventually escaped, finding refuge with the locals. He still talks fondly of Pak Telli, a school-teacher who welcomed him into his home: "He helped us, gave us food and shelter. The local people were very generous."
Working as an odd-job man, he essentially became part of the community and learned Indonesian, only emerging from the forests after the PBR facilities were raided by Indonesian authorities, some two-and-half-years later.
When I first read the AP story and eventually met Hlaing Min, I was stunned not only by the epic, Odyssey-like distances involved in this tale, but also how ASEAN had failed the “slave” fishermen.
The AEC’s mercantilist obsession with the region’s large, 650 million-strong consumer market has ignored the real needs of predominantly low- or unskilled workers like Hlaing Min.
Given the almost non-existent legal protection, many of the 6.7 million Southeast Asian men and women who cross borders to find work have become victims of exploitation.
The human cost of this omission—some would say complicity—has been staggering.
Hlaing Min was eventually repatriated to Myanmar only to discover a country transformed: "It was all so different. Everyone had hand phones and there were cars and motorbikes everywhere."
On a personal level, his family was fractured with his wife working in Thailand, his five-year old daughter living with her grandmother in Moulmein and his own mother barely managing in opportunity-scarce Myawaddy.
While Hlaing Min doesn't have a full-time job, his raw determination, charm and language-skills have meant that he has become one of the leaders of the hundreds of former Benjina “slaves” who are seeking the wages that were denied them.
He's also been helping out with CeritalahAsean stories and reportage, his fluency in Indonesian being an enormous plus point.
Hlaing Min acknowledges that his suffering was made worse by the failures of the previous military government but there's no doubt in my mind that unless ASEAN does something about the plight of its semi- and unskilled workers, stories like Hlaing Min’s are sadly going to be the norm.
Moreover, it exposes what a hollow sham the goal of a “People-Centred ASEAN” is.
