FOR all the griping about the influx of foreign migrants, Malaysia remains a neighbourly hub for newcomers of all nationalities and backgrounds.
It's a timeless tradition that goes back 600 years when Chinese, Arab and Indian merchants embarked on an arduous journey to fabled Malaya, seen as a living paradise, its name rooted in freedom and independence.
The promise of prosperity propelled first the ancient Portuguese and Dutch to conquer Melaka in the 15th century, but by the mid-18th century, the British flexed their maritime muscle to seize control of Malaya's economic riches.
After British colonialism was phased out by 1957, the original Chinese and Indian workers, brought in centuries ago, settled down nicely, but the gateway was still ajar for the new class of émigrés.
And how. A two million-odd Indonesian workforce, a million entertainment- and service-centric Filipinos, 250,000 Bangladeshis and 30,000 wealthy mainland Chinese, some pouring in eye-popping investments.
They came for only one reason: economic opportunities, reinforced by Malaysia's hospitality and generosity. The economic adventurers aside, there are refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing persecution: the Vietnamese in the late 1970s, followed now by 170,000 Myanmar refugees, mostly Rohingya, and 22,210 others from 50 countries that include Pakistanis, Yemenis, Somalis, Afghans, Syrians, Sri Lankans and Iraqis.
Even Bosnians sought refuge here decades before. More recently, injured Palestinians, offered a temporary reprieve from Israel's genocide, were airlifted here for medical treatment.
The huge refugee colony reflects Malaysia's big heart, even if citizens' patience has thinned after altercations with some newcomers. As protests pushed back the migrant tide, we have to be reminded that historically, Malaysian prosperity, whether the ultranationalists agree or not, was built on the collective backs of foreign workers.
We have been accommodatingly tolerant, even as the Immigration Department rounded up Rohingya at the Bidor Immigration Depot, one of 25 such detention centres nationwide. But we cannot tolerate the heavy-handed neglect and physical and mental abuse some Immigration Department officers inflicted on the Rohingya between 2020 and 2021.
The abuse was only exposed after the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission probed into scores of detainees escaping the Bidor camp in February.
Now we understand why the Rohingya made their desperate breakout. The Immigration Department brass' vow of "zero tolerance" for officer abuse and its commitment to uphold detainee rights ring hollow for as long as it fails to act on the EAIC's disturbing findings. The department must allow indictments of the abusive officers, nothing less than dismissals and possible criminal charges.
More importantly, it must overhaul the dismal detention system to ensure transparency and compliance with the United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners.
Still, these transgressions are inconsequential: the steely refugee, asylum-seeker or migrant worker, in the spirit of the expatriates of old, still recognises Malaysia as the land of milk and honey, perils notwithstanding.