SEAC hosted an online roundtable discussion with five speakers on the topic of COVID-19’s implications for marginalized and vulnerable groups in the region, and the strategies for resilience and mutual support those groups have developed in response, as part of the centre’s seminar series and its ‘COVID-19 and Southeast Asia’ project. Q&A and further discussions will follow the speakers’ presentations.
Talk abstracts
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Building community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: learning challenges experienced by the queer community in Southeast Asia (Cornelius Hanung)
This paper aims to provide examples of initiatives taken by LGBTIQ grassroots organisations and communities in Southeast Asian countries to help community members to strive during the pandemic. Examples of documented efforts include community peer-lending support, collective entrepreneurship, and care for the caregiver, to address not only the economic and socio-cultural but also and civil and political needs of LGTBIQ communities as individuals and as a collective movement. The paper will also explore community strategies to raise solidarity and call for action from the grassroots to the regional levels, in an attempt to echo their concerns and convey them to the ASEAN governments and public.
A hero’s welcome? Repatriated Overseas Filipino Workers and COVID-19 (Justin Muyot, Nastassja Quijano with Ica Fernandez and Abbey Pangilinan)
This paper discusses the emerging impacts of COVID-19 in the Philippines through the lens of its migrant workers, domestically known as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Since the 1980’s, OFWs have been hailed as bagong bayani (modern-day heroes) for keeping the Philippines afloat through remittances, which in 2019 reached USD 30 billion (PHP 1.56 trillion), or about 8% of the Philippines’ USD 377 billion (PHP 19.52 trillion) economy. With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing a significant portion of the global economy to a halt, more than 80,000 OFWs have been forced to repatriate to date. Based on July 2020 reports from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, OFW remittances fell by a total of USD 512 million (PHP 26 billion) in March and April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. While many OFWs in the health sector are hospital frontliners in the US, UK, Europe, and the Middle East, many who returned home to the Philippines find themselves unemployed and stranded outside domestic airports. Some who have been able to get domestic flights through the infamous Balik Probinsya and Hatid Probinsya (return/bringing back to the provinces) Programs have been found positive for COVID-19. Others who have not been able to repatriate but have lost their jobs are in equally desperate straits--some with lapsing visas, others forced to sell blood. The article explores the multiple layers of displacement and uncertainty experienced by OFWs who were displaced to find work outside and are now displaced within their own country as it battles the pandemic.
Food sovereignty in the COVID-19 pandemic: the narrative of commons (Gabriela Swastika)
The COVID-19 pandemic inhibits daily activity, even stops it for a moment. The effect is not only perceived on aspects of public health, the environment, and social issues, but also on the economy. Many people are affected by the pandemic, but it is even harder for vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups experience decreasing income; some of them even lose their jobs. Since March 2020 in Yogyakarta, there are collectives who have been engaging to provide food sources for affected people, yet donations have been opened and collected. They build public kitchens, prepare food granaries for villagers, and distribute meals. Some of the collectives are Dapoer Bergerak, Solidaritas Pangan Yogyakarta, Dapur Aksi Berbagii, and Sama-sama Makan. In this circumstance, we can see that food sovereignty is a key. While food has been understood as commodity which has a given price so that it can be consumed, in this situation food becomes a commons—which is expected to be shared. Food as commons will not exist without donations, or the flow of money, where the initiators can process food into ready-to-eat meals and distribute them to those who are in need. How then can food be understood as the embodiment between commons and commodity? How do the collectives apprehend “gotong royong” or mutual help as a manifestation of local wisdom of people helping one another in Yogyakarta? How do the parties who initiate food sovereignty interpret commons in the midst of pandemic? Some of these questions can be answered through examining peoples’ narratives, which tell of the strategies of inhabitants facing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The economic case against the marginalisation of migrant workers in Malaysia (Tan Theng Theng with Jarud Romadan)
There are at least two million migrant workers in Malaysia, making up almost 16% of the total employed persons in the country. Despite being one of the most vulnerable populations amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, migrant workers in Malaysia have received only limited assistance from the government. Recently, in order to alleviate unemployment issues among the locals, the Malaysian government has repeatedly urged employers to prioritise citizens in their hiring practices. This policy has also been justified to encourage automation by weaning Malaysia off its reliance on migrant workers in the long term. This paper argues that marginalising migrant workers gives rise to significant economic externalities, and is unlikely to resolve Malaysia’s labour challenges for three reasons: first, migrant workers are important to Malaysia’s economy—abruptly unplugging the access to a large swathe of workforce may cause businesses to struggle in the short run; second, migrant and local workers are generally imperfect substitutes, thus the attempt to replace migrant workers with locals may not be an effective solution to unemployment issues; and third, structural transformation involving the adoption of automation does not depend solely on reducing the reliance on low-waged migrant workers. Without the foundation of sound labour, industrial and education policies, the transition itself does not guarantee prosperity and employment security for all Malaysians. Therefore, for Malaysia to emerge from this crisis stronger and more resilient, policymakers should move away from scapegoating migrants to implementing inclusive policies with long-term thinking that set the stage for a more sustainable economic recovery.
Video
A video of this seminar is available to watch at Facebook.
Speaker biographies
- Cornelius Hanung is a human rights defender from Indonesia and currently working with the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). He has been involved in human rights and LGBTIQ movement in Southeast Asia and beyond for nearly a decade. He earned a Master's degree in Engineering and Management, and a diploma in International Human Rights Law.
- Justin Muyot is a senior lecturer in public administration and economics at the University of the Philippines and Nastassja Quijano is a development professional specializing in monitoring and evaluation.
- Gabriela Laras Dewi Swastika graduated from the Master’s Program in Media and Cultural Studies (2013-2016), School of Postgraduate, Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She pursued an academic career at the Faculty of Communication Science and Media Business at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya, Indonesia, where she started as junior lecturer in 2016 and is now a full-time lecturer. She has conducted research focusing on communications, media and cultural studies, gender and sexuality, food and urban studies. Born and raised in Yogyakarta, she is now residing in Surabaya, East Java. She loves strolling around the city, eating splendid food, and watching great performances.
- Tan Theng Theng is an independent researcher. Prior to this, she was a researcher at Khazanah Research Institute, a policy think tank in Malaysia. Her research interest is in labour economics, especially on issues related to gender inequality. Theng Theng holds an MSc in Economy Policy from University College London and a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics and Finance) from the University of Melbourne. Jarud Romadan is a researcher at Khazanah Research Institute. His research interests include development economics, with a particular focus on exclusion, inequality and poverty. He holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), and a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the International Islamic University Malaysia