Forthnights

Its not everyday you see a grown man break down and cry.



But then again, it's not everyday that a grown man gets sodomized either.



For the greater part of last week, I was out in a workshop, office boy turned slave driver. I was there to make sure 6 Indian labourers were doing their jobs, gluing together sheets of plastic into one giant block, which they had to make 200, each 2 meters long. It was supposed to be my job to ensure these guys received the right 'motivation' to do their job.



Just in case you were starting to jump to conclusions, while others may resort to such methods,I personally do not think sodomizing your workers will increase productivity.



But I did stay back with them until 7pm on a Saturday. After work was done, I dismissed them and came back today morning just to go tidy up and check on some of the work.



And that was when I received the news. Hours earlier at 3a.m., a group of 10 men had broken into the premises. One of the workers there, an Indian national was sleeping outside the office to guard. Just weeks earlier there was a break-in, done by their own security officer. So the rest of the workers were taking shifts to guard the place. The only valuable thing on the premises was stainless steel, and going by market prices, they were worth a lot.



This time around, the ten men entered the premises, tied the poor chap at the hands and legs and gaged him. They ask him for the keys to the office, and when he said he had none, they kicked him and threw him into the mud. They then went on to carry off all the stainless steel they could lay their dirty hands on. We suspect it was an inside job since the thieves seem to know where everything was.



Perhaps they were drunk, perhaps they were gay, or perhaps they just hadn't been laid in a while; but for whatever sick reason, 2 of the men then decided to pull the poor chaps pants down and sodomize him. No one seemed to hear to sound of the dogs barking away, warning the rest of what was happening. It wasn't until hours later did the rest of the workers hear the desperate cries of the guy after the thieves had long gone.



When I got there, the guy had just returned from the hospital. My colleague asked him to  explained what happen, and so in Tamil, he started recollecting the events of the morning, how nobody came to his help even when he screamed in pain, how he was kicked and trampled and thrown in the mud. I couldnt understand his language, but the expressions on his face told me more than I needed to know. He was still shocked, and still recovering. He started crying, just like a baby, when he got to the part of the sexual assault, and was overcome with tears and sobs before he could finish his tale.



I was really sorry for the guy. He was from India, uneducated, and came to Malaysia to work as a labourer. He spoke little English, but every morning when I made my way to the factory last week, he would greet me with a cheerful smile and good morning. There he was, sobbing like a baby while his foreman tried to comfort him, telling to toughen up and not act like a baby. With such a traumatic experience, I think at least for now, he is entitled to cry all he needs to. Things can be recovered or compensated, but this cheerful fellow will most likely never be the same again.



There are a lot of sickos in this world. Regardless of gender, it is cruel that rape victims suffer more than their aggressors. If you ask me, rapist should be shot in the balls, castrated and their willys thrown out to wild dogs. But even then, it would never be able to make up for the scars that their victims carry for life. It would never be able to return them to their innocence.