As customers trickled into the chilly massage parlour, their faces were ones of relief, having escaped the scorching sun outside.
The men sat along a row of huge sofas with their feet propped up and the masseurs in their high-strung voices tried to engage with them in the dimly-lit room with a 48in television set in full blast.
As the men sank back on the sofas, the women continued to keep their customers happy, chirping on while asking the men to soak their feet in the hot water.
As a young pretty woman brought along a container of water, a man whispered something to her.
The woman then gathered her stuff and disappeared. Soon the man got up and disappeared as well. A deal has just been made for her to do extras.
Many foreign workers claimed that they were getting a raw deal from their employers — in jobs from being a masseuse to working in plantations.
Although, the Sarawak Labour Department looks out for employees, either local or foreign, who have been shortchanged by employers, their hands are at times tied as certain problems do not fall under its purview.
Despite this, the department is always ready to assist in terms of advice or mitigate between the disgruntled parties.
New Sarawak Tribune talked to a few in the industry, to find out what really happens when foreigners get a raw deal.
There are many who feel that such businesses create social ills and wanted them closed.
While most women condemned the existence of massage parlours, which they claimed are a front for prostitution, a women’s leader, Tnay Li Ping, felt that not all blame should go to the women as the men themselves need to learn the art of self-control.
Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. Although it is illegal in Malaysia, it is widespread in the country.
With the exception of Terengganu and Kelantan, where Muslims convicted of prostitution are punished by public caning, there are no federal laws against prostitution but only for related activities. The most common one is pimping or living on illegal earnings from prostitution.
The only figure obtainable was in 2014 when there was an estimated 150,000 prostitutes in Malaysia with no record on breakdown by states.
In Sarawak, the trade thrives but most hide behind legitimate businesses, especially involving foreigners.
The most common ones are either massage parlours or night entertainment joints.
Prostitutes may not be protected under labour laws but these girls who do ‘extras’ in their jobs can always complain to the department through their legal trade as masseuse.
Before one starts to condemn them, it is true that behind most prostitutes are sad tales of leaving homes thousands of miles away to sell themselves.
There are cases in the past where young women were trafficked here and forced into the trade, with some forced to work in timber camps or plantations.
Masseuse 1
Miss Bebe, 32, has a face to die for: petite, fair, slim and having the correct proportion in the right places, it is no wonder weak men fall for her.
Bebe comes from Liao Ning, Northeast China where most of the people are in the agricultural sector.
Despite her petite and gentle look, there is a side of Bebe that is harsh and coarse. She has a split personality — gentle one minute and demanding and unreasonable the next.
She insisted that no photo be taken of her, not from any direction, side or back. “I am an easily recognised person even from the back,” she insisted, stating that her boss would kick her out of her company if he knew what she was up to and would force her to pay a penalty.
Meeting her in the coffeeshop the first time was not something she would tolerate — she insisted on a second meeting in an air-conditioned restaurant and according to her, she could talk better and faster for time is money.
This time she dragged along a teary friend, Lee Lee from Beijing whom Bebe said was dumb enough to fall in love and is suffering from a broken heart as her married boyfriend decided to call off the affair when his wife found out.
Armed with a work permit to work as a masseuse, Bebe thought coming to Sarawak would be a golden opportunity — at least that was what she was told by friends.
Thus she was unprepared for the hardships that followed.
She believed that she came at a “bad timing’ when there appears to be an economic crisis in Malaysia. Barely able to earn enough to feed herself, Bebe has a hard time sending money back to her grandmother.
Having no other choice as she still owes a lot of money to her agent and her boss, she has to do ‘extras’ to earn the right amount of money so that she could send back. ‘Extras’ in her case means agreeing to have sex with her clients.
Bebe said she was working in Beijing then but business was bad for her age group as there were too many competitors.
“You talk about beautiful women, there are millions in China. We look best in our 20s so it is wise to earn more money then,” she said.
Arriving in Kuching then, Bebe said she had to cough up RM8,500 to pay her agent. Each month, she dips into her hard-earned money to pay her agent RM1,000.
Her boss keeps her passport and her working hours are long. She has to work from 10am to 12.30am, massaging up to six and seven customers.
There were days when she worked until 1am. She is paid RM30 for each customer for an hour’s massage. While she takes RM10, her employer takes RM20, thus the extra service is a must for her to survive.
“Life is hard here, even bitter, I can say. Back home, at least after a hard day’s work, I can go back to my grandmother, who will cook a meal for me. My grandmother took care of me and was the comfort I have all my life when my parents did not want me,” she explained.
Bebe was abandoned by her parents when she was a toddler after they went to work in the city. As her aged grandmother could no longer till the farm, Bebe plucked up enough courage to go to the city to look for jobs despite a lot of resistance from her grandmother in the beginning.
When she told her grandmother that she was not willing to work or sell farm produce like her, her grandmother reluctantly let her go but constantly reminded her to take care and to love herself.
In Bejing, she was taken in by a company who paid her a basic wage besides allowing her to take home a commission from what she earned.
Not wanting to search for her parents, Bebe said she did not believe in throwing herself at people who did not want her in the first place. Nor did she blame them for the predicament as to her, it was all fated.
Considered beautiful, Bebe was soon the ‘flower’ in her company where she learned to work as a masseuse.
She was popular and men would ‘demand’ for her by paying double to be massaged.
“Of course, working in a company, you are bound to be played out by jealous colleagues. I made the biggest mistake of my life, I fell in love and after being used, my boyfriend dumped me. I vowed never to fall in love again,” she said giving a knowing look at Lee Lee.
“Flowers wither, so do I and as work got lesser, I too went for the extras to pay for my apartment I bought in Beijing.”
She has by then brought her grandmother to the city to live with her but did not tell her about the ‘extras’ she had to undertake to earn more.
“She is my only family and I will never hurt her. Now I am the ‘comfort’ for her as she is growing old.”
In Kuching, reality hit her when she was told she had to work from 10am to 12.30am. She finds it strange that people tend to go more for foot massages than body massages so she was forced to earn less compared to what she could get in China.
She has around five to six customers and there were some who were so demanding that they came at odd hours.
A full body massage is between RM40 and RM58. For the extras, she can easily earn RM150 or more if the customer is satisfied and generous.
Although doing extras is not permitted by the company, she said maybe her boss was kind enough to turn a blind eye as the massage parlour she works for is in the genuine massage business.
Otherwise, she will be fined RM500 or more according to company rules. Rules were strict and every minute counted, she said.
Asked what she would be doing in five years’ time, Bebe said her first task was to pay off her agent and boss and probably move to a neighbouring country.
“Don’t plan too far, live one day as it come, fate can be cruel,” she said. “Here, it is hard to make ends meet. If the locals are suffering due to the economic crisis, what more us.”
Masseuse 2
Lee Lee, 30, a single mother was not so willing to share her life history.
Slim and with long flowing hair, she came to Kuching five years ago. She has been in and out of the city and earned a fair amount of money to send home to her mother and young daughter.
She used to work in a pub and three years ago, her boyfriend, who works in a professional field, ‘negotiated’ with her boss to buy her out thus she was free to do what she wanted.
Her boyfriend rented an apartment for her. For the past four years, life has been blissful for her. She did not have to entertain men in the pubs or put up with their sadistic demands and she earns a salary from her boyfriend.
Admitting that her boyfriend first met her while going to the pub, Lee Lee said her boyfriend’s character was the mild type.
Asking if it was because he was educated, Lee Lee, in a rare moment burst out laughing.
“The worse job is in the pub entertaining the boys, not men. The more educated they are, the more they behave like perverts.
“Some behave like animals when drunk. Some literally forced us to take drugs. I can say a lowly educated businessman will have more courtesy in treating women. But compared to back home, the men here do behave better. All are polite and courteous when not drunk,” she said.
Lee Lee ruled out marriage to a local. “If they can come to the pub and fool around with women while their wives are left at home, that is already a minus point for them,” she reasoned.
She also felt people should not call her a family wrecker. Clapping her hands, she said, it took two to tango.
“So do not push all the blame on us,” she said, adding that the worse women are those who blame the women and not their own husbands.
“It is best to control your husbands and care for them instead of nagging them the minute they step into the house. Who knows, you can win back your husband’s affection that way,” she said sarcastically.
Taking her incident as unfortunate, she said the ‘other’ woman turned up with his young son and berated her in the middle of the night. “That was really low, involving her children. That is why my ‘lau gong’ (husband) decided to end the relationship,” she added, wailing again not caring that others were looking at her.
Lee Lee is planning to pack up and work in Johor. The pay there, she heard, was much better.
As she was explaining how she would be going, Bebe grabbed her by her hands and said, “One hour is up,” and both ran out without looking back, not caring that all eyes were on them.
NEXT WEEK: Legality of massage parlours
