Tuition or Dinner? University Students Starving in Silence

by Lee Yong Jin

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“It’s like those Malay dramas, where you don’t have food to eat because you have to pay the bills and stuff,” Fatihah told me in a late morning conversation. “Funny enough, we lived a lavished life before.”

“Then it just hit us.”

Tens of thousands of university students will walk across the hall every year to proudly accept their degrees, and many of them with empty pockets and an even emptier stomach. Poverty and food insecurity in campuses are never-ending struggles in Malaysia. Nutrition is out of the question when you are fasting irregularly and eating just instant food. Students are forced to be frugal in their spendings in order to live day by day. While some netizens and politicians blamed the poor financial management and spending on unnecessary items, others lambasted the government for misusing the country’s funds. This topic of discussion has re-emerged, sparking debate nationwide.

These students are obviously from underprivileged backgrounds and most are assumed to be from households classified as B40 (bottom 40%), which they earn a median salary of RM2000 to RM3000 a month.

One of these students is living far away; in Serdang with his sister twenty kilometres away from the University of Malaya campus, and two hundred and twenty-six kilometres from his hometown in Ipoh, Perak. That person is Ravivarman Yalumalai, 23, a Geography student of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and also a JPA scholarship recipient. His family earns RM2,500 a month without any insurance for the family.

Ravi has to cut down his expenditures, spending about RM50-60 per week on food alone and RM80 per week for motorcycle fuel.

“I will spend less if I eat in the faculty cafeteria.” Ravi said.

“It varies, but surely there will be more expenses.”

And to compensate for all those expenses, Ravi has earned some money through paid volunteerism, making him an arbitrary amount of money.

“I made some money for volunteering in the Malaysian Urban Forum, I was paid RM50 a day for two days,” he said, “I also volunteered to be a marshal for one month during the 2017 SEA Games which they also provided food and pay volunteers RM50 a day.”

During those pursuits, he got acquainted with fellow students from different backgrounds and families who are also struggling financially and that has made them considered to start work early in both government and private sectors, including Tenaga Nasional Berhad.

Ravi believes that students have the upper hand in making a living and should not have any problems in improving finances should they take the initiative to seek money.

“We should know how to earn money, look for opportunities and overcome obstacles instead of just thinking about the problems we have,” he said.

While the B40 make up the lowest earners, the economic malady of the middle class, or M40, are not forgotten. We have heard of the horrible stories of retail, and students that do part-time jobs must juggle between work and study and strike a balance so that they do not end up missing out on assignment deadlines because they have been busy making money, Fatihah was one of them.

Nur Fatihah Atikah Rashdan, 21, is a Software Engineering major from the Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology. She is a PTPTN recipient from a lower middle-class family and has bagged a few odd jobs prior to and during her studies.

“I started working after SPM so I could have my own income to buy things of my own,” she said, “but currently, I work to support myself in the university.”

But the pressures of facing potentially rude and racist customers add to the distress. There was no labour laws in the F&B sector, workers were only given one-hour breaks or less. Sometimes she evens steps outside the bounds of a barista to take over food expediting and hosting roles.

“Famous cafes and restaurants make us work ourselves to death which was what I deserve because that’s just what the labour law is?” asked Fatihah, sarcastically. The prospect of working until midnight and walking back home on foot is just routine for her.

Since the passing of her father years ago, their mother worked tirelessly as the breadwinner.

“My mom did everything,” she said. “and many times we would go without food.”

She told me one of her worst times was to bring only RM1 to school just to drink mineral water, and she cooked dinner for the family most of the time, leaving little time for studies.

Not wanting to use her mother’s earnings, Fatihah now saves by prioritising spending money on more important things and using the remaining money to buy things that she wants.

“I always make sure to have an extra RM100 by the end of the month for emergencies.”

All in all, Fatihah believes that the little struggles are just life lessons, we should stop spending time with people who drag us down.

“To be honest I don’t mind it now that I think about it.” she said.

“Those life lessons shape me the person I am today.”