No Future For Foreigners

Several years ago, a man was appointed as the Malaysian Vice Ambassador in Saudi Arabia. The embassy was located in Jeddah. This man, started to meet other Malays as he was working in the embassy. One thought came across his mind, why he meets only the underprivileged and poor Malays there in Jeddah. He never found a Malay doctor, lawyer, engineer, architecture, contractor, business man. He asked himself, are job opportunities that difficult here in Saudi Arabia?

Finally he found out the answer of his wonders, when he met a Malay lecturer who works in King Abdul Aziz University. He was stroke by the fact that Malaysians –as well as any other foreigners- don't have a bright future as they cannot go for higher education in Saudi Arabia. They set together to find out the solution of this problem. "How to help these unfortunate people?" They asked.

They started by spreading the message of the importance of higher education within the Malays in Saudi Arabia. In the process of doing that, they also found some funding and financial support to send the Malay Students for higher education outside Saudi Arabia. However, they didn't find the right candidates, a student with excellent grades and within the permitted age for studying in a University.

That was another question, why most of the Malays have moderate or bad scores in their education. They found the answer to this as they met another man (a Malay Thai). This man said, it is not due to cultural or environmental factors. These people –Malays – were born there in Saudi Arabia and lived there for more than three generations. The reason is no higher education chance. The kid sees his elder brother works so hard in high school, get superb marks and then, due to no higher education opportunity, works as a taxi driver. Why should he study so hard if the end result is only taxi driver?

However, with the help of this third guy, they found the right three candidates. Those who will be the pilots of this project, which will change the situation of the Malays in Saudi Arabia inshaAllah. I happened to be one of them.

Thanks to those three people, who were the reason of me studying here in International Islamic University Malaysia. As they have changed my life, I will in turn, change the live of others. I just had a meeting with two of them last night, alongside with an officer of vice-chancellor of University Sains Malaysia.