How my parents obtained Permanent Residency in Malaysia

Hootoksi Tyabji, Shah Alam

For those of you reading this who knew my ma Roshan Pundole, this will come as no surprise! my mother had an indomitable will and believed with all her heart that “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try and try again!”

My parents moved to Malaysia in the early sixties when papa was working for Birla’s in India. He came here to establish a factory in Johor, where for the first time, palm oil was processed in the country and exported out. The company was called Edible Oil Processing or EOP and the business was extraordinarily successful but a few years later, the company was acquired by the government, a fair compensation was paid, and Papa retired from Birla’s and opted to continue living on in Malaysia.

My parents rented an apartment in the Golden Triangle on Jalan P Ramlee in Kuala Lumpur and papa set up his own private company which built the first low-rise condominium on Jalan Ampang Hilr. They called it Ronosh. It had 9 spacious apartments, a pool, tennis courts and a clubhouse. For the first few years he was able to lease the entire property to the Shell Petroleum Company.

Papa truly loved Malaysia and often referred to it as “the land of milk and honey” He wanted to live out his days here, but in order to do so he had to apply and be granted permanent residency.

The Immigration rules permit applicants to apply for PR three times only. If the application is rejected all three times, one cannot apply again. My parent’s application was rejected twice, and papa was getting more despondent by the day; he did not want to return to Bombay especially as their apartment had been taken over by Meher Master Moose a distant relative who was permitted the use of one room but soon usurped the entire flat! My parents did not want to live with this woman and consequently going back to Bombay was not an attractive option for them.

On the third and final submission of their papers when the application was rejected again, the Immigration Officer told them in no uncertain terms, that they had no further recourse and would have leave Malaysia and return home to India.

Pa began to make plans to leave, but mama was undeterred!

She marched back to the Immigration Office, insisted on seeing the officer in charge and once again, pleaded her case. He was patient and polite but firm in his stance and finally in exasperation with this persistent lady, he told her that the only person who could grant them PR after three rejections, was the Prime Minister Dr Tun Mahathir Mohammed himself!

Ma was excited, this was good news, all the doors were not shut! She came home with the news, and immediately began composing her letter to Mahathir. Pa was convinced she was wasting her time as the PM would never see the letter nor would it ever reach his desk. He knew the letter would end up as garbage, but he also knew that once mama had set her sights on doing something, she would see it through!

Synonymous with my Ma was her little blue Mini car in which she zoomed around all over the city! With her personal letter safely on the seat beside her, she set off to personally hand it over to the Prime Minister believing this would be possible. To her utter dismay, nobody at the entrance to the building, would listen to her and she could not get past the first security guard at the gate to the PM’s Office.

Never one to be deterred, she decided that she would park outside the building opposite the gate everyday around 8 AM. till someone of importance would allow her in. The security personnel got tired of telling her to go away and eventually they got so used to seeing her sitting patiently in her little blue car, they stopped bothering to tell her to go away!

Several weeks later, there was a rap on her window and a young officer introduced himself as a personal guard of the Prime Minister. He told mum that he had heard about her letter and placing his hand on his heart, he solemnly promised that he would personally see to it that the letter was delivered to the PM. He admired mum’s tenacity and told her so, claiming that he had been watching her every day that she had been there!

Ma confidently handed over her missive and finally left her vigil completely convinced that her request would be granted and two weeks later, it was!

This is mama's draft...