With Damascus still very much on their minds, a Syrian family are fighting hard to make it good in Kuala Lumpur after the civil war in their home country forced them to uproot.
It had been a struggle all the way since they arrived here two years ago, said Yaser Alet, 41, when I met him at his restaurant in Sri Hartamas the other day. He headed for Malaysia after the civil strife broke out, bringing with him his then expectant wife, Nisreen Alsid, 36, daughter, Massa, 11, and son, Omar, 6. It was their first time in the country.
With so much at stake, he hit the ground running in an unfamiliar environment, but managed to set up the restaurant, serving Middle Eastern and Italian food, two weeks on to ensure a sustained life.
The stress must have been too much for his wife, and when the birth was due two months after they set foot here, there were complications that caused her to lose the baby.
“It was a tormented period,” Nisreen said.
“New place, strange surroundings... we were not even sure of which hospital to go to and someone recommended an upper-class private hospital. When it was over, the bill came to RM25,000.”
Yaser had a chain of restaurants in Damascus, but decided to leave them all behind when war ravaged the capital. After weighing all the options, the family chose Malaysia as their destination, contributed to a certain extent by a Malaysian they had met back home.
“Furthermore, Malaysia is an Islamic country, so it would be easy to get by, and the cost of living is much lower than any country in Europe,” said Nisreen.
The family came with some money, which was enough for working capital in business. The hospital bill plus hotel expenses for the first few weeks in Kuala Lumpur ate a lot into their savings.
Later, it came to a point where they had to move Massa out of an international school, where they had enrolled her in at first, and into SK Sri Hartamas, as the fees at the international school proved to be too expensive.
Massa appeared a little shy when I came by, but said she was coping well in Standard Five at the national school. In fact, she was happy that she would be able to add Bahasa Malaysia to the other languages she knew — Arabic, Italian, French and English.
Omar, on the other hand, looked as active as any 6-year-old boy. And bright. Despite his age, he is well into memorising the Quran from lessons at a local madrasah.
The parents’ world revolves almost totally around the restaurant, Bionda Italiana, as they don’t have time for anything else. Yaser spends up to 17 hours a day there, which rules out family outings and window shopping.
“Being totally unfamiliar with KL when we arrived, we stayed at a hotel in Bukit Bintang and started looking around for a place to open a restaurant, since that is my husband’s expertise,” said Nisreen.
“But the rentals in Bukit Bintang were too steep. So, we turned to other areas and eventually settled for Sri Hartamas.
“With the business visa that we obtained, we started right away, as it looked like a good location for a restaurant.”
Yaser and Nisreen plan to extend their ventures online, selling handicraft from Syria as they maintain business contacts back home.
“I miss home very much and I keep in touch with my parents in Damascus almost every day. Sometimes, I cry myself to sleep,” said Nisreen.
Her parents came over when she was recuperating after the hospital episode. But, they couldn’t stay long and returned home.
Despite all the challenges and terror attacks that give rise to Islamophobia, like the one that just hit Paris, the couple look set to make Kuala Lumpur their new home, always stressing that they leave their fate to God Almighty.
It was too painful to see what had happened to Syria, they maintained.
“Looks like every side wants to destroy it,” Nisreen declared.
“I still remember clearly when it first exploded in Damascus. It was March 10, 2011.
“We were shaken to the bone. And for now, our home is Kuala Lumpur, in Sri Hartamas.”
The writer is former NST group editor