Malay Women In Korea

[HangPC2]

Kids, family and durian on her mind

By : Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi


Mariam Sahari with her second Korean husband in Seoul. A Korean TV crew is here to look for her family in Plentong, Johor, and obtain proof of her nationality.

JOHOR BARU: Mariam Sahari, who left on a one-way ticket to Korea 61 years ago, may be back in Malaysia soon.


Mariam worked as a maid in Seoul in 1956.


A 1943 picture of Mariam’s first Korean husband, Cho Se Won, whom she met in Malaya.

The Korean Broadcasting System, which has taken a keen interest in her, is arranging the 86-year-old’s return to her place of birth.

KBS television producer Park Keon Young Park is here to finalise her travel documents over the next two months for her flight to Kuala Lumpur.

But Mariam, who has forgotten most of her Malay and has only faded memories of her younger days, may return as a South Korean citizen.

Park said the South Korean government was willing to offer her citizenship as she had been a resident there for six decades.
"They want to establish that she was born in Malaysia. Once we determine that through records and documents here, they can give her citizenship which would allow her to visit Malaysia."

He said KBS would air a television documentary on Mariam next month.

"She sacrificed so much, leaving her children, her home, culture and coming to Korea. She has been bearing the guilt of leaving her children for a Korean. The least we can do is look for her family and obtain proof of her nationality."

The New Sunday Times yesterday spoke to Mariam, who has been admitted to a health centre for the elderly in Seoul, where she is being prepared for the trip back.

KBS has arranged, among others, for Bahasa Malaysia lessons, a special "Malaysian" diet and physiotherapy.

She offered a frail "waalaikum salam" to this reporter after being greeted with "assalamualaikum".

The 10-minute phone interview saw Mariam speaking a few words in 1950s Malay with most of her sentiments spoken in Korean.

Park and KBS researcher Seo Kyo Won translated questions in English into Korean.

Asked what she would do the moment she returned to Malaysia, Mariam said she would love to see her three children.

"I still have not forgotten what I promised them. I told my youngest daughter Jamnah (who was 5 in 1946) that I would bring home cookies for her," said Mariam, who then cried softly.

"I will bring a lot of cookies home. I promise."

Throughout the interview, Mariam was excited and emotional.

"I am very happy to speak to you (a Malaysian)," she said, repeatedly referring to Malay-sia as home.

"I really miss home. I want to come back," she said.

She wants to see her hometown of Plentong, her family members and eat mangoes and durian.

"I will eat rice and home-cooked food to my heart’s content," she said.

Mariam, who has never flown before, felt that she could brave the trip back to Malaysia.

"I will do anything to come home and that includes brushing up on my Malay and attending physiotherapy sessions."

She said the Malay lessons she was undergoing were difficult but she was "trying my best".

Meanwhile, the search for her family members by the KBS crew continues.

The NST yesterday highlighted Mariam’s plight of being stranded in Korea without travel documents.

Her problem lies in the fact that she is stateless, as she cannot prove her Malaysian nationality.

She left the country in 1946 just after World War Two, taken to Korea by the man who she was in love with to seek marriage blessings from his parents.

She initially thought that the journey was short and she would be home soon.

Hampered by more unfortunate events, including the Korean War in 1950, she was stranded in Hampyong.

After the war, her husband, Cho Se Won, took another wife, which forced her to leave for Seoul to work as a maid.

In 1960, she worked for a family where the employer’s wife, a mother of three, had cancer.

After the woman died, she married her employer, who died in 1992.

She believes her children — Ramlah, Jailani and Jamnah — are still alive.

Those with information on Mariam or her children can contact Seo at 012-3206527, or the New Straits Times Johor Baru office at 07-2383333. Park leaves for home on Wednesday.

[HangPC2]

Mariam yearns for home

By : Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi



(From left) Park Keon Young, Kim Eun Shin and Seo Kyo Won are here looking for Mariam Sahari's children.

JOHOR BARU: The first thing that Mariam Sahari, 86, does on waking up in Seoul is think of the day when she will see Malaysia again.

It has been her dream for the past 61 years, ever since she left Malaya with Cho, a Korean, who came here with the Japanese military forces.

She yearns to see her three children from her marriage to a man in Plentong, who went missing soon after the birth of her last child, Jamnah, during World War Two.

Jamnah should be 66 years old now while her other two children, Ramlah and Jailani, are either in their late sixties or early seventies.

Mariam’s problem lies in the fact that she is stateless, as she cannot prove her Malaysian nationality.
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) television producer Park Keon Young, who is here to find out more about Mariam’s family, told the New Straits Times that after the war, Cho was held in a British camp in Jurong for deportation.

However, he pleaded with the British for permission to take Mariam home with him.

"Cho asked Mariam to go with him to Hampyong, Jeonnanamdo, and meet his parents and get their blessings. After that, they could return to Malaya," Park said.

The couple sailed from Singapore on April 20, 1946, and arrived at the port of Pusan a month later.

It took them three years to get married. Cho went off soon after to fight in the Korean war and after he returned home, he married another woman.

Life became difficult for Mariam as she had to live with the second wife, who also had three young children from a previous marriage.

"Mariam was not only childless but also a foreigner in a small town, which posed problems."

Park said the older residents of Hampyong remembered Mariam as a friendly, kind and honest girl.

Mariam left for Seoul in 1955 to look for a job, where she became a maid and later a nanny. Stranded in Seoul, she also did not have enough money nor the travel documents to return to Malaya.

It became more complicated as South Korea did not have diplomatic relations with Malaya until 1963.

Cho, who was unemployed, went to Seoul in 1956 to look for Mariam. He found her and promised to find a job and buy her a ticket home but that was the last she heard of him.

In 1960, she was employed by a woman dying of cancer who had three children, all attached to Mariam.

"On her death bed, she begged Mariam not to leave the house after she died. Her youngest son, who was then 7, clung to her feet as she was about to leave the house."

Mariam became the common law wife to her employer’s husband, known only as Ji. They remained "married" for 30 years until his death in 1992.

"Throughout the years, she consulted with the Malaysian and Singapore embassy offices on her nationality but neither office could help her as she did not have proof of birth place."

"We are doing what we can to track down her children so we can reunite them."

Park, who will be here until Wednesday, said those with information on Mariam’s children can contact KBS researcher Seo Kyu Won at 012-3206527, or the New Straits Times Johor Baru office at 07-2383333.

[nazrey]

Thanks for the news...

[HangPC2]

‘Come home soon’ message to mother

By : Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi



(From left) Ramlah Sunni,Jailani Sunni and Jamnah Sunni looking at a picture of their mother,Mariam Sahari.

JOHOR BARU, Mon:

Mariam Sahari, the 86-year-old woman stranded in Korea for the past 61 years, is no longer alone in the world.

Her wish to be reunited with her three children is about to come true.

"We want her to come home. We have waited too long," were the words Mariam had hoped to hear. On Saturday, those words were spoken by her eldest daughter, Ramlah Sunni, 72.

Ramlah was overjoyed to learn that her mother was alive and well in Seoul. She and her two siblings, Jailani and Jamnah, had thought their mother was abducted by the Japanese and had died during World War II.

"For the past 50 years, we have been holding tahlil for her," she said.
Mariam had left the country in 1946 with Korean Cho Se Won, with whom she had fallen in love. The trip to Korea was meant to be a short one to seek his parents’ blessings for their marriage. She had expected to return home soon after her marriage to Cho.

However, a series of unfortunate events, including the Korean War in 1950, left her stranded in Hampyong. After the war, Cho took another wife and Mariam was forced to work as a maid in Seoul.

When her employer’s wife died, Mariam married her employer. He died in 1992 and since then, Mariam has been stranded in South Korea. She could not prove her Malaysian nationality and was considered stateless.

Her plight was highlighted when the Korean Broadcasting System came to Malaysia to trace her family.

A reader, known only as Shamsuddin, called the New Straits Times office here about 4pm on Saturday after reading about Mariam’s search for her family. He said that Ramlah was once his neighbour in Kota Tinggi.

He then gave us the telephone number for Ramlah’s son, Jamil Onn.

Jamil, who was stunned to hear the news, confirmed that his mother has two other siblings living in Kota Tinggi — Jailani, who lives in Taman Kota Jaya, and Jamnah, who lives in Kampung Seluyut.

He added that Mariam has two sisters living in Johor Baru, Khatijah (who lives in Kampung Masai) and Fatimah (in Felda Ulu Tiram).

Jamil contacted his mother, who was visiting his younger brother in Taman Daya here.

When met at Jamil’s house later, Ramlah was composed.

She looked at photographs of her mother in silence, nodded her head and, with tears in her eyes, said: "Ya, ini emak saya (Yes, this is my mother)."

Ramlah said the last time she saw her mother was when she was nine, in 1943, at their hometown in Plentong.

"My mother worked as a rubber tapper at a nearby estate and also sold fruit at the market. We thought she was taken away by the Japanese army. We did not know what became of her."

Ramlah said their father, a policeman, also went missing during the war but returned home in 1950.

In the meantime, Ramlah and her siblings stayed with their grandfather and stepgrandmother.

"Life was hard as my stepgrandmother was not a kind woman. Most of the time we were left to fend for ourselves. Hari Raya was the saddest time for us. When others would have new clothes, food and cookies and were able to kiss the hands of their parents, we had no one."

Ramlah said she started working when she was 12 to support her siblings. When she married at 15, she took them away to live with her and her husband in Johor Baru

"It did not matter how difficult life was, we remained close. Jailani and Jamnah only moved away after they got married," she said.

In 1950, their father, Sunni Abdul Rahman, returned and looked for Mariam. He never remarried and stayed with Ramlah until his death in 1972.

Ramlah said she and her siblings had initially prayed for their mother to return but after years without any news, they thought that she must have died in the war.

"We missed her. Please tell her to come home soon," Ramlah said during a nostalgic visit to Plentong. She showed us the stream where she, her siblings and Mariam had bathed and washed their clothes.

[nazrey]

Daughter: She is no longer a dream but a real person
2007/07/19
By : From Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi in Seoul
NewStraitTimes




Jelani Sunni (left) and Ramlah Sunni hugging Mariam (centre) at their first
meeting in 64 years at the Korean Broadcasting System studio in Seoul
yesterday. —NST picture by Tun Izhar Tun Ishak

THE long wait was finally over. Mariam Johari, 86, the Malaysian woman stranded in South Korea the last 61 years, met her children for the first time here yesterday.

And for several minutes, tears flowed freely, with not a single word exchanged between her and children Ramlah Sunni, 72, and Jelani, 70, who arrived from Malaysia several hours earlier.

A third child, Jamnah, was unable to make the trip here due to poor health.

Mariam, who seemed to be in shock, just stood in the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) studio where the reunion was being held while her children hugged her tightly.

When the reality sank in, she could be heard muttering in Korean how she had missed her children.
There was hardly any dry eye among the 50 people present in the studio. Even the show hosts were seen wiping away their tears.

KBS, which has been instrumental in reuniting Mariam and her children and relatives, is producing a documentary entitled The Way Home detailing her plight and quest to be reunited with her children.

Her problem started when she was abducted by the Japanese army in 1943.

Three years later, Mariam was deported to Pusan Port in Korea with her boyfriend Cho Se Won and intended to return home to her children soon after they got the blessings from Cho’s parents.

Since then, Mariam has been without a valid travel document which prevented her from returning home to Johor Baru.

Mariam had tried over the past six decades to earn enough money to buy a ticket home to be reunited with her three children in Malaysia but the absence of a valid travel document resulted in her being declared a stateless person.

Her first husband, Sunni Abdul Rahman, went missing during the war although he later returned home to his children. He has since died.

Jelani said he had been having sleepless nights trying to contain his excitement.

"Finally, here we are. I want to talk to her as much as I can," said Jelani.

Ramlah said it was difficult to describe her feelings of being able to kiss, hug and hold her mother’s hands.

"She is no longer a dream but a real person. I do not want to be separated from her again," she said.

Ramlah also brought with her a letter of declaration stating that Mariam is her biological mother.

The letter will be used to apply for her passport at the Malaysian Embassy in Seoul which will enable her to travel to Malaysia.

Among those present at the reunion yesterday were Cho’s relatives from Hampyong, Mariam’s stepson’s family and Ramlah’s son Ahmad Onn, Jelani’s wife Suriah Anwar and Siti Zainab Noor, the daughter in-law of Jamnah.

After the recording, Mariam chatted in Korean with Ramlah and Jelani, repeatedly mentioning the names of her siblings Khatijah and Fatimah, now living in Kota Tinggi, and Jamnah.

Ramlah and Jelani spoke in Bahasa Malaysia, telling her how much they missed her and wanted her to come home.

The conversation was translated by a Malaysian student, Syahirah Mohd Sahar.

Ramlah later expressed her gratitude to Mariam’s stepson, Ji Yong Un, 56, who had taken care of her.

Ji, who had earlier refused to speak to the Malaysian press, met the New Straits Times after the reunion and said he was overwhelmed by the sincerity of Mariam’s Malaysian family.

He said Mariam was not allowed to travel long distances now due to a weak heart but he planned to take her to visit her children and relatives in Malaysia when her condition improves.

[HangPC2]

so sad