FROM what I’ve observed, in most industries, the profession that defines the field and is often the public face or image of the so-called “job” is highly likely the most exploited in the particular field of work.

Take, for example, doctors – considered a profession where one is highly respected, well paid, and automatically places you higher up on the social pecking order, most doctors (as we’ve come to realise even more obviously because of the pandemic) are also overworked, underpaid, and generally get the raw end of the deal.

In that same field, nurses, too, receive a similar treatment, but without the social standing and higher wages.

Popular culture and media are complicit in this rather illusory picture of professions in different fields, usually in cahoots with the status quo and the values that inform it.

Films, books, and songs also romanticise professions, sometimes to the point of parody in our media saturated world. I’d like to call this a form of “cultural exploitation” – a form of exploitation that explicitly milks the perception of a profession that benefits the stakeholders and owners of the companies or corporations that operate in a particular field.

“But Azmyl,” you may ask, “don’t we have professional associations or unions that fight for the rights of these workers?”

Well, there are, but most of them are either purely cosmetic or kept alive by a few resilient members of the profession at best.

Unions are pretty much toothless in this country (thanks to their demonisation during British rule and their supposed association with communists of the era), so a lot of our assumptions about our jobs and the values we see in them are pretty much ideological in nature.

Let’s put it this way: most modern jobs we partake in are not indigenous to these parts and tied to madness of the logic of the global supply and demand. If we were to find meaning in our jobs, well, it has to come from within, not above, as from your office superiors.

I often wonder why the class of people assigned to manage professions often are higher up the food chain, so I’ve come to a conclusion based on my own personal flawless logic – the need to deal with the problem of abundance and delegating duties, a hallmark of capitalism, not professional skills or craft, is the utmost priority in our day and age.

CEOs are not the geniuses they’re made to be. They are just the bunch who systemise managing abundance and are often born into the managing classes either by culture, hierarchy or the privilege of higher education.

Popular culture and popular media, of course, venerates them as pseudo-celebrities in this day and age – further proof of where mass society’s values lie.

My grouse lies more with the complacency that Malaysian society has, on the outset at least, in just accepting these so-called “norms” and “common sense matters” without questioning the roots of these values.

Add to the fact that most Malaysians are allergic to rocking the boat or voicing their grievances directly (as opposed to the comforts and relative anonymity of the internet and social media), you have a perfect condition for the ruling and owner classes to exploit their workers who have been ideologically conditioned to believe that work is closest to “holiness” – that old dusty protestant work ethic.

However, by the same argument, not all professions that are the face of the field are necessarily similarly exploited.

Now, to put my rant into context, let’s look at the general election – which profession in this field of politics do you think is the one receiving the raw end of the deal? Hint: not politicians.

Only professions that hold a “noble” reputation in society like doctors, nurses, teachers, lecturers, caregivers, artists, and such suffer from this form of cultural exploitation.

These “noble” professionals are the ones often caught between a rock and hard place of management demands and direct, front-line (un)friendly customer or client fire.

The public face of these professions are in turn, ironically, technically the unsung heroes and the scapegoats at the same time.

With the general election due in about a month’s time, let us consider the real professionals and volunteers who toil for our vote at ground zero – Election Commission officers, observers, polling and counting agents, carpoolers, and, most important of all, you, the voter! You are a professional, deliver your duty, and take pride in it.

Let’s ignore the paid dancing monkeys who usually make a ruckus for RM50 on nomination and polling days, although they will probably make more headlines for their shenanigans.

Such is life. – October 21, 2022.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.