COMMENT | They are the B40 and M40, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, Sabahans, and Sarawakians.

Some live in low-cost condominiums, others in ageing apartments with leaking pipes and dim corridors. A few stay in PPR flats where the lifts have not worked in months. Others share cramped rooms above shop lots or in converted factory dormitories near industrial zones.

They leave home before sunrise, whether to man food stalls, work shifts, ride for deliveries, or clock in at factories. Life is not easy, but they carry on, because stopping is not an option.

You see them without needing to look. The mak cik selling nasi lemak under a blue canopy, the Indian aunty flipping thosai at a roadside stall, the Chinese uncle pouring tau fu fah beside his tiny stall.

By evening, an anne rolls out a cart with murukku and snacks, while someone next to him juices sugarcane for RM3 a cup.