Average salary of a construction worker (labourer) in Malaysia is $13K nominal - the median would be 8.5K before Covid, whilst the average salary in the country is $23K (median 12.5K). Not gonna paint the life of a construction worker as rosy anywhere on the planet, but basically in the country it means you'd be the high end of the working class, and comfortable (equivalent to the standing of say a barista or shop worker over here -hell, even a construction worker over here!).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...tion-industry/
https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/...orker/malaysia
https://malaysiandigest.com/how-much...y-in-malaysia/
That's about 4x higher than in Dubai. Malaysia btw is on the cusp of joining the Developed World gang, even despite Covid recession.
I think some people here are just making the usual assumptions about darkie countries stepping out of their place. You don't see the same knee-jerk reactions to projects in Russia or Central Europe, who score lower. Put up a skyscraper in Chile or Argentina and I doubt there'd be so many 'concerns' about the workforce that built it.