Kota Kinabalu : Renowned Social worker Anne Keyworth said the tragedy of the 11 year-old who hanged himself from the ceiling of his Kg Suangon home in Kinarut on March 20 due to his family’s acute poverty should serve as a wake-up call to everyone.
Keyworth, better known as Mama Anne, said the tragedy might not have happened if relatives, friends and neighbours had been caring enough.
She said it also highlighted the fact that as Malaysians we do not care to know our neighbours well enough and that perhaps the approach by the relevant authorities in dealing with the hardcore, poor warrants a review.
Donni John Duin, a pupil of SK Kinarut, had reportedly told his mother Hina Joloni, 37, that he did not eat the kangkung porridge prepared for him at school because other school children were making fun of the food, that it was akin to dog’s vomit.
Donni was also depressed that his mum could not even afford 20 cents to buy ice cream because her only lifeline was the RM70 that she received from the Welfare Department monthly for her six siblings family.
Keyworth feels the Department should seriously consider additional monetary aid to those hardcore poor who have no other income and yet burdened with many children below 18 years.
In Hina’s case, she also suffers from thalassaemia and a heart condition and Donni – who had previously also attempted suicide but was stopped by her – had told her that one reason he wanted to die was to enable her to have his heart, besides having one mouth less to feed.
Drawing parallel to other cases, Keyworth said many other village folks are still waiting for their welfare aid.
“In one case, a paralysed man is being looked after by his 15 year-old son who is a slow learner while his wife has just got a job earning RM10 a day.
“I am also aware of a man of Filipino origin in Sandakan who is getting RM200 monthly from the Welfare Department because he is handicapped but has children. Why wasn’t the same consideration given to Hina?” she asked. “The Welfare Ministry people should Turun Padang just like what the State Secretary lamented a few days ago in the papers.
“They must find out how the hardcore poor under their care are faring, in addition to attending functions.” She said while Donni’s was also a classic case of people not knowing their neighbours enough, the mother should also have made attempts to reach out for aid.
“I am made to understand that she happens to be the relative of a current Kadazandusun YB,” she said. “Of course the YB is not to be blamed if she had made no attempts to ask for help herself.”
She also said the effectiveness of the State’s PPRT (hardcore poor scheme under Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Pairin Kitingan) is also questionable if none of their officers knew of the family’s predicament nor bothered to interview the family with a view to providing them a home since Donni’s March 20 suicide.
“Hina’s relatives and kampong folks (in Kg Sugud in Penampang) should also be ashamed of themselves, since she said it was their wicked tongue-wagging that drove her and children away.
“In pursuit of materialistic gains, we have lost the concept of sharing and caring for neighbours in need,” she pointed out.
The family moved from Kg Sugud to Kinarut, Papar because of taunting remarks by neighbours who branded Hina as a drug addict’s wife.
Keyworth hoped that the school authorities concerned would discipline the pupils and instill the right values in them to avert a recurrence in the future.
“Are Donni’s schoolmates or classmates not saddened by his departure?”
She said in looking at all these aspects, she was not finding faults but into what can be done to prevent a recurrence.
Meanwhile, Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) said the wakil rakyat in Papar should be more proactive in helping the hardcore poor in their area and not only after tragedy had befallen them.
He said if the wakil rakyat are sincere in their desire to help the people in their constituencies, they should do so by going down to the ground right from the beginning.
“This is a sign that the local politicians are often not aware of what is happening in their respective areas,” he said.
And to think that such a tragedy happened just at the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu is very sad, he said.
Patrick said it also seemed to have become a trend among local politicians to render assistance to the people and have their photos splashed in the media for publicity.
He said JKKKs or village chiefs should identify families in their respective areas that are really in dire need of help and report their plight to the authorities.
“There are a lot of unreported cases of local people living in extremely abject poverty. There may even be other cases that have gone reported,” he said.
- taken from: the independent national newspaper of East Malaysia, Daily Express..
Edited by Mary Chin & Barnard Yaang
Date : 9 April 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good for people to know.
Post a Comment