Sunday May 12, 2013

Verdict is out again – let’s protect our young

The Star Says

SHE had gone out to play with her friends nearby that fateful Wednesday and was expected to return by nightfall. She never did. A passer-by found her lifeless body in a carpark, barely 200m from her home in Bukit Tinggi, Klang, late that night.

The gruesome rape and murder of Nur Amyliana Shuhada Noor, 11, has sent shivers down the spines of all right-thinking Malaysians. Two suspects are now in police custody and the cries for justice are ringing out loud and clear.

That this did not happen in some isolated area reminds us once again how careful we need to be in ensuring the safety of our children outside the boundaries of the home. At a time like this, many will once again speak out about child safety, parental care and control, and whether our communities are safe for children.

We will talk about the law and the need to educate parents about child protection issues.

And we will all agree that when it comes to the safety of children, one can never play it too safe, especially when the kids are out of their home environment.

It is somewhat ironic that this tragic case happened even as the coroner is currently inquiring into the death of six-year-old William Yau Zhen Zong.

It did not seem too long ago that the whole nation was galvanised in the search for William, whose body was subsequently found at the Kampung Sungai Sireh jetty in Port Klang on Jan 24, eight days after he went missing.

Residents in the neighbourhood where the family of Nur Amyliana moved into only two months ago from Kuantan are now gripped by a sense of outrage and insecurity.

Sadly, that may soon pass even before the family can fully overcome its grief over the loss of one so young. And life will go on.

The police are out in full force combing for more clues as we anxiously await what the suspects in their custody, two Malaysians aged 19 and 24, have to reveal.

The politicians, despite this hectic period, are also making their rounds to visit the victim's family, while child activists are giving us the usual sound bytes.

But the bigger picture here must be about the safety not only of our children, but every citizen who walks the streets, from such random acts of evil.

We need to reach a tipping point where all elements of our society must be serious in ensuring such evil does not flourish.

We have to accept we cannot legislate against harm in every eventuality in our social life.

But the one thing we can all do is to look out for one another and be good neighbours.

Yes, let us cry for justice to be done. But let not our tears be in vain simply because somewhere, sometime in the future, another such tragedy is waiting to happen.

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