Few days ago, I read in the local newspaper about a family driven into financial desperations, resorted to commit suicides. The story does have an impact on my mental well being. I felt sad and at the same time a sense of indignation. I tried to brush it off as a normal happening of this sickening society, but the images of these three beautiful boys lingered in my mind.....
With a heavy heart filled with sorrows and sadness, I take note that, three innocent and beautiful boys were murdered by their own parents. The three boys, Siew Cheung (12), Siew Man (10), and Siew Tong (8) were poisoned by their parents on Friday December 1st 2006. Subsequently, their parents, Seah Wong Chong and Kau Mei Lin committed suicides by slashing their wrists. However, Seah and Kau weree lucky to be discovered and their lives were saved by the city police. Seah (38) is a tour bus driver and Kau (38) is a hawker.
According to the local news reports, Seah and Kau have financial problems and resorted to borrow money from loan sharks. When they are unable to make the commitment to pay, the loan sharks harassed and intimidated them. It is indeed very sad that, when they are unable to take the pressures, they resorted to murder their own children and later attempted to commit suicides.
As a parent myself, I know how hard it is to lose your own child. I really don't know what is the states of the mind of Seah and Kau to be so heartless to terminate the innocent lives of their three beautiful children. There is a Chinese saying that "A ferocious a tiger will never devour its own offspring". Even animal respects the sanctity of the lives of their offspring. But we are not animals, what triggered the human minds into this barbaric insanity ?
I do not wish to judge Seah and Kau. I know they have been driven into temporary insanity to commit this inhumane crime. To judge them now is to add salts to their wounds. As a parent, I know their wounds will never heals and will forever bleeds in their hearts till they breathed their last breaths.
As usual, we consoled ourselves by saying that, there is a lesson to be learned here. But what lessons are we going to learn from this human tragedy ? Of course, it is easy to say that we should not resort to borrow money from loan sharks. But let us take a minute to consider this righteous proposition. Just closed your eyes and imagined. Supposed you are Seah, in an unenviable situation of being a marginalized minority, you have no stable jobs and you are not qualified to secure any small loans from legitimate financial institutions. But you still have to keep your family going. Who else can you turn to for financial help ? The government ? the MCA ? Seah did what he did, his only mean is to seek the help of loan sharks. But loan sharks are not charitable organizations, these loan sharks are barbarically creative when come to recovering their loans. As a result, Seah paid a heavy price for his mistake.
Do victims like Seah and Kau has a fair avenue to resolve their financial problems ? Would they be able to obtain help from the government ? If they have approached the MCA before they resort to this insanity, would Datuk Michael Chong help them to minimize their financial desperations ? If they seek help from their friends and relatives, would they be able to secure some small loans to tie over the bad times ? Honestly, I don't think they are able to get any help ?
I remembered, many years ago, when my son was less than 2 years old, and I was without a job and no money to buy foods for the next day, all my supposedly good friends deserted me. They avoided me because they are so afraid I may borrowed money from them. I seeked help from the church, but was chased out by the pastor because he thought I am too lazy to work. Honestly, at that time, I have a small life insurance policy, I actually wrote a small note to my wife and planned to commit suicide. But I was lucky then, in my last day wondering around the town looking for the best venue to make my grand exit, I bumped into a long lost friend whom I loaned him some money many years back. I told him my predicaments without telling him my intention to commit suicide. This friend bought me the best lunch, and later took me to his bank in Beach street and withdraw some money ( I believe he withdrawn all his money) from his account and passed it to me. With the small sum of money, I came down to Kuala Lumpur and never look back then.
The point here is, life is tough. I empathized with Seah and Kau for their financial predicaments. They are not criminals, they needed a short break but are unable to get any. Luck was not with them. Indirectly, they have been driven into insanity to commit barbaric murdering of their own lovely sons. Honestly, look around you, did you see some familiar faces in financial troubles ? Have you offer to help in sincerity ?
Politicians are good at making their righteous statements with no concrete actions, and they are only good at paying last respects to to the deads. Believe it or not, 80% of the Malaysians resorted to loan sharks are the Chinese. And there has been too many incidents of human tragedies resulted from the immoral intimidations and harassments of loan sharks. There will never be any ending to these human tragedies as long as we are only good at paying last respects.
Sincerely, I do hope, with all the sinful taxes collected, the government and political parties can set up a fund to help all needy Malaysian irregardless of race and religion. I do hope, all of us can be a bit more sensitive to our friends and relatives who is in need of help.
We have a pair of ears, a pair of eyes, and one mouth. Human tragedies can be avoided if all of us can speak less but listen and see doubly hard to be sensitive and help people in need.
To Seah and Kau, your lovely sons do not deserved to die and you have no right to take their lives away. I sincerely pray to God that the almighty forgive your sins and allowed you to start life afresh. To Siew Cheung , Siew Man, and Siew Tong, life has never been fair to you, I pray that the kind angels shall take good care of you in the beautiful garden of God. May God bless your souls, and may you all rest in peace.
Om Namo Amithaba Buddha.
Two bodies was found floating on the river in Chongqing China on April 7th 2007. Their hands are tied together with a metre long red wire. When local police found their bodies, they had been dead for 2 days. The couple has been identified as 26 years old Wang Feng, and his 20 years old girl friend, Liu Yan. They left a suicide note telling the reasons of their decision to commit suicide together. The young couple had planned to get married, but their marriage plan was met with objections from their parents, coupled with financial problems, they committed suicide as a way out.
