Real Children Issue in Sabah

Again, it has been long time I stop posting real issue in this blog. Too filled up with my wedding profile and works so that others especially my potential customer can have a look over it. And it started to look like a photography blog rather than my personal blog.

It has been a while for me reading on the daily news paper about a child that killed himself because of poverty. I understand it is a serious matter. This incident gets lots of attention from the society from the professional to the politician. The picture about the suicide boy has been published on the front page for couple of week and lots of article discussion about suicide not relevant and relevant with this event starting to surface for the extra a week until I get sick and tired reading some article that even a form 5 SPM student can write better than that. I don’t really want to mention which one but, I started to feel déjà vu reading the same point again and again that I read before past few years ago.

I don’t think of discussing about suicide can make any different to it. This time is different because I starting to get sick and tired having to look at the word suicide for three weeks time straight. I’m not really against the reporter and contributor article to write about the suicide but isn’t it felt like too much? Why? The reason is that it won’t change the statistic or convince future suicide to stop doing it. When a person has the intention or the will to suicide, they already give it a deep and great thought about it and a chain of problem occurs upon themselves such as mentally breakdown or stress. Many factors that could lead to that but I don’t want to elaborate it as I believe one of those articles are already covers that. One article mentioning it enough but when the second one out, it started to feel boring.

The thing that I find it so hard to sell to society is about the children. Children issues cover lots of problem from violence abuse to social problem. It mind bothering me to see children that below age 12 working in coffee shop serving food although most of them is not documented meaning born here but illegal to a happy family with kid the same age complaining want to go to McDonald to eat. One argument that thrown to me is that they better off than begging at the streets or stealing. Yes, I do agree with that, but the real question is are they really better off by working at coffee shop and get a same amount of salary for them. Do they get protected by the law and get insurance coverage when accident happens. Don’t talk about Malaysia law on child labor; I don’t really think the law enforcer really looking hard to prevent it.

Those kids even thou doesn’t have a legal document should have the rights to get a proper education for free. This should solve lots of social problem that happening around us by them. This is the mistakes that we have to bear from our predecessor over the policy they set when giving them an asylum and letting them to stay here and multiply. The cost need to pay by the new generation, wiping off the mess of the past. I think this is the right thing for us to do for them.

It looks simply wrong to see those illegal kids that are taken opportunity of their desperate life for a simple cutting cost for your business. I doubt that they get the same amount of salary compare to the adult if even they do not have a proper document. Think about it. Indeed that the suicide issue started from a boy that living in poverty and get daily doses of mockery from his peers that ended up hanging himself. This is really sad. The twisted turn is that it not really about the boy anymore, but more about finger pointing to some people or government department. Guess what, nothing really happen after that.

I still remember a local boy that was thought as illegal streets was left dying at public streets because no one really go and help him. We got an A+ for not kiasu but FAILED terribly on help and care society. Illegal kids was actually an issue in Sabah’s Assembly Hall but was rejected instantly by the associated department as that is not their concern. Again, it is really a sad story. This left to the non government organization who really publicizing the issue and get help from the private sectors to donate. So, what really is happening to our (Kota Kinabalu) society?