For Burma

Not Myanmar.

Burma.

From Wikipedia: In 1989, the military junta officially changed the English version of the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar, along with changes to the English versions of many place names in the country, such as its former capital city from Rangoon to Yangon. This decision has, however, not received legislative approval in Burma.

The Nurin tragedy: is this what we have become?

The Nurin tragedy left many stunned and outraged at the brutality and heartlessness of the way an innocent child was killed.

Sadly, what happened to Nurin just serves to illustrate to us just what kind of a society we have become.

Firstly, the sight of young children wandering alone in malls and public places is so common an occurence that we as the public couldn’t be less concerned. Why must it take something as shocking as this for us to wake up?

Secondly, if it wasn’t enough for Nurin’s parents to go through the grief and anguish of losing their child and to find out later that she was murdered and abused, they had to face accusations of the public that it was their fault for not watching her - with some even saying that they should be charged for negligence. How much more heartless can we get?

Thirdly, some people even take advantage of the situation for their own selfish gains. Today in class my lecturer mentioned that a caller phoned Nurin’s father saying he had information on his daughter, but that he didn’t have enough credit, and asked Nurin’s father to top up his credit. Imagine yourself in the shoes of a desperate father, and you would have done what he did without hesitation - top up the caller’s credit. The caller then vanished, leaving no information about the girl. How cruel and insensitive can people get?

Finally, the media. It is necessary to sensationalize the whole story and dramatize it for further effect? As Marina Mahathir put it in her weekly column ‘Musings‘:

“If a child is sexually abused and killed, does it really matter how? Is there really a need to report the more abhorrent details of her suffering? Is there really a need to print photos of the dead child, even if the initial intention was to find out her identity? Don’t little children deserve some respect too?”

This is the kind of society we have become. And before long, Malaysia will have forgotten little Nurin’s name until another tragedy like this happens.

Davin Arul wrote in his blog Rules of Unreality:

“The unidentified murder victim, whose young body was violated in ways that makes you lose so much faith in humanity, screams a silent but deafening cry for justice whenever the horrifying photograph of her brutalized face is seen.

It seems to be an unbreakable cycle. A child is raped and murdered. We scream for blood and more stringent measures to monitor sexual offenders. A child loses his or her life in a senseless incident, and we mourn with the parents. It happens and it happens and it happens.

The question is, why can’t we - society, parents, the authorities - learn fast enough? Do we do future victims a disservice by forgetting, by letting the outrage die after a few weeks? Do we doom another child when we don’t agitate for sex offenders to be catalogued and monitored? Do we allow kidnappers to flourish in our midst when we ignore the sight of a child wandering alone and lost in the streets or shopping malls?

How much is too much?”

Just thinking about it makes me cry. But sitting in class today as my Media & Society lecturer, Ms. Jessie, talked about the Nurin case opened my eyes to just how apathetic we can be. Nobody in class seemed particularly shocked at the details - or maybe they, we, have just become too desensitized to be shocked anymore. A few even had a good laugh over the credit reload scam, commenting on what a ’smart’ idea that was. I was so incredibly, incredibly disappointed when I heard that.

They say the younger generation, the youth of today, bring about fresh change and hope for a better future. Look around. These ARE the youth of today. Nothing’s going to change if we don’t do something about our attitudes and mindsets.

Open your eyes, Malaysia. Is this what we have become?

************************

Related articles:

Nurin’s murder - chronology of events

DNA tests - body found in bag is Nurin

Parents accept fate, bury Nurin

Related commentaries/opinions:

A reflection of society?

Be sympathetic, don’t speculate

Other weblinks:

In memory of Nurin Jazlin (a blog originally dedicated to the search for Nurin, which now acts as a channel for the parents to speak out on issues concerning their child’s murder)