Nasi Lemak and Railings

It has been nine months since the news of another death in the PPR flats. A three year old girl fell from the 17^th floor. Her name is Siti Nur Nadhirah. I remembered the neighbours telling me of the thud on their canopies as her little body slammed into their balcony before her little body hit the ground. I remembered the painful tug in my heart when I heard the news, as a flood of memories came to mind – of two young boys who also died, falling from the upper floors of this very same high-rise flats. A horrible, repeating tragedy!

Some mornings on my way to work I would stop by the roadside stall to buy nasi lemak for breakfast. Only perhaps belatedly, during the last few months, I began to notice the lady behind the stall, always busy serving her customers, always dishing out the delicious sambal sotong into the nasi lemak packets that we ordered.

As I stood in queue, I wondered how many children does she have to feed? Did she make enough to make ends meet? Did she have to travel far to bring these food to sell?

All these questions played in my mind, more so as my work with the urban poor.

You see, the parents of little Nadhirah, the three year old who fell to her untimely death, were nasi lemak sellers. They had to bring the food to sell in another part of town, and that means waking up when other people were still sleeping cosily in their beds. Little Nadhirah and her parents would be commuting about 5.30AM to travel to Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam, where her parents would set up their nasi lemak stall.

However, that morning of the incident, Nadhirah was running a fever, so they decided to leave her with her older sister Natasya, age 14, who was attending afternoon school. Nadhirah was still asleep, when Natasya brought her other brother to a kindergarten nearby the PPR flats. No one knows what happened next, for as Natasya returned home at 7AM, neighbours relayed the heart wrenching news: her little sister had fallen over the railings. She probably climbed on a stool, leaned over the balcony to reach for her clothes, when she fell over. The railings were only 4 feet high.

It must have been long and frightening fall for her. I dare not imagine how traumatic it would have been. And now, what remains is the pain of loss, trauma and grief for the family and the community.

NO, children should not be falling off railings, full-stop!

Sadly, this is a common tragic story for the people living in PPR flats. Security for children – or anybody for that matter – has been found wanting.

In 2013, five year old Thinasraj was playing in the corridor, when he leaned over a broken railing and fell from the 14^th floor. His mother held on to his lifeless body for three excruciating hours before the police came. They had to coax the grieving mother to let them take her beloved child away. At Thinasraj’s funeral which I attended, friends and relatives wailed over his small coffin. Amidst the sobs and screams, young and old asked each other “Why Thinasraj? Why did he have to die?”

And what must have totally broken his mother’s heart, was that she was not allowed to bid her son goodbye that one final time. She was not allowed, due to cultural and religious reasons, to go to the cremation grounds. She could only circle the funeral car three times, before it drove away. She was inconsolable.

NO, these stories should not be repeated!

But as it is, less than two years later in 2015, five year-old Muhammad Zulhazriq fell from the sixth floor, because of the same broken veranda railings in the common area. He was heard calling out for his sister Nur Diana when he fell through the crack in the railings. The missing railings, part of the crumbling infrastructure common to PPR flats, had been brought to the attention of the authorities. Despite the consistent advocacy from NGOs like us, and community leaders, the railings had remained unrepaired.

This time, the authorities woke up. ADUNs, ministers and other VIPS came to visit. It -received media attention. Finally after years of intervention, repairs were carried out: metal bars were welded in to reinforce the railings. And it was such a simple rectification: an ordinary metal bar, 1.5 metre in height, welded in-between to reinforce the railings. Why didn’t they do it earlier? Why did they wait until another life was taken away?

It took two precious little hearts to stop breathing before precautions were taken. It brought so much pain and trauma to the families, the community and especially to the children who found it hard to un-see the body parts splattered on the floor and walls. It is no wonder that people have termed these unfortunate deaths as “death by poverty”.

Though change came slowly, it did come. This is our struggle in CTI. Undaunted by the sluggishness of change, we continue to advocate for better living conditions, for safe spaces for children to play and learn. We continue to PRESS ON to pursue options for better livelihood opportunities, for better education, to produce LIVABLE and THRIVING communities.

Since our move nearer to PPR Kota Damansara in July 2018, we begin to encounter more vulnerable families, and many children at risk. Our sense of decency and abundance makes us extremely concerned for some of these children who were neglected, some abused and some abusing others. We can see that their behaviours are symptoms of dysfunction at personal, family and societal level, having its roots in systemic poverty.

What can I say, except that

8 YEAR OLDS SHOULD NOT BE:-

sweeping rubbish at 12 midnight outside our office
seeing bloodied parts of another child splattered on the floor
squeezing a kitten till it bleeds in the mouth
sleeping overnight on the streets or at Macdonald’s, unattended
travelling alone to malls to beg from strangers in the streets
watching media with both physically and sexually violent content in cyber
cafes or anywhere
screaming with uncontrollable rage, breaking down doors
assisting other boys to cause irreparable harm to another child

These are real stories we encounter, children who are left alone to wander, and wander they would into all kinds of vices, exposed to greater risks of physical, emotional and sexual abuse /exploitation.

NO, 8 YEAR OLDS SHOULD BE:

enjoying their childhood, growing in their creativity and resilience, playing and having fun in a safe and loving environment. They should be running to school and not to the cyber cafes. They should be running into the arms of their father or mother, and not into the arms of a drug pusher or gangster. These precious children certainly have a right to live, a right to play and learn, an opportunity to live freely and have the possibility to grow, to develop into their full potential and to become responsible, flourishing adults.

Let us make this happen, as we remember Thinasraj, Zulhazriq and Nadhirah.

Wouldn’t they have wanted the same? I would think so.

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