KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — The case of the 15-year-old disabled boy found covered in his own urine and faeces in a flat in Negri Sembilan is a wake-up call for Malaysians to re-evaluate themselves.
K. Bathmavathi, who is Malaysia’s second disabled senator, asked whether the case was a reflection that the nation’s social system had failed.
“What if immigration officials weren’t making their rounds that day? If they hadn’t found the boy, he would surely have died eventually and there are probably many other cases that go unnoticed,” she said.
The boy was discovered in a storeroom by immigration officers who were conducting a raid to arrest illegals at the flats in Taman Semarak on Saturday morning.
Bathmavathi, who was met outside the Dewan Negara, said that according to reports, the boy’s mother had claimed she did not know where to go to seek aid for her son.
“We have plenty of government and non-governmental organisations but their services must reach the rakyat,” she said.
“We have to find ways to bridge these gaps so that they can offer general information on various matters.
“Why is there still a missing link when there are plenty of residents’ associations and community development and security committees around, who are in touch with people on the ground?”
“Didn’t anyone else, such as relatives, colleagues or neighbours, know about the child other than the mother? Also, the child’s former caregiver could have been contacted.”
Bathmavathi said a thorough evaluation should be carried out to find out what drove the mother to abandoning her own child.
“Was it due to poverty? Does she require psychiatric help? We need to find out,” she said.
“The typical Malaysian response to this kind of issue is we initially express shock and then we aren’t too bothered about it later. However, we cannot deny that people involved in these cases are still part of our society.”
Nilai police chief Supt Abdullah Roning said the boy’s mother had remarried after her first marriage failed but was now separated from her second husband.
She has a six-year-old son from her second marriage.
Abdullah said the three of them, including the 15-year-old boy, lived together in the two-bedroom flat.
“When she went to work in Sepang, she would send her second son to a nanny’s house nearby, but would leave the teenager alone at home,” he said.
He said the doctors at Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban, where the boy was being treated, has found no sign of physical abuse.
“There’s nothing to suggest he had been hurt other than neglect,” he said.
The remand order for the mother, who was arrested on Saturday evening, expires tomorrow.
