FEB 12 — When you hear of child labour, the visual glory of golf courses with finely-cut lawns, grassy fields and groves of leafy trees might not be the first thing that springs to mind.

Yet, it was golf that irrevocably damaged the name of the sport in Malaysia following the death of caddie Alminda Jalimin, who was hit on the neck by a stray ball in Sabah on Jan 31.

Shockingly, she was only 12-years-old, and had been employed by the Keningau Golf and Country Club (KGCC) since age 10.

Like the offensive golf term “choke”, used to describe poor play resulting from a bout of nerves, the sport here is choking under pressure to explain how the daughter of Filipino migrant workers had been working as a caddie.

The exploitation of child labour on golf courses has swung home hard, and the Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) seems to be facing a buried lie in the bunker.

MGA merely played a delicate lob shot over the issue by imposing a sanction against KGCC for the wrongful employment of little Alminda.

KGCC will now lose privileges like hosting junior clinics and development programmes. It has also been denied access to the national handicapping system, so the club will suffer financially.

Albatross? No, triple bogeys. MGA is “playing the flute” similar to a golfer who releases his fingers and loses control of his club. The association’s stand was hardly a pistol grip.

For its president Tan Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor to simply say, “we are especially saddened that a child was put to work on the golf course”, was a complete miss — an air ball.

Instead of playing an outstanding round or stretch of holes, MGA has chosen not to investigate if the exploitation of child caddies is widespread.

The Alminda incident also provided MGA the opportunity to examine the plight of caddies and their mistreatment.

The national body failed to suspend KGCC as an affiliate pending investigations into her death. Neither did it instruct its 185 affiliates to provide an audited list of personnel to determine the existence of child caddies.

MGA should have set up an independent inquiry team to putt, chip and pitch into the matter rather than wait for KGCC to come out with its findings.

Perhaps MGA assumed Alminda was an isolated case, picked the wrong club for an approach shot, and now finds the ball in a shrub.

Clearly, golf here has ignored the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that the minor’s best interests should be of primary concern.

Why are we held waiting for the circumstances that led to Alminda being struck by the ball? Whose ball was it? Who was the golfer she caddied for? Where was Alminda standing? Doesn’t golf etiquette require the person hitting the ball to not do so until other golfers or caddies are out of range?

While KGCC investigates, I wonder if the club’s violation of child labour laws will be raised at its inquiry? I wonder if it would admit to failing to ensure Alminda’s safety?

The Sabah Labour Department should tee-off a probe into how Alminda was hired and make public its findings or we will never know otherwise.

KGCC had an obligation to ensure Alminda underwent a thorough check-up after she was sent to the district hospital. Instead, she was allowed to go home after outpatient treatment.

Such injuries could prove fatal unless treated properly and quickly. The employers should have alerted the hospital that a golf ball, small as it is, can cause considerable damage.

An Average Joe’s ball speed leaves the clubface at 180mph on average. Swing speed is about 110mph. It is as hard as a piece of rock. No wonder Alminda died the next morning after suffering bouts of headache and vomiting.

What saddens me more is there have been no howls of anger or impassioned debates over her death.

Perhaps nobody cares because she’s the daughter of Filipino migrants who needed her to work to enhance the family income.

Alminda’s death is a reflection of people’s revulsion at the sight of kids doing tedious jobs, like carrying a golf bag weighing up to 15kg for some four hours around 18 holes.

Our society is full of kids toiling hard jobs. Isn’t that child by the roadside selling cookies a case of child labour?

Kids raise funds for their schools on the streets late into the night, yet none of this “cruelty” is prevented by child labour laws. It’s a norm that as long as kids are not getting paid to work, one can exploit them.

Somehow, we’ve used all this to tell ourselves how morally superior we are to the poor, who are desperate to have their kids “work”. If you see a child as anything more, it’s wrong.

*This is a personal opinion of the columnist.