2007 04: Finders, not keepers

The Star online. News. Opinion. Sunday April 22, 2007

Finding somebody’s child under any circumstances, particularly one who does not look abandoned at all, does not entitle you to the “finders, keepers” principle.

POINT OF VIEW: BY TAN SRI HANIF OMAR

EVEN as I was typing out my last column, I was engulfed by concern for the safety of little Nazrin a.k.a Yin who went missing outside the Sogo Shopping Complex, Kuala Lumpur, on March 31.

Here was a hyperactive five-year-old boy who had left his father’s side and walked out into bustling Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to disappear into thin air, or into somebody’s arms. Both are frightening prospects to any parent at any time, particularly after a search of several hours and checks with the police and hospitals had proved fruitless.

The one thing that gave me a good feeling at that stage was the overwhelming wave of concern and sympathy that swept our society. People and organisations of all hues and cultures couldn’t care less of what race he was; he was just a vulnerable child who could be in dire danger.

In those two weeks we were all concerned Malaysians; some helping out across several states while so many others offered group and individual prayers for the child’s safety. If we can manifest this same kind of feeling for each other every time, a sympathy that cuts across racial and religious differences, we will more sooner than later be the united nation we want to be.

Remember how Cik Rozita of Kajang praised those Chinese doctors and temple committees in the Taman Kota Jaya area of Kota Tinggi who selflessly treated and fed her relatives and other victims of the December 2006, Johor floods without regard for race, religion or the lack of publicity for their efforts? They are the stuff that helps to make the sturdiest Malaysian tree.

While I am grateful that Yin has been returned to his parents safely by none other than the Myanmar refugee couple who found and kept him, I would score a negative for his father for being so careless in looking after him, particularly since he knew that Yin was hyperactive. He saw a shirt that he liked, not even one that he really needed, and he forgot about his “special” child.

Under his circumstances, he should have taken turns with his wife to look after their child or leash the child to him as my daughter used to do with her own when they were small.

As a former police officer who has seen children disappear or taken away never to return or to be found murdered and mutilated, I would strongly encourage parents to take the safety of their children more seriously.

Why do we forget so soon that recent incident where the child of a Myanmar couple in Kuala Lumpur wandered out of the house in the midst of a celebration only to be found dead near the house with both hands severed? Don’t we remember the case of the primary schoolboy in Klang who was taken away by a female stranger outside the school gate some 13 years ago? I don’t think he has been found. And the case of the primary schoolgirl a few years earlier who went out into the Jalan Tun Razak-Jalan Ipoh junction in the early hours to buy nasi lemak for breakfast only to be found dead and sexually mutilated?

I can quote several more cases. Although such incidents don’t happen every day, the point is, there are all kinds of denizens out there in the public domain among our citizens, immigrants and illegal immigrants.

In his despair, Yin’s parents’ first concern was the safe return of his child. They assured whoever might have taken him to just return him and there would be no questions asked. I would have done and said the same thing. So, when the Myanmar couple were arrested by the police for investigation into possible abduction, Yin’s parents were deluged by numerous SMS condemning them for reneging on their promise and expressing sympathy for the Mymmar refugee couple “who had kindly cared for Yin”, “who did not know that there was a search for Yin as they do not read the papers nor watch television”. “They did not know the law!”

My friends, were you among those who sent out these SMS? I hope not because I cannot believe that even in Mymmar or among the Rohingyas, finding somebody’s child under any circumstances, particularly one who does not look abandoned at all, entitles you to the “finders, keepers” principle. I am sure the Mymmar couple themselves do not subscribe to that principle in respect of their own children. So, why didn’t they report to the police or some convenient authority their finding of Yin? Why didn’t they consult their friends and relatives?

Instead, they lied to their neighbours about the circumstances of Yin’s appearance in their midst! They changed his name! I am sure that they could have coaxed out of even a five-year-old boy the name by which he is known!

If we do not show such people that their act of depriving a family of its member is a serious crime, even though they did not mistreat the child, our streets will be even less safe in a short while. Why those SMS senders cannot see this, is beyond me. Why, the boy was kept for 15 days!

No doubt the boy was returned by the couple safely but that should mitigate, not absolve them. Would they have returned the boy if there had been no such unprecedented hue and cry, and publicity that, with each passing day, would have made their secret more precarious to keep? Were they not also motivated by the promise of “no questions will be asked” coupled by the offer of a reward for his return? These can be powerful incentives to a refugee couple eking out a living.

We have thousands of such “refugees” in our country, particularly around Kuala Lumpur. Most are destitute, living from hand to mouth. Some survive by begging and by turning their children into beggars.

The UNHCR has a duty not to give their “refugee stamp” to people who are so clearly economic migrants who have illegally entered Malaysia but, if they do, then it is absolutely their responsibility to care for them so that they do not become yet another local social problem.

The idea of the UNHCR is good and necessary but sometimes its officials may be motivated more by the desire to justify their own existence!