Saturday 27 September 2008

i am ashamed

I haven't been reading the news lately, so it took me by surprise and I was shocked to find out that someone was murdered in cold blood in Wangsa Maju, the very area which is just like 5 minutes walk away downhill from my apartment
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Here are excerpts from news articles concerning this matter:
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This one is from an African online news report:
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"...Let me give you a recent case in Wangsa Maju that has led to the untimely death of an African student from Chad. African undergraduate, HELP University College, Abdel Aziz Hassan Abdraman, 22, (his picture shown above) was brutally murdered just because of his color.
On Saturday, there was a mob attack by some 20 youths wielding metal rods, sticks and knives on 10 African undergraduates in Wangsa Maju which resulted in his death and injured the rest. They were unjustly harassed and mocked by the youths for four consecutive days before the attack. The youths even went up to their Tar Villa apartment and demanded money and cigarettes.
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According to the students and as reported by the Malaysian Newspaper “Malay Mail” the drama unfolded when three undergraduates were on their way to board the LRT to perform “terawih” prayers (long prayers by the Muslims after they have broken their fasting) at a nearby mosque at 8.30pm. They were confronted by some 20 youths who were believed to have hurled abuses at them (they called them Negros) and demanded money. When the trio ignored them and walked away, the youths, carrying switch blades, pursued them and struck one of them on the head.
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The students took refuge at the LRT (Train Station) and sought assistance from their African friends living nearby. Seven of their friends, including Abdel Aziz, went to their aid and together they went back to where the trio was attacked. Abdel Aziz's cousin, Abdraman Moussa Mohamat, 23, said: “We asked the youths who were seated at the stalls why they had attacked our friends but they came for us suddenly without saying a word. “We ran for our lives when they began swinging metal rods, sticks and knives at us. In the fracas, Abdel Aziz was stabbed from the back.”
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Abdel Aziz has a 19-year old wife and 8-month old baby. Did anyone bother to consider that before stabbing him?
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This is from the Malay Mail:
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"...To add salt to injury, taxi drivers waiting to pick up commuters at the LRT station had refused to take him to the hospital despite desperate pleading from his friends. He later died in the ambulance on the way to Kuala Lumpur Hospital."
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Yeah, because Malaysian cab drivers don't want to get involved and they generally refuse Africans entering their cabs because they think they're "misfits and dangerous".
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You know what, I feel disgusted at what happened. It happened in the late evening with obviously members of the public there around the LRT station! Do you really mean to say that no one could have bothered to at least call the police, stop a car and threaten the youths who were fighting that the authorities would be coming to help the Africans who were being harassed?
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For those who passed by, did you pass by and said, "i can't possibly get involved. Not me" ?
If you did... please don't call yourself a Christian, muslim or buddhist or whatever religion you profess... because if you call yourself a believer of God and have a sense of morality... you would not have walked by and ignored it.
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You could have stopped a murder from happening.
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To the taxi drivers... you could helped someone stay alive.
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I don't know if any African students are reading this, but I just want to say I'm so sorry that my countrymen have behaved in such a fashion. I wished I could have driven by that hour and helped. I'm so sorry I wasn't there to prevent a ruthless crime from happening. Please forgive Malaysia for not responding promptly.
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Dear Malaysia and all its citizens, we've claimed our independence 57 years ago... and yet our mentalities are still not changed. Have we looked beyond the race card that we so like to play? Have we opened our minds and attitudes to true independence?
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The blunt answer is no. Not when we have someone just killed off because of his colour.
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The answer is a outright no. Because someone who was wounded was denied help from another fellow human being.
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It is still no. When someone can take another life into his hands and decide to end that life without consideration that the person is someone's son, someone's father, someone's husband.
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No, Mr. Prime Minister... Malaysia still has a long way to go.
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Can we stand and watch things go like this? I cannot. I have to do something.
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You have ONE LIFE, DO SOMETHING.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

dear writer
i would like to thank you for your full support towards what happened to our brother Abdul Aziz , may God bless his soul, the situation here in Malaysia espically for us as foreigners and precisely as African students and i`m one of them is not promising so far and it won't be any soon, and i am very sorry to say this.. i`m staying near where the accident happened, we have been attacked more than 3 times in taman malati and we have made more than 2 reports and nothing yet change, what even worse we caught one of them and we took him to the police station, of course we had proves and witnesses and still nothing change ! the same guy was released in less than a week and he still practicing his hustling !! strange isn`t it !??
last week a group of youth attacked 2 girls, and when the police came the gang were stand still and there were no moves from the 2 police cars !! this week we have a dead man, married with 8 month daughter, a result of extremely discrimination and full of hate towards us, and still nothing change.. we have one life and there is absolutely nothing to do here except counting days left to be in Malaysia..

Rachel said...

Hey Catherine,

I too am ABSOLUTELY disgusted with this behaviour. We are living in the 21st century and nothing in this country has progressed. Some people have the mentality of neanderthals. We pride ourselves as being a multicultural country and YET this barbaric incident has happened because of this senseless urge to play the race card.

Why don't Malaysians adopt the attitude the Australians have towards immigrants? So far the Aussies I have met are interested in learning about different cultures. I can say without a doubt that Australians are more accepting and warm towards immigrants.

Come on Malaysians. We can do much better!

flyindance said...

thank you mohamed and rachel for your comments...

mohamed... I too am distressed about what has happened in our area. I stay in Wangsa Maju and I love the place but I don't love the bullying that goes around.

Is there anything we can do to cause awareness? do u have an email for contact?