I was reading today’s newspaper during lunch and the article’s header “Girl lied about abduction, abuse claim” caught my attention. I seldom read newspapers or watch news on TV, so I do not know the root of this story. But to keep the story brief, it’s about a 10-year old girl who claimed to be abducted and abused by her parents, but later admitted that her story wasn’t true. When she saw that her mother became distraught on TV, she decided to call it quits and go home. Someone found her at a bus station and took her to the police. I thought she had a creative mind for a 10-year old to fool our society, a talent I thought only exclusively belonged to politicians.
I’m not too sure what’s going to happen to this 10-year old girl but the police thought it would be appropriate that she be brought to see a psychiatrist to evaluate her “state of mind”. Remember the story of the 5-year old boy who was ‘abducted‘ last April and later, returned to his parents without any harm done to him (with a new hairdo bald head some more)? Well, he was said to be diagnosed with ADHD, a neurological disorder with symptoms like hyperactive, impulsive and inattention among kids. It is suspected that this 10-year old girl who lied about her abducting may experience ADHD too.
As tragic these tales of abduction may be, such as the recent abduction and brutal murder of an 8-year old girl, sometimes I find our society’s responses to these events rather strange. Not ‘strange’ as in mysteriously strange ala Ripley’s Believe It or Not. ‘Strange’ as in mind-numbingly strange, if you know what I mean. For instance, while the cops are working their asses to searching for the felons, we — the civil society of Bolehland — pretend very hard decide to be intellectual and so-called ‘objective’ about the whole matter as if it’s just another subject to talk about at the kedai kopi. There is, of course, the Blaming Game, i.e. who is to blame for this-or-that tragedy, which is a very common thing to do among us Panadol-based conscious citizens. Can someone tell how many times have this highly intellectual Blaming Game produced success in effectively preventing the same crime from happening again in the future?
In the case of this 10-year old girl, her stepfather suggested that the girl should be given to the Welfare Department because he feels that “the state would take better care of her”. Huh? Didn’t they want her to come home in the first place? No wonder the girl wanted to run away and made up such stories. Oh, the police did say that the girl did not suffer from any physical signs of abuse, so she must be ok. But is term “abuse” confined to ill physical treatment?
Also, what do you think about the comment made by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who launched the country’s first submarine in France last week, about the ‘abduction’ of the 5-year old boy in April who was said to have ADHD? She said that for the sake of their safety, the children should be put on a leash while taking a stroll in public. Huh?
I think with such the increasing number of strange people we have in our midst, I’m not too sure if our kids feel safe around us these days.
