Our local papers has almost reached tabloid status with the recent incident that raised a whole lot of suspicions on "acceptable practices to persons in custody."
I have no particular comment on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the findings of a certain body, 9 stories below where the authorities had left him in the wee hours of the morning. A multitude of reasons could be the cause of a person "falling" out the window.
I do have particular sentiments on the sensationalisation of everything else that ensued afterwards. It is quite disgusting that almost a week on, pages and pages of print are still being devoted to it. And my most serious point of contention would be that of how everyone is rallying around a lady, that was virtually unknown right up to the point the man in her life fell out the window.
She has my utmost sympathy - don't get me wrong. To lose a loved one is tragic. To love a loved on the day before you get married is just soul-breaking. To love the father of your unborn child - even I would not wish that upon those I hate most.
But I must say, everyone caught up in the whirlwind of standing in for her lost knight in shining armour is getting to me just that wee bit. And the bee in today's bonnet would be Wanita MCA's call to the National Registration Department to allow her to register her unborn child's birth certificate in the name of her dead fiancee UNDER HUMANITARIAN GROUNDS.
Now the NRD and I are quite familiar with each other because I've been badgering them to allow my children to be illegitimate. Afterall, if their biological dad do not wish to acknowledge them after deciding he would, hey - who are they to insist that Lydia and Luke should have a father?
So yes, I fully subscribed to the fact that some of their rules ought to be changed. But that it should be done AFTER a due process of consideration and deliberation, in order for the implementation to be water-tight and free of potential future abuse.
To call for an exception to the rule in this case to me is just pure limelight-hogging-publicity-whoring-bullshit. Grieving lady is not the 1st to be caught out of wedlock with a dead partner, and she will not be the last. But hey - even if you're holding a number and waiting in line for this to happen - be sure you have your wishes stated when there's a reporter nearby. It might just happen for you!
And the bit of a trust fund being set up? That just takes the cake. Cos I do not see these overnight philantrophist(s) coming forward or scouring the streets for persons in similar situations doing the same.
Jumblestation - a small group of individuals in Subang Jaya has such a hard time raising funds to assist the single parents of USJ. And mind you - they are in worst off situations, considering they do not have any qualification to their name, thus denying them the opportunity to hold a proper paying job that could feed two, three or even four. MaryAnne, the lady who started it all, even has to go to the extent of helping them apply for housing, filling up the forms for welfare - simply cos some of them are illiterate.
Said saidly, none of their deceased partners worked for any politicians, nor did they depart under mysterious circumstances. They were your average joe who contracted some incurable disease, made worse by not having proper healthcare, or were terminated physically at some low-paying construction job they took. They left, quietly, sometime in the day, noon or night, with only those left living around them. Perhaps that is what I should advise MaryAnne the next time I email her on how we can get more publicity for her cause: make sure the cases she takes on fall into the category of having married some politically-linked individual and the circumstances of death states "Unknown." It would make her task a walk in the park!
I am not writing this piece whilst sitting on some high-horse. I know for a fact that life ahead for Ms Soh is going to be so challenging, she's gonna wish she fell out that same window too. Just because my children's father chose to leave instead of being taken, doesn't mean I had life any easier. And so I know that there would be mornings where she wished the sun did not come up, and there would be nights when she wished it would engulf her forever.
Each time she looks at her kid, her heart will break all over again. And when the harsh realities of life in forms of bills, fees and all that jazz creeps in - she's gonna wonder if she can live with herself if she were to quiting her day job and "putting on that red lamp" tonight instead, just so the kid would have enough.
Having said all that, I ALSO have to say this today:
She is but one of many. And she has the media on her side. Show your sympathy, apathy, whatever-you-want-to-call-it for the tragicness that has befallen the lady we read about in the papers today. BUT also show it to the rest who do not even have a whisper of their names in the news we read.
A lot has been said and done for the grieving "widow." So why don't we talk instead today, tomorrow and the days to come, for the rest?
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