Thursday, October 15, 2015

Lacklustre effort to find missing orang asli children from SK Tohoi

Joint media statement by Member of Parliament for Batu Kawan Kasthuri Patto and Damansara Utama State Assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin on Monday 12th October 2015 in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

We call upon the Malaysian government explain the sketchy, lacklustre search-and-rescue (SAR) performance by the authorities in the ill-fated incident of the 7 missing Temiar Orang Asli children from SK Tohoi, Gua Musang from the 23rd August 2015 to date.

On the 12 October, both Member of Parliament for Batu Kawan Kasthuri Patto and Damansara Utama State Assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin along with Tham Kar Lye coordinator for Impian Malaysia, Irene Tan and Johnny Goh, the DAP Kelantan representatives visited the families of the missing Orang Asli children from SK Tohoi in Gua Musang and to hand over a contribution of RM1000 from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) to each bereaved family.

We had convened in the house of a relative to one of the missing children where we were greeted by Dendi bin Johari who is the Chairman of the Jaringan Belia Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan as well as the Deputy Chairman of the Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan, Nasir bin Dollah. We spoke to the parents and were astonished to discover they had not been given a chance to have a proper dialogue with the fleet of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and other VIPs who had visited SK Tohoi despite the fact that the families are the main stakeholders in this entire episode.

Besides that, conversations with the families also revealed shocking discoveries on the chronology of events that had unfolded upon the incident of the missing children on the 23rd of August 2015.