Stop the blame game

Here we go again with the blame game after eight teenagers lost their lives in a horrific accident in Johor Baru early Saturday morning. Why do we do that?

A New York-based psychology website offered this as one of the reasons: that we are not good at figuring out the cause. It also said that the blame game is an excellent defence mechanism, a tool that is used when we are in attack mode and that it is easier to blame someone else than to accept responsibility.

Who is actually responsible for what had happened — the parents who said that they were not aware of their children’s whereabouts at night or what they did; the children for courting death, knowing fully well the danger of making the road their playground; the car driver for not being careful while on the road; or the authorities for not hauling up these children when they are aware of the children’s nocturnal activities on that particular road?

Netizens did not mince their words when sharing and commenting on the accident on social media. There were those who put the blame on the parents for negligence, the children for being a public nuisance, the driver involved in the accident and the authorities for not taking action. In fact, harsh words were used, probably out of frustration because they think that the accident could have been avoided if someone was responsible enough to do something about it.

The accident prompted a heated discussion on parenting on WhatsApp among my Generation X friends.

They shared their experiences of growing up. Some had very strict upbringing, with the cane used as a disciplinary tool. In other households, however, this tool was put on display, which was enough to scare the children. We never had a cane in our house.

One friend had a house rule similar to mine, where we have to be home before the evening prayers. He recalled his neighbour’s kids having the same house rule.

“The only time that we see them outside at night was during our Raya do and they came with their parents,” he said.

Even our maid had to adhere to this rule. When we were staying at Straits View in Johor Baru, Lido Beach was just across the road from the house. She would take us for a dip in the sea every other afternoon. She would hurry us home before 6pm and get us ready for evening prayers.

We never knew what kind of punishment would be meted out because we never broke the rule. My mother, who, in one of her throwback moments, told us that my paternal grandfather, if he was alive, would have been livid if we stayed out late at night without a good reason. He would give us the shelling, too, if we took babies out at night. The elders’ justification of this rule was that spirits roamed at night.

But, these are hardy boys. Ghosts and spirits don’t scare them. The particular stretch of the road is, in fact, next to a Muslim cemetery.

My friends are divided in their opinions. Some said parents should be charged under the Child Act 2001 for negligence.

But, suggestions to investigate the parents have been met with public outcry, with some saying that it was unfair to charge the parents as they had suffered enough losing their children. But, eight children are dead. How many more need to lose their lives before parental negligence is acted on?

Then, there are those who suggested that the boys should be hauled up for being a public nuisance, their bikes confiscated and that they undergo counselling. But, what good would that do? We were young once and we went through a similar phase.

We wanted some sort of independence, we wanted to be different and we somewhat tested authority, but, of course, not to extent of flouting 
the rules and breaking the law, resulting in a tragic outcome like what happened on that Saturday morning.

“You take them off the streets but you will likely see them back a few days later. Being caught by the authorities and released gives them some kind of bragging rights among their peers,” one friend said.

What is needed is a win-win solution, where the teenagers can undertake their activities in a safe environment at whatever time of the day or night, where their parents can be in the know where their children are and the authorities can be assured that they do not break the law.

“Providing them a secured environment does not mean that you are legitimising their biking activity, which can be deemed illegal, but what is important is that their safety is guaranteed,” one suggested.

Relevant authorities should have their ears on the ground and be in the know of what is trending among the youth.

Take futsal, for example. It was once the in-sport among the youth. The novelty has died. Now, they are into cycling. Oh, never mind the fact that these boys have modified their bicycles.

Also, one friend correctly pointed out that more often than not, we react only after something has happened. Malays have a saying for this, “sudah terhantuk, baru terngadah”. The English equivalent is, “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”.

This week, eight more children are dead. How many more need to lose their lives before we actually do something about it? ​

Claim them before they're gone

It was nine years ago, while on a working visit to Japan, that then prime minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi received news that Malaysia had lost Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore.

He was at a private dinner function in Tokyo when acting president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the case, Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, delivered the judgment in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Reporters covering Abdullah’s working visit received instructions from their editors in Kuala Lumpur to get the prime minister’s comment for the final edition of their respective newspapers.

It was 15 minutes to midnight that we got to see him.

As soon as he arrived at the hotel, we were ushered into his suite. He had been briefed on the judgment.

I remember him sitting at the head of the dining table, face downcast.

He expressed sadness over the decision, but nevertheless, accepted it, saying that it was based on hard facts and evidence. He thanked the Malaysian legal team and officials who prepared the case.

“I know they did their best,” he said back then.

Geography may tell us that Batu Puteh (which is actually a reef of granite rocks half the size of a football field), by virtue of its location on the map, is in Johor waters (located 7.7 nautical miles off Johor’s coast at Tanjung Penyusoh).

But history, according to the ICJ ruling, dictated that it belonged to Singapore.

Then, there’s Middle Rocks which, the ICJ ruled, is Malaysia’s, while South Ledge can either be Malaysia’s or Singapore’s, depending on whose territorial waters it is in.

History also showed that Britain, and later, Singapore, maintained control over the island since the 1850s. Malaysia staked its claim to the island in a 1979 map, which was disputed by Singapore a year later. The dispute saw both countries referring the case to the ICJ in 2003.

This week, however, Malaysia applied for a revision of the ICJ ruling, citing three documents recently declassified by the United Kingdom — an internal correspondence of the Singapore colonial authorities in 1958, an incident report filed in 1958 by a British naval officer, and an annotated map of naval operations from the 1960s.

The documents were discovered in the UK National Archives between Aug 4, last year and Jan 30.

Could one of the documents be the letters that the governor of the Straits Settlements, William John Butterworth, wrote to the sultan and temenggung of Johor regarding the construction of the Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pulau Batu Puteh?

The ICJ was told that his letters had not been found, but there were English translations of the replies to those letters.

It is timely that these documents were found as the rules of the ICJ allow a case to be reviewed within 10 years if new evidence was adduced.

This also goes to show that the government continues to work towards appealing the ICJ ruling.

Furthermore, the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim had, in 2014, ordered the state government to study the appeal, in line with the wishes of his late father, Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, who said Pulau Batu Puteh belonged to Johor and the island should remain a part of the state.

But, more importantly, did we learn anything from this episode?

Then foreign minister Datuk Seri (now Tan Sri) Dr Rais Yatim was reported as saying that there were at least 110 islands within Malaysian territory near Sabah, Sarawak, Johor and Kedah that required mapping and determination of status.

Some of these islands are located in strategic, resource-rich areas. There is bound to be overlapping claims and dispute.

Besides the islands, there are outcrops and rocks that we haven’t even heard of until recently.

Fishermen and divers know of these sites. Have there been any efforts to ensure that these islands, outcrops and rocks are identified and determined as ours?

Following the ICJ ruling on Pulau Batu Puteh, there were concerns over the status of Pulau Pisang, also located off the coast of Johor.

There is a lighthouse, called Pulau Pisang Light, on the highest point of the island, which was built in 1914, and remains functional as an aid for maritime navigation.

The lighthouse, however, is operated by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the result of an agreement signed in 1900, in which Sultan Ibrahim of Johor granted the British government of Singapore (part of the Straits Settlements) rights in perpetuity to the plot of land on which the lighthouse stands and to the roadway leading to it, so long as the Straits Settlements operated the lighthouse.

There had been calls by various quarters for the Federal Government to take over the management and administration of the lighthouse from Singapore, for fear of us losing sovereignty of yet another island.

Rais had said back then that the Federal Government would consult the Johor government before engaging with Singapore on the matter. There had been no other press reports following this statement.

We hope there is work in progress towards this. After Pulau Batu Puteh, we certainly would not want history to repeat itself.​