Safe And None The Worse For...
All Shamsul Ghazali Shamsuddin and his wife could do was pray and hope that their 5 year-old son would be found and returned to them -- safe and sound.
It had been 2 weeks of agony and anguish for them and their family after Muhammad Nazrin or Yin, as he is fondly called, went missing at the Sogo shopping complex in the afternoon of March 31.
It was almost as though little Yin had disappeared into thin air, although he was fleetingly sighted by the couple's friend on the day he went missing and the Sogo's CCTV caught him walking out of the complex.
But, after that - nothing.
After more than 2 weeks, without a trace of Yin's whereabouts, many people, and I am sure, Yin's parents, must have feared the worst. But prayers and hope were strong for Yin to be alive and well.
Today, news of Yin being found drew much relief and joy. All that mattered was that he was safe.
According to Bernama, Shamsul, on hearing Yin singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", on the telephone, broke down and wept.
Listening to that little boy singing his son's favourite nursery rhyme convinced him that it was really Yin on the other line. It was not a hoax like the many he had received the past 2 weeks.
Yin was said to have been under the care of a Myanmar couple, Rasidah Nur Islam, 27 and her husband, Abdul Rahman Doli Rahman, 31 in their Sentul Pasar home.
Rasidah claimed that she found Yin on the day he went missing, attempting to cross the road At Jalan Raja Laut, and took him home after nobody claimed him.
She claimed that, as there was no TV set at her home, neither she nor her husband was aware of Yin's identity and the fact that the whole country was looking for him.
Until, of course, today when she was back at Sogo when the couple's friend, Baharuddin Hassan was distributing posters of Yin.
She took one and went home. It was when she was home that she took a good look at the poster and realised that the boy (in the poster) and Yin were one and the same person.
So, she called the telephone number on the poster.
And that was how Yin was found. All's well that ends well.
Shamsul is just so happy and thankfiul to be reunited with his son that he has accepted Rasidah's account of Yin's 2-week stay with her.
He will not press charges against the couple because he thinks that she was telling the truth.
"Perhaps it is true that they cannot read or have no TV to learn of Yin's disappearance," the 34 year-old told a Press conference.
Well, one thing that bothered many people was the fact that Yin's head was shaven.
We could choose to be very suspicious of Rasidah's account. We can choose to not believe anything. It is her account. But, don't expect the little boy to give his version. He is just so overjoyed at having been reunited with his family.
All I can say is Thank God Yin has been found, safe and unharmed.
And on Rasidah: Thank God she called the telephone number on the poster.
For this, I must say to the Malay Mail: SYABAS!
Read Bernama's story here, here and here.
*When Yin went missing. Click here.
(Photo from the Star.)
Rocky posted this comment in my previous posting on Yin.
ReplyDeleteI am posting his comment here:
I sent this comment earlier, under yr previous posting. [this one edited]
Alhamdulillah. Your prayers (and many Malaysians' prayers) have been answered, Ena.
Kudos to everyone who helped, especially to The Malay Mail!
Now, I have two questions for brother Yushaimi, who is the editor of the Malay Mail:
1/ Will the Malay Malay recover its soul as The Paper That Cares (and unashamedly use that tagline once again)?
2/ Will the Malay Mail dedicate a regular space for Missing Persons. There are other kids who have gone missing but who absence was not as widely reported as Yin's.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate bloggers who posted stories about Yin's disappearance as part of the efforts to help find the boy.
Some of them cut-and-pasted articles related to Yin from the Malay Mail, which is part of the NSTP group, even though there is a boycott of the NSTP group by bloggers allied to the Bloggers United.
1:55 AM
Alhamdulillah.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Nuraina, we could choose to be suspicious and we could also choose not to believe her account of the event. But at the end of the day, what matters most is Yin is safe and is with his loving family again. I believe a reward was on offer.... I just can't help being a little bit sceptical. Yin's father is a man of wisdom, and he is just happy to have his boy back safe and sound and has chosen not to look a gift horse in the mouth, kudos to him.
ReplyDeleteDear 3540 Jalan Sudin,
ReplyDelete"It was not a hoax like the many he had received the past 2 weeks"
I was appalled with the attitude of certain people. They sent false text messages to Yin Parents, blaming them for Yin's disappearance and what about this - someone sent sms to the mother asking her to up the credit limit of the sender's mobile if she wants Yin to be realesed.
I mean, have you got nothing to do at all? These are very sick people
To Yin's parents: You still want to go shopping?
ReplyDeletePoor little boy to have gone through this ordeal! No child should ever have to go through Yin's traumatic experience. I shudder each time I think of what could have happened if he had fallen into more desperate hands.
ReplyDeleteYes, syukur alhamdulillah the Myanmar family had the presence of mind to return him, albeit 2 weeks later.
Now - NAB or ALL-BLOGS should come up with stringent child-minding/watching guidelines for shopping malls, departmental stores and supermarkets etc to assist parents and child-minders - apart from more efficient monitoring of CCTV systems.
Perhaps more plain-clothed security personnel should be placed at strategic places like staircases, escalators and exits to monitor the logistics of shopping.
Dear Nuraina, Syukur Alhamdulillah. Alls well that ends well. I believe there was a similar case years back (was it in Komtar?) only its a little girl. What the complex did was to close off the exits and somehow they managed that very day to spot the child. She was dressed up as a boy and shaven. A woman was charged for kidnapped but we never got to hear the rest. Let us all learn from this story. But, I would like give a mouthful to the parents. They dont know how lucky they are! Does madam get the booty, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteRubiah Ariff