Sunday, April 15, 2007

Yin's Case: Myanmar Couple Detained

Suspected of Abducting Yin

Here's an update of Yin's case. According to Bernama, the Myanmar couple with whom Yin was staying in the 2 weeks he was missing, has been detained. Police suspect the 27 year-old woman and 37 year-old man to have abducted the boy.

Police suspect the couple, believed to be beggars, had used the 5 year-old boy for begging.

Here's the full story:

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 April (Bernama) -- A Myanmar couple suspected of abducting five-year-old Muhammad Nazrin Shamsul Ghazali or Yin two weeks ago, believed to be used for begging, has been detained by police.
Acting Kuala Lumpur police chief SAC II Zul Hasnan Najib Baharudin said the couple, aged 37 dan 27, believed to be beggars, was arrested at their house in Sentul Pasar at 1pm today.
"Police have received information that the couple has been using children for begging in the Klang Valley area," he told reporters here today.
He said the health check on the boy also showed that Yin had not had measles as claimed by the couple when they returned him to a close friend of the boy's father yesterday.
On the statement by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan that Yin's case was closed, Zul Hasnan said the investigation was still going on although the search had ended.
He said the Myanmar couple was being investigated under Section 363 of the Penal Code on suspicion of abducting the boy and would be brought before the court tomorrow to obtain a remand order to assist in the investigation.
Yin went missing about 2pm on March 31 while his father was trying on some clothes while his mother Nor Amizah Ahmad, 25, was watching over his younger brother Mohd Nazmi, 4, at the Sogo shopping centre in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman here.
The boy was reported to have been picked up by one Baharuddin Hassan from the Myanmar couple's house after he received a call from them that Yin had been in their care since he went missing and that they only knew about his case yesterday.- BERNAMA

Read yesterday's good news of Yin being found. Click here.

14 comments:

Shanghai Fish said...

MD,
Now that the boy is safe in his parents arms these new angle unfolds... my...my what intrigue.. surely the cameras showed the boy was on his own (as seen on CCTV) up till the time he walks out of Sogo.. How can we say he was abducted...yes you'd say the couple did take him away to Sentul only after he was found loitering along Jalan Raja Laut area... On the same note( not that I wish for) we should also detain his parents for being unfit parents to a 5 year old and for gross negligence on their part... the onus is on Yin's parents NOT to press charges against this couple and learn to be more responsible parents to little Yin !
As a matter of fact ...to off-set or disqualify the reward money being paid out, I did anticipate the police to come up with this theory...it was just a hunch...but its true....I pray for justice for this Mynamar couple now...sheeesh !

Rockybru said...

i thought the IGP told the press conference that the case is closed?
well, i didn't think that Musa should have said that before the police have completed their investigations. the Myanmar couple's crime is they failed to report the boy sooner. Any thinking grown-up would have done that or passed the boy to someone who would send him to the cops.
were they waiting for the reward money to be announced? i don't know, i can only speculate or assume.
my point is: the IGP decided to be there at the press conference to announce that yin has been found. irregular, i'd say, for the IGP to be at a press conference of such nature.
in any case, he should not have said the case was closed.
i agree with shanghai, the boy couldn't have been abducted. the parent was careless and the boy slipped out of the mall.
were the myanmar couple planning to smuggle the boy out or use him as a prop for their begging do? investigate.
they are reported to have five children. are they really their children? investigate.
many malaysians suspect a syndicate that abducts and smuggles our kids out of the country. it is said to be using people like the myanmar couple. there are many myanmar couples in malaysia. are they all refugees? investigate.

when top cops tell us one thing (the case is closed) but the cops do another thing (detaining the myanmar couple), we become confused.

will they charge the boy's parents for negligence?

Anonymous said...

A lot of comments against the parents have been floating around in the blogsphere...as a mom of five boisterous kids let me add my 2 cents -

losing your child is the worst nightmare ever,for any parent, good or bad. NO parent wants that.

I dont't think for one minute that the parents are NOT thinking that it is indeed their fault BUT cut them some slack please!!!

Anyone who has a child can tell you that you may be the world's most responsible parents in the world but a nano second of non- attention can lose you that precious child- children are not obedient dogs that can stay at a single command..!(I have not lost my children (so far- knock on wood) only because I totally freak out at shopping centres)

I am going to give these parents the benefit of doubt and not happily label them as irreponsible- and would like to see other (possibly non parents) be equally generous. - How can one possibly judge the parents as unfit parents without doing an extensive investigation???

What about the community- what has it got to say for itself- it saw the boy wondering alone and NO ONE remarked on that???! What kind of society have we become???

the solution?

1. leave the kids at home
2. all shopping centres must have a child care drop off centre.
3. Tag your child electronically
4. have more pondok polis - what was the security guards doing???!!!
5. move to where the people care abt a child wondering alone!

The Myanmar couple- thanks for returning the child- at last. Possibly they don't read - they would not be beggars if have higher IQ right. But boy do they have some explanation to do abt that bald head.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

shanghai/rocky

to me, two weeks is a long time to be keeping somebody else's child.
i'd like to disregard the fact that the couple is myanmar. but THAT is something i am concerned about. if they are refugees, then, what are they not supposed to be protected? if they are, then what are they doing, begging? if they have committed a crime, are they immune to arrest, detention and prosecution? or are they protected by some international law on refugees.
i think the myanmar refugee problem is a huge problem here.
i dont know, though, whether our government has been doing enough to resolve the problem with the UNHCR.
i have seen far too many myanmar beggars with children, some little babies.
This is not recently. I believe this goes as far back as 20 years ago.
Years ago, i waswalking along the pedestrian bridge from Yow CHuan Plaza to Ampang Park, and saw this woman cradling a tiny sleeping baby, in the hot sun.
I asked her where she was from and why she was begging. Was it her baby?
I didnt know quite what to do except to tell her to get into the shade and to follow me so that i could take her with me to...oh, wherever that she could get help. And milk for her baby.
She refused. Just wanted money. So I gave her some money.
For the past few years, Myanmar beggars have been coming to my neighbourhood many times. they see some quranic verses adorning my porch wall, ring the doorbell, tell me that they are muslims and ask for money.
many times, i have offered to help, not financially but in kind. I asked them where they live, who brings them around. They usually get fed up of my questions and leave. But they look very well-fed, well-dressed. I want to help but i don't want to give them money.
Once, i caught a group of them getting into a van, after a hard day's work "begging" from house-to-house. I followed the van but lost it in a traffic jam.

so, i think the police should ask them some questions.
if they are beggars, then i'd like to know -- what it means? they beg for a living?
what about their 5 children?

i have been told that a syndicate owns these beggars.
if you ask me, if i were the chief of police, i'd work with the welfare department and get to the bottom of this.
but i dont know which is harder, getting to the bottom of this or getting the welfare dept to work with them.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

momoffive,

yes yes...i forgot about Yin's shaven head. thatw as the first thing that shocked me when i saw him on TV.
why did they shave Yin's head? according to the woman, Yin had chicken pox or measles. Hmmmm.... i would really want tohave that bit of information checked out.

of course, we are thankful that rasidah (the myanmar woman) called to say that Yin was with her family.
she explained why.

you know, momoffive, in my life, i have helped send home 3 kids i found wondering aimlessly near my sister's school.

My sister, Nina was with me. she was in standard 6 and the little boy was in standard one. this incident that happened 27 years ago. another was a little girl we found crying at the gate because her bus had left without her and it was getting late as nearly everyone had left.
and another little boy walking along a lonely stretch of road so late after school.

thing is, i was glad i was the one whom they trusted to take them home. under the circumstances, they would have followed anybody.

that said, i am sure there are still many malaysians who'd help. but, you know, Yin got lost in a very hard part of the city. Not surprised that nobody took a second look. even if they did, they probably thought that he was part of the cityscape.
cruel, but true. life is hard in the city and people in the city are harder.

Unknown said...

I am sceptical about the story told by the Myanmar couple but I also believe that one is innocent until proven guilty. Like Nuraina said, there could be a syndicate behind the begging scene here. I hope something is being done about it. This is more serious. The couple could, I say COULD be guilty of one or even two kidnappings but the syndicate could be guilty of hundreds.

There are hundreds or even thousands of beggars but surely not that many syndicate members so go for them or are they well connected?

As for the couple, let the police handle the case. If Yin's parents want to keep to their word of not pressing charges then I hope the police would not force them to but at the same time the police must go for this or these syndicates.

Jorji said...

i hate sogo! I wonder why people go to sogo.i hate to say this and i fought with my wife when i said that -their parents are so careless!

"sibuk sangat memilih kasut dengan beg tangan,macam tu la jadinya!"

then my wife pun mengamuk...-with my statement.

i hate it when yin case 'mengganggu perasaan' for the past 2 weeks.i mean..kesiann kat yin,,kesian kat mak bapak dia...everynite i have to watch buletin utama for updates..
and now..thank god yin is found!

siapa yg hendak disalahkan? parents ka..orang myanmar ka? yin ka? rakyat malaysia? SOGO? SALES?

susah.kalau nak tutup saja kes tersebut pun tak boleh jugak.

satu saja yang bagus dalam kes ni.MEDIA.

tq.

Anonymous said...

Yes, syukur Alhamdulillah, many Malaysians regardless of race or religion must have prayed for his safe return. This is a good thing. It shows that we Malaysians can come together after all when it really matters.

But what worries me is that Yin was never really "found"..he was "returned" by the Mynmar couple that abducted him. The enormous publicity must have really helped put the pressure on them. I dread to think what would happened to Yin if they decided not to...I can only imagine the worst.

& like you said...its every parents worse nightmare!!!

Anonymous said...

Madam,

Since you guys discussed the merits and demerits of this case, I decided will not deal into that lah. However, there are many interesting questions to be asked but when Sdra Din asked why IGP said case is considered closed, I think what Musa Hassan meant was that case is now closed when the "target" was already "in custody" and "suspects" will be remanded for further investigations. Perhaps it was an open-and-shut case for the police. And given PDRM’s on-going branding approach, Musa’s presence was justified lah! It’s ok for the TopCop to be around but he must also investigate the whats, whys, hows, whos and wheres of the case. And those foreigners, what the heck they were thinking? But i am sure the Police are smarter then them! Be sure and be very sure about this.

I am a father of three boys, and boys, ohh boy! You know lah!

At one of our visits to the KLCC 1 of my guys went missing for 10 minutes. He was not really missing actually for he was walking towards one of the fast food outlets on the concourse level and I had no idea until one of his brothers spotted him promptly and pulled him back to us. It was like a weekend bazaar on KLCC’s concourse during weekends.

Since then I put a leash on my youngest boy at a meter's length from me. Both of us were tied by a special colorful nylon leash from my waist to his and it was fashionable to be seen walking around and one scene unavoidable for passers-by not to give a second look. I bought the special leash in LA when was there on assignment a few years ago when I saw many American parents were having one to keep their children in sight and in tight distance. So, I told myself "what the heck lah, might get one as well. Who knows...". It worked like a charm for me and my son.

Today the leash is no longer useable and needed because my youngest is already 9 years old and the best leash is our holding hands together whenever we go. My eyes are always wary of the surroundings at anytime and anywhere we go and if ever I might be busy lepaking, shopping or even window-shopping or doing anything else with them in tow, my boys are constantly in my sight. It was like what my favorite actor Robert DeNiro told Ben Stiller that “my eyes are on you” complete with his two fingers to the eyes gesture in “Meet the Parents”! Even in Alor Setar one need to be constantly aware of the surroundings! You can never know mah!

Zaki Tok Tam
Anakbukit, Alor Setar, Kedah

The Purple Cat said...

What I know is that some Myanmar beggars operate under a syndicate. They arrive by van at their drop- off points and they are supposed to get some money back at the end of the day. Some beg with little babes on their laps, some sell stickers with Quranic verses. I was told this two years ago, when I came across one 50 year old Myanmar lady with a bad, aching leg and was obliviously not in the best of health, sitting on the sidewalks in Kajang, begging. She even had "proper" identification documents and speaks malay. She was lamenting about how difficult her life was. She said she's been in the country for more than 10 years.

I agree with the point that if they have UN refugee status, what are they doing begging??

Coming back to Yin's story, it did smell a bit fishy when they tried to explain why the boy's head was shaven bald. When my sis and I first read about it yesterday, we were immediately suspicious. It the first thing one can practically do if one wants to avoid the boy from being recognised.

They said they went to a hospital because the boy had boils on his head? Hospitals need the child's birth cert to register them before treatment.

They said they came across the flyers when the went back to Sogo to do shopping? Whoa!! They're rich!!

Hats off to the Sultan of Selangor who urged all mosques in the state to perform Solat Hajat so that the boy is found. It is comforting to know we have a prihatin head of state :)

MarinaM said...

There are two issues here. One is aboujt a little lost boy who did get safely returned. I wouldn't blame the parents really, it can happen to anyone any time.

The other issue is one that is much hidden, the issue of refugees in our country, as opposed to illegals. The refugees are somewhere in between because they are not the same as illegal migrant workers yet they suffer from the same problems, mostly of not being able to work. Our government does not recognise refugees, even though we have UNHCR here. Therefore to all intents and purposes, they do not exist. If they do not exist, they do not work, do not go to school.The story of the Rohingyas in our country is one that should come out because it is not a pretty one at all.

This is a real issue and not some pseudo-liberal cause. If you're already poor, why take on another mouth to feed? Especially one which everyone is looking for?

Yes, there are syndicates using beggars. But not all foreigners are part of those. We should be careful that we don't tar everyone with the same brush. There is an association for Rohingya refugees that keeps a registry of the community. All the police has to do is verify with them who these people are. They should not assume they are criminals before anything.

Mr. Smith said...

shanghaistephen said "I pray for justice for this Mynamar couple now."
Justice??????
Q. Why did they shave him bald?
A. So that he would not be recognized when he went about begging.
Q. Why didn't they lodge a police report when they found him, knowing fully well that he was somebody's child?
A. They had other sinister plans for him.
Q. Then why did they return him to the parents?
A. They realized that the whole country was looking for him that he would be recognized had he gone out with them.

I am sure anyone of us here would have brought the child to the nearest police station had we found him.

Many years ago, I 'lost' my two girls in a supermarket. People who saw them crying quickly led them to the information counter where an announcement was made.
We were reunited within minutes.
Now, which is the right thing to do?
Circumstantial evidence points to some evil motives on the part of the 'abducting couple" and they should be dealt with accordingly.
As for the IGP being at the PC, Noraida, after being with the newspapers you should know better. That our top civil servants and politicians crave for media attention. They relish being seen on TV and their pictures in the papers.
Publicity gives them orgasms.

Anonymous said...

i had experience of having found kids twice in shopping mall and sent them to the information corner and wait until they reunite with their parents. I also had experience of having my first and second child lost in mall (in different year & location) and found them in information counter. loosing kids in mall is not parents fault, it happens unexpectedly specially in crowd.
for yin's case, it really true that if somebody found him outside the mall they should report him in the nearest police station. i'm sure they know how to write/read and take bus to go to police station. why they have to wait for 2 weeeks? is this couple have other intention? who knows, but at least yin's back and safe.
i think we all should help each other to return whatever we found not ours to the right owner. To keep anything else not ours is a sin to the eye of people and GOD.

Anonymous said...

The shaved head is not a suspicious thing if you know anything about people from Myanmar. This is to help with hygiene and to keep clean. I dont know why people cant get it through their thick heads that the boy was not harmed in any way and what does she want to use this boy to beg for when she has 5 children of her own? This is whole case has been blown way out of proportion. Thank you media for once again making a big deal out of nothing. Especially the Malay AKA big mouth mail. You guys really know how to make a family who was trying to help out look like jerks. Hopefully you can all rest well in your own comfort while an innocent family goes on trial. The parents have the kid, he is alright and the media is doing their absolute best to find any little speck of suspicion that they can about this whole case. Not all refugees are beggars and this and that you know. And you would have a difficult time telling the majority of them apart from any other Malaysian. And another thing, just because you shave somebody's head does that make them so unrecognizable? What about all of their other features? This kid is getting too much publicity. This whole thing makes me sick. They are illiterate hello and they do not understand the law of this nation. How do we know that they didnt think that the boy was a street child? You know there are people in this world that CAN do the right thing. Not everybody is trying to do harm. There are cases of people wanting to HELP however we are so off the deep end and we never want to help anybody else out but ourselves that we cant imagine why somebody would want to help another person. Im done.