Seetha, could not take the grief of her little brother Surendran’s death . Surendran was shot dead by the police on the 8th of November. In her grief she decided to take her life and those of her 4 children yesterday morning. At about 8.30 am she gave everyone Paraquat to drink, telling her children that they will be able to meet their Uncle if they all drank the medicine. All of them drank it. Their lives are now in limbo as I write this article. They are all in the ICU.
Can you imagine Seetha’s state of mind that she should make such a decision. Not only her life but all her little ones as well. Can you imagine?
It pains me even to think about the state of her mind as she was giving them all the poison. Can I ever imagine doing this myself – what would make me ever to do such a thing. You kill the people you love and take your own life when you feel it is totally the end of the road, that there is no more hope or purpose to living. Is this what Seetha had in her mind when she decided at that fateful moment?
I do not know enough to write about the exact circumstances. But some facts are undeniable. Attempted suicide here happened in a circumstance of relative poverty. Seetha’s husband is a lorry driver. Her father is a Security Guard. She was a housewife. This is so typical of the Indian poor , Security Guards and Lorry Drivers are all what they can get up to. Surendran was 24 years old like so many others of his age group who fall victims to crime.
How did Surendran get involved in crime – what took him there. For young Indian men who do not see much upward mobility in a life as a lorry driver or as a security guard(that is all that is available to them for their academic accomplishments in the Apartheid Malaysian system), crime seems to be an answer. Young as they are, they are oblivious or just plain unthinking about the incumbent risks and this is where they land up .
I cannot but conclude that this is really a crime committed against this family and against so many others like them , This story is not about Surendran’s crime or about Seetha’s attempted suicide but about the racist UMNO regime’s crime of causing the literal obliteration of Seetha’s family. You may accuse me of being mad, of being totally foolish to say this, to assign blame wily nily. Audacious as my blaming may be, give me an alternative esxplanation for this repeating pattern in these problems.
It is so blatantly clear to me that it is UMNO’s policy of continuing and total neglect of the Indian poor that leads the Indian poor to this end. They pay no attention to this problem. They are in total denial. They just do not care. They sentence these Indians to a life of deprivation and abandonment.
Why does the UMNO regime not acknowledge this line of reasoning and open up opportunities for the young Indians in this high risk group. There are thousands of development programs that the UMNO regime administers in the country – why do they not open them up and allow these young men into that mainstream.
My answer is plain and simple. It serves UMNO no purpose to do that. In fact the opposite effect serves them a better purpose. As more Indian young men go crime’s ways, they are all condemned one way or another to the dregs of Malaysian society to be finally disposed off like this. End of story for UMNO, no more problem. UMNO has divided up this country for that, the result being such tragedies.
Why does Seetha for her part see this as the end of the road? What is her background? How does she see this world? What is her state of knowledge? What is she looking at being a mother of 4 at the age of 31 and a wife to a lorry driver? Lorry driving is back breaking, long hours, away from home for long stretches, a low social status. What is the implication of all this to her? What does her brother mean to her? Is she not entitled to a luxury of some love for a little brother, no matter that he may be all wrapped up in crime now? I do not have answers to all these questions but having been through life myself I can venture some guesses. It comes back to the same answer. Seetha has been denied an even shot at life.
I hope Seetha and her little ones come through over the next few days. What this maens to the rest of us is that we have to wake up from our slumber and start asking some real hard questions. It is time that the likes of Seetha get what is their due.
Naragan
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