Hardcore poor

He never stood a chance, he was beaten even before he could take off from the starting blocks. At the tender age of eleven, he’s done with this world. The politicians turned up with their goodies, the next day it was splashed all over the front page of the local newspapers. The suicide of this young kid jolted us from our slumber, and we realise that there is something not quite right in paradise.

For young Donni John Duin, who hanged himself from the ceiling of his Kg. Suangon home in Kinarut, on the outskirt of Kota Kinabalu, his misery may well be over, but, can we really empathise with the pain he went through? It was not long ago that many of us were in the same predicament; with effort, mainly through education, and thanks also to sound government policies,some of us managed to escape from the clutches of poverty.

Many of us are still there, no matter how hard we try, we feel we cannot escape from the trap completely. Young Donni came from such a family.The father is in jail for drug offences, the mum has thalassaemia and a heart condition.He had tried to commit suicide before because he could not handle the abject poverty his family had to endure, but, his attempt was unsuccessful as the mother got to him in the nick of time.

The mother gets RM70 a month from the Welfare Department, with this paltry sum she has to feed the family of six siblings, aged between five and 17. She is lucky that she has a roof over her head due to the kindness of a man she had met at the hospital.But, this hand to mouth existence is enough to break anyone’s spirit . On top of this, young Donni had to endure the cruel teasing of his schoolmates; not only he didn’t have money to buy ice cream, but, the food prepared by his mum was referred to as a dog’s vomit by his friends. So,to him, enough was enough.

This sounds like a Bollywood script, but, this is happening here in this century in a relatively prosperous Malaysia , whose ambition is to be a developed nation by the year 2020. In our effort to keep up with the Jonesses, our traditional values of co-operation and community self-help are fast disappearing. It was not too long ago we used to share our extra food with our neighbours and some even borrowed money from you, and vice versa. Now, in this dog-eat-dog world, relatives, friends and neighbours just don’t want to know your problems. We don’t care enough, anymore.

There is also a need for a thorough review of how aid reaches the hard core poor so that in future, tragic cases like this can be prevented. The relevant authority needs to do much leg work; monitoring their charges must be a priority, paper work needs to be minimised and also, politicians must go on the ground more often. They must be more responsible and know what is happening in their own constituencies, after all they were elected for this purpose . They cannot be too self-centred and indifferent to the sufferings of the people until election time only. And, the teachers,what were they doing? If this incident does not prick all the relevant parties’ conscience or break their heart, I don’t know what will.

May young Donni rest in peace.