(DAILY EXPRESS : BABY FOUND WITH BITE MARKS 130709)

I refer to the article in Monday's (13.7.09) paper about the abandoned baby found dead in Kingfisher Park on Sunday. How unfortunate for the mother who hoped the fruit of her womb would be washed out to sea and eaten by worms. How unfortunate that her sin was exposed by an innocent dog. And how unfortunate for the dog that was picked up when it had done no wrong and merely behaving according to its natural instinct. How unfortunate that more blame is focused onto the dog than on the guilty parties. Such actions show up a society that is socially and morally sick. For all our highly commendable economic progress, internationally renowned racial tolerance and absence of war, the daily diet of rapes, incest, sexual predatory acts on under-aged girls show the heart is sick. If ever the nation needed a savior, it is now. What is to be done?

Full marks to Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Azizah DSP Haji Mohd Dun for her comments on this case (DE 15/7/2009). She recognizes the root cause is the weakening family institution, the lack of religious values and mutual respect, the need for parents to monitor the activities of their children, the need for counseling, and the hope her Happy Family campaign would be supported by all quarters. This is a good beginning. A government think tank needs also to reflect further on the reasons why the society gets into such a moral mess. Issues such as fair wage structures, mothers of young children leaving their children to the care of other maternal figures while they work, obsession with material possessions and its accompanying greed, a growing population of stateless children and youth, homelessness and the rural population drift all need deep consideration.

And what of the poor innocent dog, caged, chained and left to the elements without food and water. Left to roam around unaccompanied by their irresponsible owners? Or abandoned in public places or somewhere with no access to food and water? There is a connection between human and animals. A healthy society also embraces its care of animals or to put it in the words of Mahatma Gandhi "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated". We need to protect the rights of the unborn or newly born child, the victim mothers, and the animal that helped expose the sin of abandonment. Full marks to the dog! Please release the dog either to someone who could give him a loving home or SPCA Sabah. Bring in the perpetrators of the sin of the abandoned child. CHICHI

Posted by webmaster on 20 Jul 2009, Mon