Update on the abandoned boy case

With all that Datuk Lee Kah Choon episode, I am sure many people have forgotten about the 10-year-old boy, Yeap Jia Hui, who was left to stay alone for the past two years.

For those of you in the dark about this, I wrote about his case here and here.

Since all the MSM is too busy chasing after Kah Choon and the stupid ministers who were in town recently, I decided to check up on what's happening with the poor boy.

So, thanks to my very reliable sources, I found out that the boy is now staying with his grandmother temporarily.

Meanwhile, the exco in charge, Phee Boon Poh, is making sure that the Welfare Department is doing its job to settle all the documentations for the boy to be legally adopted by his grandaunt.

This is the process for now:

1. Welfare Department is preparing assessment reports on the grandaunt to make sure she can be the legal guardian for the boy (and not another adult out to make labourers out of children or some other more sinister things..)

2. The reports will be brought to court for a court order to grant the grandaunt the rights to be the boy's legal guardian and take care of him

3. Court decides and grant the order

4. Boy can legally move in with the grandaunt in Kuantan.

5. Welfare Department here will liaise with Welfare Department there to check on the boy occasionally to ensure that the boy is being well taken care of by the grandaunt - my guess is that normally they won't be bothered but with Phee Boon Poh breathing down their necks, they probably has to do it!

6. The boy will also be sent for professional counseling as he had suffered quite a lot of emotional trauma (of being left to fend for himself) so that he learns how to cope with all this.

Now, I have read somewhere that the boy is not a 'good, studious boy who does his homework' as reported by the MSM. Apparently the boy smokes and sometimes even ponteng school. I strongly feel that it is not the boy's fault at all. Hey, he is only 10!

He was abandoned when he was 8. So how many 8-year-old do you know who are responsible and know the difference between right and wrong without an adult to keep him in check?

So, criticisms against the boy is totally unwarranted. A child is born innocent and pure until he was corrupted by his environment and surroundings. We, as outsiders, would never know what type of environment or surroundings the boy went through in all his 10 years' life. We would never know what type of people or influences he was exposed to. We would also never know the psychological effects of being left alone to fend for himself for two years on a young child like him.

If you really want to criticise, the blame should be on the adults, the people who produced him and left him. They may have their reasons but to me, it is unforgivable for a parent to abandon their own child no matter what.

As a parent, I would rather die than leave my child to fend for himself at such a young age. If only every parent, fathers and mothers, can be like the father in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, (acted by Will Smith and his son), we won't have anymore abandoned children in this world!